The Seventh Generation Indigenous Foundation and Training extends its sincere sympathies to the family, friends, and former colleagues of Dr. Betty Bastien, who passed away on May 8, 2023, at the age of 74. in her passing the world has lost an incredible traditional cultural knowledge.
Dr. Bastien (BASc (BA) ’76) was born on the Piikani First Nation and, obtained a bachelor’s at University of Lethbridge, went on to obtain undergraduate and graduate degrees in social work at the University of Calgary and a doctorate from the California Institute of Integral Studies. She was a lecturer, researcher, and instructor at U Lethbridge in what was then known as the Native American Studies program, now Indigenous Studies. Bastien taught off and on, sometimes for an academic year and sometimes for a semester at a time, from the fall of 1991 to the fall of 2011. She also taught at other Alberta post-secondary institutions, including the University of Calgary, Medicine Hat College, Mount Royal University, Red Crow Community College and Maskwacis Cultural College.
She was Committed to Indigenous education, curriculum design, social justice, and other Blackfoot language revitalization. Dr. Bastien’s research and love of writing led to the publication Blackfoot Ways of Knowing — The Worldview of the Siksikaitsitapi, a book that is fundamental to many university level Indigenous studies courses.
Seventh Generation Indigenous Foundation and training will Offer a scholarship to indigenous students who want to pursue social work studies.