Deanna Reder facts for kids

Deanna Helen Reder is a Cree-Métis professor who teaches English and leads Indigenous Studies at Simon Fraser University (SFU). In 2018, she became a member of the College of New Scholars of the Royal Society of Canada.

At Simon Fraser University, Deanna Reder helped start the Indigenous Literary Studies Association (ILSA). She was part of its council from 2015 to 2018. In 2019, she also helped create the Indigenous Editors Association (IEA). She served as its "Past-President" from 2020 to 2021.

Early Life and Learning Journey

Deanna Reder's family has roots across the Canadian prairies. Her Cree-speaking Cree and Métis family comes from La Ronge. Historically, they are from Île-à-la-Crosse and nearby places in Saskatchewan. These include Lac Doré, Green Lake, and Sled Lake.

Her father was a corporal in the Canadian Armed Forces. Her family lived on army bases until Deanna was ten years old. Her parents did not finish high school.

Deanna Reder realized how important true-life stories were when her mother read "Halfbreed" by Maria Campbell. Her mother was very excited to read a book that truly showed her own life experiences. Deanna says that when she was growing up, schools taught very little Indigenous literature. The only Indigenous author she read in all her K-12 schooling was Pauline Johnson, who wrote the poem "The Song my Paddle Sings."

When she was studying for her Masters of Arts at York University, Deanna Reder wanted to focus on Indigenous literatures. However, it was hard to find enough courses on this topic. Instead, she studied Canadian literature from the 1800s. She noticed that these stories mainly focused on settlers, not Indigenous authors. After getting her MA, Deanna took a break from school. She returned in 2001 to start her PhD.

Deanna Reder's Career

In 2007, Deanna Reder began working as an assistant professor at Simon Fraser University. She taught in the English Department and the First Nations Studies Program.

Important Books and Projects

In 2010, Deanna Reder published a book called "Troubling Tricksters: Revisioning Critical Conversations." She wrote it with Linda M. Morra. This book was a collection of essays about the "trickster" character in Indigenous literature.

In 2012, the First Nations Program at SFU became its own department. It was called the Department of First Nations Studies. (In 2019, its name changed to The Department of Indigenous Studies.) This new department offered different study options. These included certificates in First Nations studies research, and major or minor degrees.

The next year, Deanna Reder helped create the Indigenous Literary Studies Association (ILSA). She worked with other Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars. As president of ILSA, she helped organize the Indigenous Voices Awards. These awards celebrate new Indigenous authors in Canada.

In 2015, she became a lead researcher on a project called The People And The Text. She worked with Daniel Heath Justice and Margery Fee. This project aimed to find and collect literature by Indigenous authors that had not been published or were no longer in print. Two years later, in 2017, Deanna Reder edited a book called Read, Listen, Tell: Indigenous Stories from Turtle Island. She worked on this book with Sophie McCall, David Gaertner, and Gabrielle L'Hirondelle Hill.

In 2018, Deanna Reder and Alix Shield published some important documents. These documents had been left out of Maria Campbell's book "Halfbreed" in 1973. The book's editors had removed them just before it was published, even though Maria Campbell did not want them removed. These documents shared parts of Campbell's life story that were very personal and difficult. Also in 2018, Deanna Reder was chosen as a member of the College of New Scholars of the Royal Society of Canada.

She is also on the Board of Directors for the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences. In June 2019, Deanna Reder was part of a group at SFU that decided to remove a piece of art. This artwork showed Aboriginal people in a way that was not accurate or respectful. It made them seem passive about the colonization of British Columbia.