Rick Monture is a member of the Mohawk nation, Turtle clan, from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. His areas of academic interest include Haudenosaunee history and oral narrative, American and Indigenous literatures, popular music, and the epistemology of Indigenous language and culture.
Dr. Monture’s book, entitled Teionkwakhashion Tsi Niionkwariho:ten (“We Share Our Matters”): Two Centuries of Writing and Resistance at Six Nations of the Grand River (UMP 2014), explores how the Grand River Haudenosaunee have consistently drawn upon their intellectual and cultural traditions in letters, oratory, poetry, fiction, and film as a means to assert and maintain their sovereignty and land rights as promised by The Haldimand Deed of 1784.
Rick has served as the Director of the Indigenous Studies Program from 2014-2017, and as Acting Director of the McMaster Indigenous Research Institute from 2017-2018. He has been involved with several joint research initiatives between McMaster and Six Nations and currently holds a SSHRC award for a community-based project entitled “The Six Nations Struggle for Sovereignty: 1924 and Beyond,” which examines the events leading up to the federal government’s dismantling of the centuries old traditional government that presided at Grand River until October 1924.
Research Interests: Haudenosaunee History, Indigenous Literature and Film, Haudenosaunee Language and Oral Tradition, Popular Music (Bob Dylan, Grateful Dead, Punk Rock)
