Taiaiake Alfred

Gerald Taiaiake Alfred is an author, educator and activist, born in Montreal, Quebec, in 1964 and raised in the community of Kahnawake. Alfred is an internationally recognized Kanien’kehá:ka professor.

Early life and education
Alfred grew up in Kahnawake and graduated from Loyola High School in Montreal. After high school, he served in the Marine Corps for three years until 1984. He then received a Bachelor of Arts in History from Concordia University, an Master of Arts and Ph.D. from Cornell University.

Career
Alfred was the founding director of the Indigenous Governance Program (serving from 1999 until 2015) and was awarded a Canada Research Chair 2003–2007, in addition to a National Aboriginal Achievement Award in education. In 2019 he resigned from the University of Victoria in the wake of an investigation of creating a toxic learning environment.

In 2019, Alfred joined the Kahnawà:ke governance project as project manager.

In 2023, he released his fourth book, titled Its All About the Land: Collected Talks and Interviews on Indigenous Resurgence, published by the University of Toronto Press.