Biography

I hold a PhD and am a member of the Secwepemc and Syilx Nations from the interior of BC. My home community of Splatsin, is one of 17 communities that comprise the Secwepemc Nation. I am the eldest of 10, have one daughter and over 60 nieces, nephews, great nieces and nephews.

I currently serve as the Associate Director, Indigenous Initiatives at the Centre for Educational Excellence at SFU. My research in academia has consistently centralized Indigenous knowledge even before those terms were recognized in the academy. In my undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto, I completed a double major in Political Science and Religious Studies where I started comparing Indigenous thought with Euro-Western thought. Indigenous cultural knowledge informed both my MA at SFU’s School of Communications and her PhD at the Department of Educational Studies at UBC, which focused on Indigenous visual storytelling/filmmaking practices.

In 2018, I guest curated the Voices From The Western Regions of Turtle Island program at the ImagineNative film festival in Toronto – the largest Indigenous film festival in the world.

Selected Publications

Christian, Dorothy. (June 2019). “Indigenous Visual Storywork for Indigenous Film Aesthetics”. In J. Archibald, J. Lee-Morgan & J. De Santolo. (Eds). Decolonizing Research: Indigenous Storywork as Methodology. London and NY. Zed Books Ltd.

Christian, D. and Wong, R. (Editors). (2018). Downstream: Reimagining Water. Wilfrid Laurier Press. Canada.

Christian, Dorothy. (April 2017). Gathering Knowledge: Indigenous Methodologies of Place-Based Visual Storytelling & Visual Sovereignty. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC. Canada

Christian, Dorothy. (2011). “Reconciling With The People And The Land”. In J. Dewar, M. Gagne & A. Mathur, (Eds). Cultivating Canada: Reconciliation Through The Lens of Cultural Diversity. Vol. 3. Aboriginal Healing Foundation. Ottawa.

Christian, Dorothy. (May 2010). A “Cinema of Sovereignty”: Working in the Cultural Interface to Create a Model For Fourth World Film Pre-Production & Aesthetics. Unpublished MA thesis. Simon Fraser University. Burnaby, BC. Canada

Christian, Dorothy. And Victoria Freeman. (2010). “History of a Friendship Or Some Thoughts on Becoming Allies”. In L. Davis (Editor). Alliances: Re/Envisioning Indigenous and non-Indigenous Relationships. University of Toronto Press.