Wahéhshon Shiann Whitebean

Wahéhshon (she/her) is a Wolf Clan member of the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation at Kahnawà:ke. She is a mother of three, a Vanier Scholar, Tomlinson Fellow, and PhD candidate in Educational Studies (DISE) at McGill University. She holds an MA from the Individualized program and BA in First Peoples Studies from Concordia University and served as the first Indigenous Valedictorian in 2017. Wahéhshon currently works at the Kahnawà:ke Education Center as the Education Research Consultant & Chairs the ethics committee. She is also involved in several Kanien’kéha language & culture revitalization initiatives. Wahéhshon primarily engages in research centering on Indigenous Storywork and oral history/tradition. Her current doctoral research examines Indian Day Schools as sites of acculturation and assimilation, to understand impacts of Indian Day Schools from the perspective of former students and to contextualize prevailing attitudes and obstacles to present-day Indigenous language and culture revitalization. Wahéhshon’s research centralizes Kanien’kehá:ka life stories about navigating historic and multigenerational trauma while demonstrating identity reclamation, healing, and resilience.