Paper short abstract:

Piliwitahasuwawsuwakon is the Wolostoqey word best encompassing the idea of transformation. Academia should be central in the move to Indigenize. Yet real transformation is only slowly moving across the academic 'learning-scape.' Can anthropology offer any insights into this emergent transformation?

Paper long abstract:

As an anthropologist in a faculty of Education, I have observed and been party to an ever growing number of Indigenizing processes, procedures and programs. For my Wolastoqey colleagues, these changes are both exciting and daunting because the demands placed on them increase with each new effort and idea. Just what does it mean to Indigenize academia? And how can that change become deep and abiding transformation, or Piliwitahasuwawsuwakon: to change one's heart and mind; to walk on a different path; to think differently? Reflexive participatory action, Indigenous methodologies, and ethnographic engagement help explore what Piliwitahasuwawsuwakon means for my colleagues and myself from our varied perspectives.