Alumnus Keri Cheechoo Featured on CBC “Ideas” Program

Alumnus Keri Cheechoo (BEd, 2014) was a featured panelist on the CBC program “Ideas from the Trenches,” which showcases the work of outstanding PhD students across Canada. The show was broadcast from the Congress of Humanities and Social Sciences this summer.

The theme of this year’s Congress was "Decolonization: The Next 150 on Indigenous Lands,” and Keri, a Cree woman from Long Lake #58 First Nation, spoke on her research addressing the state-sponsored sterilization of Indigenous women.

Noting that many Indigenous women have been coerced to undergo sterilization, Keri explains that it’s “critical that we provide that space for the narratives of these women …. They underwent these processes and they’re not able to look into their grandchildren’s eyes and see the future."

Keri is currently a PhD student at the University of Ottawa. She plans to interview women who have experienced this trauma and create poetry from their interview transcripts.

The full episode of the program can be heard here.