Western University, Canada
Candace Brunette-Debassige is a Mushkego Cree scholar originally from Treaty 9 Territory working in the fields of Indigenous Studies and critical leadership and policy in higher education. She is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at Western University located London Ontario, Canada original homelands to the Anishnabek, Haudenausaunee and Lenapewak People.
Beyond her scholarship, Brunette-Debassige brings extensive leadership experiences working in Indigenous education at the K-12 and postsecondary levels. She has served as Acting Vice Provost /Associate Vice President (Indigenous Initiative), Special Advisor to the Provost (Indigenous), and Director of Indigenous Student Services at Western, where she was actively involved in the development of Western’s first Indigenous Strategic Plan after the release of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada in 2015.
Brunette-Debassige’s research centres on the liberatory struggles of Indigenous Peoples in Euro-Western colonial educational settings in Canada. Her areas of research and teaching expertise focus in the areas of Indigenizing and decolonizing education, Indigenous educational leadership, Indigenous policy, and Indigenous research methodologies.
She has taught courses in 'Aboriginal Education: Toward a Decolonizing Pedagogy and Becoming Educational Leaders’ as part of Western’s Indigenous educational programming.
