New U of S faculty member adds impetus to Indigenous initiatives
- University of Saskatchewan | January 20, 2015
With the arrival of Duncan Cree, who joined the faculty at the College of Engineering in November 2014, another important step has been taken to implement the college’s ambitious Aboriginal engagement priorities. Cree came to the college from the engineering faculty at Queen’s University, where he was the first director of that school’s Aboriginal Access to Engineering (AAE) program. He will use that experience to help get a range of Indigenous initiatives off the ground here.
As a faculty member, he will also have teaching and research responsibilities. For the duration of 2014-15, he is helping out with lab instruction and expects to be teaching first and fourth-year engineering students starting September 2015.
His research focuses on the use of materials such as natural flax fibres and bio-resins in place of petroleum-based matrices to generate more sustainable and environmentally friendly composite materials. He is currently working to optimize chemical treatments of fibres and fire retardant additions in polymer resins to improve fibre/matrix adhesion and elevated temperature performance, respectively. The composites may be used as roof shingles, sandwich panel skins, container walls and access door construction where weight reductions are required. He expects his proximity in engineering to the College of Agriculture and Bioresources will be useful, in particular in making use of agricultural wastes in his work.
On the Indigenous initiatives side of his role, Cree is busy meeting with key people and learning about what has taken place already at the college across areas like student recruitment, support mechanisms for current students, and community outreach activities. He is working closely with Indigenous Peoples Initiatives Coordinator, Matthew Dunn, who started at the college in May 2014.
Cree, who is of Mohawk ancestry, grew up in Kanesatake, Quebec, which is adjacent to the village of Oka. He was 18 when the Oka Crisis occurred in 1990, and recalls, “It was hectic. I was going to summer school at the time and couldn’t go to school for about two weeks.”
He remembers having to go through police check points with his family simply to get groceries. And while he wasn’t directly involved in what went on during the crisis, which involved a land dispute between a group of Mohawk people and the town of Oka in the summer and early fall of 1990, he does feel it marked a turning point that brought about increased consultation with First Nations impacted by land and resource development.
His own plans around that time included following in his father’s footsteps and becoming an automotive mechanic. He had registered and been accepted in the course when his school principal met with him and, on the basis of his high school marks and because he had taken all the sciences, asked Cree, “Why not go to college?”
Cree’s response was, “What’s college?”
So his principal walked him through information on various colleges and programs. An aircraft maintenance program at John Abbott College caught Cree’s eye and he registered and was accepted to the three-year technical program. However, when he graduated there wasn’t a lot of work in that area so he decided to go to university, entering the mechanical engineering program at Concordia University in Montreal.
With his Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) under his belt, he went to work for a few years at the National Research Council’s Flight Research Laboratory. The work researchers there were doing captured his interest and he went back to Concordia University to complete his MEng and PhD in mechanical engineering. A two-year post-doctoral fellowship at Queen’s University followed, and then he joined the engineering faculty there.
Three years later, he became aware of a faculty position opening at the U of S and in the ensuing discussions with college representatives, was made aware of the opportunity to provide a leadership role in the development of Indigenous initiatives at the college.
“The U of S is a great place to work; it’s a small community of friendly people,” he said of his choice to come here. “I believe it is a place to learn, develop and advance, with endless opportunities.”
The focus of his work on Indigenous initiatives is to promote engineering as a career choice among Indigenous youth, ultimately leading to their increased enrolment at the college. As well, Cree will lead development of a program to support Indigenous students studying at the college, helping them achieve a successful and rewarding education.
His interest in supporting Indigenous students and communities stemmed from a Concordia University engineering professor who became a role model during his BEng studies. The late Corinne Mount Pleasant-Jetté was the 1993 founder and president of the Native Access to Engineering Program (NAEP) at Concordia. As an undergraduate engineering student, Cree became involved as a volunteer for the program, which connected elementary and high school level Aboriginal students with information about pursuing engineering as a career.
When Cree started working at Queen’s, Jetté was in talks with the dean of engineering there about providing various NAEP materials, including the website, to that faculty so that the work could continue. The NAEP had dissolved at Concordia with Jetté’s retirement in 2006. Ultimately, the AAE program at Queen’s was the result, with Cree as its first director. The AAE involved a shift from the NAEP focus on elementary and high school students to supporting first and second-year Aboriginal engineering students.
“Cree’s combination of experience provides an exceptional foundation for promising developments in Indigenous engagement activities and programing at the College of Engineering,” said U of S Engineering Dean Georges Kipouros. “We are very pleased to have him join our faculty.”
Related story: New lead of Aboriginal Engagement Strategy at U of S College of Engineering
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