Royal Roads University has launched the Emerging Indigenous Scholars Circle, which will provide Indigenous scholars who are beginning their academic careers with support. The Circle includes three emerging scholars who will receive guidance and mentorship from Circle chair Shauneen Pete. Pete has developed the Igniting the Flame webinar series—which will provide Indigenous scholars a place to listen to the experiences of others and learn from them—to support Indigenous scholars across Canada. “Only 1.4 per cent of all faculty [in Canada] are Indigenous people and … people are not feeling safe in order to self-identify, so some of them just don’t,” said Pete. “And for those that are self-identifying, their experiences are related to not just racism in the university, but also to embedded colonialism.” Pete hopes that the webinar series will help emerging Indigenous scholars define their purpose, advance their careers, and recognize when they are being overburdened.
