Jo-ann Archibald is a member of the Sto:lo Nation. She has helped to transform Indigenous education in Canada, not only by creating meaningful space within academia for learning about Indigenous ways of learning and knowing, but also by ensuring that universities respond to the educational and research needs expressed by Indigenous communities. Through her work, which includes Indigenous storywork, research and methodology, Jo-ann engages with Indigenous communities, schools, universities, and educational practitioners throughout BC and around the world.
“UBC’s Vancouver campus is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Musqueam First Nation. These lands have always been a place of learning for Musqueam youth, who were instructed in their culture, history, and tradition, and who in turn shared their knowledge with a new generation and visitors. Today, this tradition of inter-generational learning continues as students from diverse communities and backgrounds come to the UBC Vancouver campus. The Office of Indigenous Education in the Faculty of Education works in partnership with many Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities and organizations to increase the success of Indigenous Education at all levels and contexts.”
– Jo-ann Archibald
“We’re not just indigenizing the academy, we’re indigenizing the world. The language programs at UBC are open to everyone. Students from China, Japan, English, France, Australia. It’s all part of the healing process in the reconciliation of Canada. It’s much more than the academy.”
– Elder Larry Grant, Musqueam Nation at Place, Belonging & Promise, Indigenizing the Academy, May 6, 2013, Sty-Wet-Tan Great Hall, First Nations Longhouse, UBC
Aboriginal Focus School
Chief Atahm School
Native Indian Teacher Program (NITEP)
NITEP Student perspectives
Jo-ann Archibald on Indigenous Education at UBC
Book: Indigenous Storywork
Educating the Heart, Mind, Body, and Spirit
Jo-ann Archibald works closely with Elders and storytellers, who share both traditional and personal life-experience stories, in order to develop ways of bringing storytelling into educational contexts. Her book, Indigenous Storywork, Educating the Heart, Mind, Body and Spirit, is the result of this research and it demonstrates how stories have the power to educate and heal. It builds on the seven principles of respect, responsibility, reciprocity, reverence, holism, interrelatedness, and synergy that form a framework for understanding the characteristics of stories, appreciating the process of storytelling, establishing a receptive learning context, and engaging in holistic meaning-making.
