Aaron Franks

Background

About Aaron Franks

I am an energetic and curious researcher, communicator, collaborator, leader, and critical evaluator/builder of programs and infrastructures with six years direct experience working for structural decolonization in Canada’s institutions. For over four years I have been immersed in the technical, political, and cultural dimensions of First Nations data governance. I joined the First Nations Information Governance Centre (FNIGC) in May 2018 and am currently a Senior Advisor there. I have worked for many years as a formal and informal educator, a researcher, a leader, and an artist. I have a BFA from the University of Alberta, and my theatre career took me to Stratford, Blyth, and Toronto. My creative spirit, commitment to supporting social change, and loving family inspired me through an MA in Social Justice and Equity Studies from Brock University and a PhD in Human Geography from the University of Glasgow. As a postdoc I worked with the Centre for Environmental Health Equity (CEHE) at the University of Manitoba and Queen’s University, and the Centre for Indigenous Research Creation at Queen’s. In 2016-2017 I was a Mitacs Canadian Science Policy Fellow at the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), working on the development of research policy and programming to “advance understanding of reconciliation”. After a short stint as Senior policy analyst in Indigenous post-secondary education at Universities Canada, I now proudly support a dynamic team dedicated to education, training, applied research, and knowledge translation in OCAP®, information governance, and First Nations data sovereignty at FNIGC. I have been told that my work is syncretic, and that I value truth over consistency. Both are important for the work I do: we need to be transdisciplinary and pay as much attention to process as outcomes, and it’s important not to tell each other stories because they make a comfortable line. I was born in Edmonton in Treaty Six territory, and am from British, Northern European, Anglo-Métis and Cree descent. Some of my Cree Scotch Half Breed ancestors from St. Andrews, Red River, MB took scrip and settled in Birch Hills, SK, and I am a member of the Manitoba Metis Federation. Having spent significant slices of life in Edmonton, Kensington PEI, Stratford, Toronto, and Glasgow, with shorter but eventful stops in St. Catharines, Winnipeg, and Kingston, I currently live on unceded, unsurrendered Algonquin territory in Ottawa with my partner Rebecca, our kids Casper and Gil, and our very large dog Archie.