Dr. Thohahoken Michael Doxtater

Professor Doxtater’s national profile includes work in the public and private communications industry. He is a leading senior communications specialist, who has published internationally, produced, directed, and written award-winning documentaries and dramas for academic and public audiences in Canada and the US. He was Head of Studio One of the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) that moved the NFB into the digital age in 1995. He was part of the producing team for the Gemini Award winning film “Where the Spirit Lives” that raised public consciousness of Indian Residential Schools in Canada. His journalism and film-making eventually led to the creation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). His expertise in teaching and learning sits  on the frontier of the digital age at Cornell University in the 1990s, McGill University (2010), with Ontario’s Indigenous Institutes, and the Ontario College of Teachers (OCT). Dr. Doxtater specializes in organizational learning, leadership, and IT learning environments. Community engagement includes a role as a senior facilitator and advocate for action planning in Indigenous organizations, local governments, and grassroots community groups. As a professional in mediation and conflict resolution, he worked at Oka, Tutelo Heights, Red Hill Valley, and Eagles Nest. His research journalism focuses on Action Research, organizational learning, and multiliteracies. Doxtater comes from the Six Nations of  the Grand River territory 100 kilometers south of Toronto Canada. A descendent of Mohawk leader Joseph Brant, Michael comes from the Mohawk turtle-clan family of Satekariwate.

(Photograph: by Shelley Niro)