EYE TO EYE: With Dr. Lana Ray

Dr. Lana Ray has added a new title to her already-impressive resume. The internationally recognized Anishinaabe scholar from Opwaaganasiniing, near Nipigon, is an assistant professor in the department of Indigenous Learning at Lakehead University. Now Ray, a strong advocate for Indigenous education, has also been appointed the school’s first Indigenous research chair in decolonial futures, which will allow her to put more time into her research. We spoke with Ray about what a decolonial future could look like, what she enjoys doing away from work (as much as she can!), and who she’s looked up to.

On what a decolonial future looks like:

I think for me, a decolonial future—I talk about this a little bit in the press release [announcing her research chair appointment], but I’ll expand upon it—is the idea of being able to freely and proudly live our responsibilities, and so I think that word “responsibility” is really important. Obviously, just like any culture of knowledge systems, things can change over time. But at the same time, I think as Anishinaabe people we have key principles and key teachings that were given to us, and I certainly don’t think I know better than those teachings and those stories and everything else that was shared with us to live a good life, and those are relevant from time immemorial. I think, in terms of decolonial futures, there’s definitely space to use and integrate technologies and even other Western approaches to forward our self-determined visions, but at the same time, I think decolonial future is also about continuing to bring forward those key principles and practices that we’ve had since time immemorial as Anishinaabe peoples.

On what she enjoys doing away from work:

This is kind of a hard one, because […] the work I do is so motivated by my own lived experience, it’s really difficult to think about the two as separate But definitely some of that Indigenous resurgence work that I’m able to be a part of, that’s work that really feeds my spirit too. So in my “free time,” I guess if you want to call it that [laughs], that’s kind of what I’ve been trying to work on: language learning. Like so many others, my grandmother went to Indian Residential School as a very young girl; when she went to school, she knew how to speak Anishinaabemowin, and when she came back, she didn’t. She never got to relearn that, so that’s part of what I’ve been doing. There’s different language classes that I’m able to attend throughout the year. Being out on the land, that’s [also] something that me and my partner enjoy doing together, so we go fishing, and hiking, and camping, and we go foraging—berry picking. Those are some of the things that I like to do in my free time.

On the most interesting place work as taken her:

Growing up in a small town (I’m from Opwaaganasiniing but I grew up in the adjacent community of Nipigon)—and I’m assuming I’m not alone here—I was always thinking about “when I get older, I’m going to leave and go and move and live someplace much more exciting.”

And so I did that for a couple of years. But I just always felt, especially when I was doing my dissertation work, a lot of it started to come together and click in terms of my academic career and what I wanted to do and what my focus would be. So I always felt this pull back to our territory. So, while I love to visit different places—my work has brought me to different places in Mexico (like Mexico City), and the Chimborazo region in Ecuador—I think it’s still being at home. We have so many knowledge holders and people with different skills within our own communities, and I think sometimes we maybe overlook those who are in our own communities. It’s still really great to be able to mobilize across different nations and different regions.

On who she’s looked up to:

I have a couple. I remember when I was doing my undergraduate degree, there was an Indigenous woman, a contract lecturer [Theresa McCarthy]. She’s the one who kind of made me see how maybe I could have the job that I have now. I never really thought that, growing up as an Anishinaabe-kwe in a small community, that being a professor would ever actually be an option for me, so seeing her helped me see that as a career path. Also, I’ve been fortunate to be mentored by an Anishinaabe knowledge holder from Curve Lake First Nation by the name of Dorothy Taylor; we always joke that we don’t really know how we got paired together because she’s really everything that I’m not. She’s an amazing singer and drummer; I, myself would probably be considered a little bit tone-deaf. She’s an amazing beader, and while I try, it’s not something that comes naturally to me. But I had the honour of being her helper for a few years when I lived in southern Ontario and she still continues to play a big role in my life as well.