Lori Campbell: A leader, trailblazer and ind-spiration
- By NC Raine | June 14, 2023
At 14 months of age, Lori Campbell was taken from her family as part of the Sixties Scoop. She was raised in a small rural farming community in Saskatchewan, with no Indigenous peers around her, and with little sense of her history, culture, identity, or birth family.
Now, nearly five decades later, Campbell, the University of Regina Associate Vice-President (Indigenous Engagement) has been given a 2023 Indspire Award for her work in education, much of which focuses on culture, identity, and family.
Her family and culture grounds her life and work, she said.
“When I started university, there was an Indigenous community that was so important for me in connecting with who I am,” said Campbell.
“I want to make sure that campus is a place where students feel like they can go not just for an education, but to find community, and to make sure the education system itself is a more welcoming and accepting space for students.”
Campbell is two-spirit, a member of Montreal Lake Cree Nation, and a Sixties Scoop survivor who has made a career of advocating for social justice and working toward a more equitable society. A distinguished academic with a PhD in Social Justice Education and a Masters in Adult Education, Campbell’s post-secondary journey had a rather auspicious start.
“I came to the University of Regina to play basketball. And the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College was there. I wasn’t led to believe that Indigenous people would be at the university, much less teaching classes. So I started taking Indigenous classes and learning about who I was, getting a different perspective on who we were as Indigenous people,” said Campbell.
“I grew up angry and frustrated, but those feelings began to slip away the more I got to know who I was.”
One of the biggest parts of that, she said, was searching for her birth family. She began searching in 1991. It took 25 years, but Campbell managed in that time to locate not only her birth mother but all six living siblings.
“Having been able to reconnect with my birth family, as well has having that experience at university, has played a huge role in why I work in a university, and why I’m able to do the things I do,” she said.
Campbell’s career started with helping at-risk youth, later in the area of Indigenous public housing, and then became a victim services resources officer before moving into post-secondary. Throughout her career, Campbell’s work focuses on addressing the uncomfortable truths required for advancing indigenization, decolonization, and reconciliation.
“We often hear that Indigenous people carry intergenerational trauma. But I also remind people, yes, but we also carry the intergenerational knowledge and wisdom of our ancestors,” she said. “We bring all of that with us – the strength and the trauma – all together.”
In recognition of work in education, Campbell was awarded an Indspire Award this spring, an award that has been presented to a great number of Indigenous leaders and trailblazers, including Murray Sinclair, Tristen Durocher, Theo Fleury, and Campbell’s aunt, artist and writer Maria Campbell.
“I was a bit taken aback (when I found out about the award) because it’s such a prestigious award across the Indigenous community. I was surprised and honoured, there’s so many people who have received this award who have been my mentors, teachers, and role models. It feels surreal to know I’m the next recipient,” she said.
Despite an award recognizing the contributions she’s made throughout her career, Campbell said she has lots of career left. She wants to continue creating a better space for Indigenous people, where they can be their “unapologetically Indigenous selves” in an academic setting, and feel encouraged to bring their wealth of traditional knowledge to an academic setting that historically has pushed Indigenity out the door, she said.
“I want to continue to the work those before me have done. I want to make sure I’m doing my part,” said Campbell.
“To show others their beautifulness and strength, so we can be proud of who we are.”