Liz Akiwenzie's honorary degree brings years of teaching and relationship full circle at King's
“I am a part of the King’s community to share my knowledge and speak the truth.”
Liz Akiwenzie shared those words in 2019, when she spent time at King’s as an Indigenous Knowledge Keeper, inviting students, faculty and staff to gather, ask questions, listen and “join the circle.”
On Thursday, June 11, that relationship comes full circle.
Akiwenzie, an Ojibwe and Oneida Knowledge Keeper, Cultural Educator and ceremonial grandmother, will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws from Western University during Convocation and address King’s graduates as part of the morning ceremony.
For King’s, the honour is a meaningful recognition of someone who has generously given their knowledge, time and presence to our community for many years. Through storytelling, conversation and ceremony, she has helped students, faculty and staff deepen their understanding of truth, reconciliation and responsibility to one another.
Akiwenzie’s teachings are powerful because they are deeply personal, direct and rooted in relationship. She does not speak about truth and reconciliation as an abstract idea or institutional obligation. She speaks from lived experience, family history, ceremony, land, ancestors and responsibility to future generations. Her teachings ask people to listen differently, sit with difficult truths and recognize that reconciliation is an ongoing responsibility carried through action, humility and care.
At King’s, that work has taken root through years of teachings, talks, and community gatherings. Through The Write Place Year Opening Talks, National Day for Truth and Reconciliation programming, EDIDA Awareness events and classroom visits, Akiwenzie has invited students, faculty and staff into deeper conversations about Indigenous knowledge, storytelling, ceremony, colonialism and the responsibility of listening.
Her talks at King’s have explored themes including “Respecting and Understanding Truth and Reconciliation,” the Sacredness of the Original Peoples of Turtle Island and the ongoing responsibility to acknowledge and confront the consequences of colonialism.
During her time as an Indigenous Knowledge Keeper at King’s, Akiwenzie encouraged faculty to view her as a resource for students and learning across disciplines, including Social Justice and Peace Studies, Social Work, History, Religious Studies and Philosophy. She also called on the King’s community to support social justice and use its collective voice for truth.
“Being a Cultural Educator feeds my spirit,” Akiwenzie said. “I’m inspired by the young people I see on this campus. This generation is ready to challenge tough topics and embrace difficult conversations.”
That message carries special significance for graduates preparing to leave King’s and begin the next chapter of their lives. As they cross the Convocation stage, Akiwenzie’s address will offer an opportunity to reflect not only on achievement, but on responsibility, relationship and the importance of carrying knowledge forward with humility and care.
It is a message that resonates with King’s understanding of stewardship: caring for a place, for one another and for the communities we are called to serve. A King’s education asks graduates to think critically, act with compassion and carry what they have learned into the world with a sense of responsibility to others.
In that spirit, Akiwenzie’s presence at Convocation is especially meaningful. Her teachings have long challenged the King’s community to listen more deeply, confront difficult truths and understand reconciliation as a responsibility carried through relationship and action.
Following the morning Convocation ceremony, all are welcome to attend Liz Akiwenzie’s Honorary Degree Reception, co-sponsored by King’s, from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Wampum Learning Lodge. The gathering will include opening remarks, a pipe ceremony, a light feast, reflections and sharing.
As King’s celebrates its graduates, the day is also an opportunity to honour a teacher, Knowledge Keeper and Cultural Educator who has helped this community gather in circle, listen with humility and understand truth as something to be carried forward. For graduates, Akiwenzie’s recognition and address are a powerful reminder that education is not only about what they have achieved, but how they will use what they have learned in care and responsibility to others.