Joshua Manitowabi is a Potawatomi of the Bear clan and a member of the Wikwemikong Unceded First Nation. He is an Assistant Professor of Indigenous History at Brock University, where his research and teaching are grounded in Indigenous education, treaty histories, and Anishinaabe knowledge systems. He holds a BA and MA from McMaster University and earned his PhD in History from Brock University.
His master’s thesis, “It Sometimes Speaks to Us: Decolonizing Education by Utilizing Our Elders’ Knowledge,” engages with the experiences and recommendations of Anishinaabe Elders to integrate Indigenous knowledge and pedagogies into school curricula. His doctoral dissertation, “Anishinaabek Knowledge and Power on Manitoulin Island,” is an ethnohistoric study that centers Odawa perspectives and agency in the making of 18th- and 19th-century treaties with the British Crown.
Manitowabi’s current research, in collaboration with other Indigenous scholars, focuses on Indigenous water protection and water sovereignty in First Nations communities. He is also exploring Indigenous mapping, critical cartography, and treaty histories related to Pontiac’s War, the 1764 Treaty of Niagara, Indigenous participation in the War of 1812, and broader political movements of Indigenous resistance to colonialism during the 18th century.
He is a member of the Indigenous Scholars’ Writers Circle with the First Nations with Schools Collective and has served as a history consultant with Nelson Education and as historical researcher and designer for Kenjgewin Teg Educational Institute in support of curriculum work tied to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Dr. Manitowabi is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Award, the Bluma Appel Scholarship, and the Harvey Longboat Major Scholarship. He is a former member of Brock University’s Aboriginal Research Advisory Circle and the President’s Advisory Committee on Human Rights, Equity, and Decolonization.
Contact:
Email: jmanitowabi@brocku.ca
Phone: 905-688-5550 ext 3507
Selected Works
Manitowabi, Joshua, “Manitoulin Island Treaties: Anishinaabe Diplomacy, Agency, and Persistence,” PhD Dissertation, Brock University, 2024. http://hdl.handle.net/10464/18946
Manitowabi, Joshua, “Wii Niiganabying (Looking Ahead): Rearticulating Indigenous Control of Education,” Turtle Island Journal of Indigenous Health 1:1 (2020), https://doi.org/10.33137/tijih.v1i1.34017.
Manitowabi, Joshua, “It Sometimes Speaks to Us: Decolonizing Education by Utilizing our Elders’ Knowledge,” MA Thesis, McMaster University, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/11375/22292
Shawanda, Amy and Joshua Manitowabi, “Anishinaabe Dream Methodology,” Turtle Island Journal of Indigenous Health 1:3 (2023), https://doi.org/10.33137/tijih.v1i3.38566
Leonard, K.; David-Chavez, D.; Smiles, D.; Jennings, L.; ʻAnolani Alegado, R.; Tsinnajinnie, L.; Manitowabi, J.; Arsenault, R.; Begay, R.L.; Kagawa-Viviani, A.; Davis, D.D.; van Uitregt, V.; Pichette, H.; Liboiron, M.; Moggridge, B.; Russo Carroll, S.; Tsosie, R.L. and Gomez, A. 2023. Water back: A review centering rematriation and Indigenous Water research sovereignty. Water Alternatives 16:2 (2023).