{"id":104597,"date":"2026-05-11T13:50:36","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T17:50:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=104597"},"modified":"2026-05-11T13:50:36","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T17:50:36","slug":"first-indigenous-person-graduates-from-uvic-english-department-with-a-phd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/11\/first-indigenous-person-graduates-from-uvic-english-department-with-a-phd\/","title":{"rendered":"First Indigenous person graduates from UVic English Department with a PhD"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Nora O’Malley, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Ha-Shilth-Sa A Nuu-chah-nulth woman is the first Indigenous person to graduate from the University of Victoria (UVic) English Department with a doctoral degree in Philosophy, according to the department chair. Alana Sayers, 38, successfully defended her dissertation about what it means to be Nuu-chah-nulth on April 15, with her four-year-old son Taryn and her niece and nephew looking on. \u201cThat was important to me, wanting them to be there to witness that, because that\u2019s how we do things, you bring the young people,\u201d said Sayers, who is from Hupa\u010dasath First Nation in Port Alberni on Vancouver Island and Alexander First Nation near Edmonton, Alberta. \u201cI feel like the strongest version of myself and I\u2019m glad that it was this version of me that… <\/p>\n

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By Nora O’Malley, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Ha-Shilth-Sa A Nuu-chah-nulth woman is the first Indigenous person to graduate from the University of Victoria (UVic) English Department with a doctoral degree in Philosophy, according to the department chair. Alana Sayers, 38, successfully defended her dissertation about what it means to be Nuu-chah-nulth on April 15, with her four-year-old son Taryn and her niece and nephew looking on. \u201cThat was important to me, wanting them to be there to witness that, because that\u2019s how we do things, you bring the young people,\u201d said Sayers, who is from Hupa\u010dasath First Nation in Port Alberni on Vancouver Island and Alexander First Nation near Edmonton, Alberta. \u201cI feel like the strongest version of myself and I\u2019m glad that it was this version of me that... <\/p>\n

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Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-4","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"\nFirst Indigenous person graduates from UVic English Department with a PhD - The Turtle Island News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/11\/first-indigenous-person-graduates-from-uvic-english-department-with-a-phd\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"First Indigenous person graduates from UVic English Department with a PhD - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Nora O’Malley, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Ha-Shilth-Sa A Nuu-chah-nulth woman is the first Indigenous person to graduate from the University of Victoria (UVic) English Department with a doctoral degree in Philosophy, according to the department chair. Alana Sayers, 38, successfully defended her dissertation about what it means to be Nuu-chah-nulth on April 15, with her four-year-old son Taryn and her niece and nephew looking on. \u201cThat was important to me, wanting them to be there to witness that, because that\u2019s how we do things, you bring the young people,\u201d said Sayers, who is from Hupa\u010dasath First Nation in Port Alberni on Vancouver Island and Alexander First Nation near Edmonton, Alberta. \u201cI feel like the strongest version of myself and I\u2019m glad that it was this version of me that\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/11\/first-indigenous-person-graduates-from-uvic-english-department-with-a-phd\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TurtleIslandNews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-11T17:50:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/facebooklogo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"725\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"483\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/11\\\/first-indigenous-person-graduates-from-uvic-english-department-with-a-phd\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/11\\\/first-indigenous-person-graduates-from-uvic-english-department-with-a-phd\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lynda Powless\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7b188fd7503577895ef8b306988cd458\"},\"headline\":\"First Indigenous person graduates from UVic English Department with a PhD\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-11T17:50:36+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/11\\\/first-indigenous-person-graduates-from-uvic-english-department-with-a-phd\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1144,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"National News\",\"ticker\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/11\\\/first-indigenous-person-graduates-from-uvic-english-department-with-a-phd\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/11\\\/first-indigenous-person-graduates-from-uvic-english-department-with-a-phd\\\/\",\"name\":\"First Indigenous person graduates from UVic English Department with a PhD - 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