Gerald Taiaiake Alfred is an author and educator who is committed to Indigenous peoples’ dignity, freedom and nationhood. Taiaiake is a Professor of Indigenous Governance at the University of Victoria and is known for his leadership and groundbreaking work in the fields of Indigenous governance and political philosophy, and also for his incisive social and political critiques. He has been awarded a Canada Research Chair, a National Aboriginal Achievement Award in the field of education, and the Native American Journalists Association award for best column writing.
Taiaiake was born in Montreal in 1964 and was raised on the Kahnawake Mohawk Territory, where aside from service in the US Marine Corps during the 1980s, he lived until 1996, when he moved to the west coast. He now lives on Snaka Mountain in Wsanec Nation Territory with his wife and three sons, who are all Laksilyu Clan of the Wet’suwet’en Nation.
Educated at Concordia and Cornell, Taiaiake has lectured at universities and colleges in Canada, the United States, England and Australia, and has served as an advisor on land and governance and cultural restoration issues for his own and many other Indigenous governments and organizations. His writing includes numerous scholarly articles and contributed essays in newspapers and journals, as well as three books, Wasase (Broadview, 2005), a runner-up for the McNally Robinson Aboriginal Book of the Year in 2005; the influential and best-selling Peace, Power, Righteousness (Oxford University Press, 1999); and, Heeding the Voices of Our Ancestors (Oxford University Press, 1995).
