Herman Michell

Dr. Herman Michell has spent many years promoting Indigenous education. His current focus is on land-based education, language, and school science from a Woodland Cree perspective. He is influenced by ancestral teachings that stem from a long line of land-based peoples that occupy northern Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The Six Seasons of the Woodland Cree are used as a curriculum framework to develop activities that reinforce mental, spiritual, emotional, and physical development.

Dr. Michell is a university educator, published author, researcher, consultant, and lecturer. Dr. Michell shares the view that ‘land-based education is not a trend’, but a life-giving force that is critical to the decolonization and survival of the Cree & Dene peoples. The land is both teacher and healer. The land is used as a school and classroom. It is important to share the underlying cultural and philosophical teachings of First Nations people while making links with local Elders, communities, worldview, languages, values, stories, history, and ways of knowing.
Dr. Michell is a published author of numerous books and articles. He grew up on Reindeer Lake, Treaty 10 territory in northern Saskatchewan. He is a member of the Barren Lands First Nation. In 2008, he completed a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Regina in Curriculum and Instruction – Cree culture and school science. He has a Master’s Degree in Education from the University of British Columbia (1998). He has a background in Education Psychology and Special Education from both UBC and the University of Manitoba. Dr. Michell initially obtained a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Sociology from the University of Winnipeg in 1990.