Cydd Siniikwe Pajunen

Where I am situated:

Boozhoo niijiiweg. Siniikwe ndigo. Cydd nindizhinikaaz. Opwaaganisiniing nindoonjiba. Hello, friends. Siniikwe is what they call me. My name is Cydd. I am from Opwaaganasiniing (or as the settler-colonial state calls my community, Red Rock Indian Band). I am Anishinaabe. I am trans/non-binary and my pronouns are they/them/their. I am a philosopher. I am situated at the intersection of Anishinaabe philosophy and academic philosophy. My approach to navigating cultural philosophy inside settler philosophy is mino-bimaadiziwin (or living life in a good way) combined with the Seven Grandfather Teachings. On July 4, 2018, I passed my Oral Qualifying Exam and promoted to PhD Candidate.

I was one of three successful recipients of the Queen's University Pre-Doctoral Fellowship for Indigenous PhD Candidates. As a part of the fellowship, I was gifted the opportunity to curate and teach a course for the Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Indigenous Studies minor. My course was called Anishinaabe Philosophy and Thinking Critically About Current Events. It was a third-year level course and had 10 students of various backgrounds and disciplines.

Current research:

My doctoral research tentative title - "Norval Morrisseau's Legacy or The Sini Who Dreamt of Amik and Maanameg."

My dissertation will ask two questions: (1) if academic institutions, philosophy departments specifically, do not want to be oppressive to Indigenous knowledge, scholars, and students, how should including Indigenous knowledge, scholars, and students happen and (2) is there such thing as Ojibwe Philosophy to include? Chapter 1 will discuss situatedness. Chapter 2 will discuss oppression and remind academic institutions that they do not want to be oppressive. Chapter 3 will discuss possible methods of inclusion which are really methods of exclusion dressed up as inclusion. Chapter 4 will be my attempt at creating a method of inclusion that will respect Indigenous knowledge, scholars, students, and people by giving them the power to decide, if anything is to be included, what is to be included, how it is to be included, and when it is to be included. Chapter 5 will be my attempt at doing some groundwork on determining if Ojibwe Storytelling is a method of doing philosophy. Chapter 6 will conclude the dissertation with a recap of main arguments and the final conclusion answering both of my research questions.

Publications and Presentations:

Publication:

(Published as) Pajunen, Patricia Siniikwe. 2018. “An Act of Anishinaabe Resistance.” In Looking Back and Living Forward: Indigenous Research Rising Up, edited by Jennifer Markides and Laura Forsythe, 283-90. Leiden: Brill Sense.

(Published as) Pajunen, Patricia Siniikwe. 2019. "Decolonization. What is it? Does anyone know what it is? Let's find out!" In Research Journeys in/to Multiple Ways of Knowing, edited by Jennifer Markides and Laura Forsythe, 225-34. New York: DIO Press Inc.

Conference:

Native Studies Graduate Student Association (University of Manitoba) March 2017 - "An Act of Anishinaabe Resistance."

Native Studies Graduate Student Association (University of Manitoba) March 2018 - "Decolonization. What is it? Does anyone know what it is? Let's find out!"

Native Studies Graduate Student Association (University of Manitoba) March 2019 - "Indigenous Situatedness, Anonymous Review, and Philosophical Criticism."

Courses Taught:

University of Guelph - PHIL 1030: Philosophy of Sex, Love, and Friendship (F 2018).

Queen's University - INDG 301 003: Anishinaabe Philosophy and Thinking Critically About Current Affairs (W 2020).