Marie Ann Battiste is an author and educator working as a professor in Canada at the University of Saskatchewan in the Department of Educational Foundations. From the Potlotek First Nation In Nova Scotia, Battiste is the daughter of Mi'kmaq parents John and Annie Battiste and is one of four children. Battiste was raised in Houlton, Maine, where she attended high school graduating in 1967. Form there she went on to the University of Maine graduating from the Farmington campus in 1971 with her teaching certificate and a bachelor of science in both elementary and junior high education. She went on to attend Harvard University graduating in 1974 with a master of education in administration and social policy as well as Stanford University, where in 1984 she graduated with a doctor of education in curriculum and teacher education.
Work
After graduating from the University of Maine in 1971 Battiste went on to work at the Maine Indian Education Council where she introduced and developed an early childhood education program, Head Start, on three reservations and in multiple off reservation communities. Battiste spent twenty-five years in Cape Breton where she worked alongside James Youngblood Henderson with young Mi’kmaq students helping them become teacher and lawyers, as well as fighting for their admittance into universities. The work Battiste and Henderson did together grew the number of Mi’kmaq teachers from a few to sixty, and the addition of ten lawyers where there had previously been none. Battiste has worked in the field of Indian education for over thirty years with her most well known work being the revitalization of Mi'kmaq language in her home community in Chapel Island, Nova Scotia. She credits her doctoral dissertation as one of the many starting points interest in revitalizing the native language saying that a conversation with her advisor about the multiple writing systems of the Mi'kmaq language inspired her to research the histories of these writing systems. There are three different methods for writing with two still in use the first and most commonly used is the Pacifique system and the second and more controversial method being the Francis-Smith system. According to Battiste the Francis-Smith system of writing comes with more controversy for many reasons but the primary reason being, as she puts it, "reflecting the fact that we are now using English as a second language in most of our communities," and "it seems to undercut the power of the old language for many." Throughout her many years of work in education Battiste has taught a various schools in Nova Scotia including time spent as the Education Director and Principle on the Chapel Island reserve from 1984 to 1988. Battiste is sometimes called a "guru" of aboriginal education and serves as the academic director of the University of Saskatchewan’s aboriginal education research center. She has also served on a multitude of different boards as well as a delegate to the United Nations' Workshop on Indigenous Peoples and Higher Education.
