Creating Space

Verna J. Kirkness grew up in Fisher River Indian Cree First Nation in Manitoba. Her childhood dream to be a teacher set her on a lifelong journey in education as a teacher, counsellor, consultant and professor.

As the first cross-cultural consultant for the Manitoba Department of Education Curriculum Branch she made Cree and Ojibway the languages of instruction in several Manitoba schools. In the early 1970s she became the first education director for the Manitoba Indian Brotherhood (now the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs) and then education director for the National Indian Brotherhood (now the Assembly of First Nations). She played a pivotal role in developing the education sections ofWahbung: Our Tomorrows, which transformed Manitoba education, and the landmark 1972 national policy of Indian Control of Indian Education. These two major works have shaped First Nations education in Canada for more than 40 years.

In the 1980s she became an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia where she was appointed Director of the Native Teacher Education Program, founded the Ts'Kel Graduate Program and was a driving force behind the creation of the First Nations House of Learning. Honoured by community and country, Kirkness is a visionary who has inspired, and been inspired by, generations of students. (From University of Manitoba Press)