Indigenous language at forefront for new Woodland Cultural Centre executive director

Heather George says she is "standing on the shoulders of giants" as the new executive director of the Woodland Cultural Centre in Brantford, Ont.

George, a Mohawk woman who has worked at the centre as a guest curator, started her new role on Monday.

She's replacing Janis Kahentóktha Monture, who has become Canadian Museums Association (CMA)'s first Indigenous executive director and chief executive officer.

"Woodland has planted all these seeds, all these relationships and all these friendships over the years, and now it's our job to water those seeds and to care for those seeds," George said.

She said her vision for the future of the Woodland Cultural Centre will involve a heavy focus on language and how it ties different cultural aspects together. 

"So much of our philosophies and our ways of knowing are expressed through our languages," she said. "I think reframing approaches to arts, culture and heritage through an Indigenous lens requires a grounding in our languages." 

George's uncles attended residential school

George was the volunteer president of CMA.

She's also a PhD candidate at the University of Waterloo, where she is researching the history of Haudenosaunee museum practice.

George said she is Mohawk through her father, who grew up in Akwesasne territory, between Quebec and New York state.

She said she has family in Six Nations, but did not grow up in either community.

"Because I myself grew up off reserve, I had a lot of learning that I needed to do before I could enter into a position like this," she said, adding that having to learn about her own culture taught her the educational importance of museums.

George said two of her uncles attended the former Mohawk Institute residential school, which ran out of the building that is now called the Woodland Cultural Centre.

"Many indigenous folks from Six Nations and abroad, like further afield Indigenous communities, we have a personal connection to this site, so the work that happens here is deeply personal for many people. Myself included," she said. 

Earlier this month, the Survivor's Secretariat advocacy group announced that it was changing the investigation of the Mohawk Institute's grounds from a criminal one to a coroner's investigation. 

Laura Arndt, leader of Survivor's Secretariat, said the criminal investigation found there was no one left alive to be charged for the deaths of former students and has moved forward with an investigation into "who died, how they died, when they died and when and where they're buried."

Survivor's Secretariat is in charge of the investigation, but George said her staff will provide the investigation archival information through the museum. 

"There's also a really important part of the work that is just providing support and space for survivors to gather and to share their stories," George said.