Centre for Indigenous Research, Culture, Language and Education

Mission Statement

The Centre for Indigenous Research, Culture, Language and Education (CIRCLE) strives to facilitate the research, and delivery of linguistic and cultural materials of the First Peoples of North America as well as all Canadians. A special focus is on cultural expressions linked with music and language, both for Aboriginal Canadians and other indigenous people.

Brief History of CIRCLE and Past Projects

CIRCLE has come out of the amalgamation of several previous Organized Research Units at Carleton University including Canadian Musical Heritage ORU, Centre for Canadian Cultures and Heritages ORU, and the Centre for First Peoples’ Music and Research. Consequently the projects CIRCLE pursues often build on accomplishments achieved in these earlier ORUs.

Selected past projects:
Through grants mainly from SSHRC over a 20-year period, the Canadian Musical Heritage ORU researched and edited 25 volumes of  Canadian notated music composed before 1950. In addition, recordings of previously unrecorded Canadian music have been produced through Marquis Records and Carleton Sound as well as a web-based database of pre-1950 35,000 compositions [now available at www.cliffordfordpublications.ca]. Over the past two years, CIRCLE has received funding through the AV Trust to produce re-mastered recordings of early Canadiana. These recordings are available on the Gala Records label.
A Database of ca. 3000 entries about written and recorded materials on First Peoples’ music and dance required preparation over a period of 20 years. Funded through grants from SSHRC, the Secretary of State and personal funding it is now available as CARD on the websites www.nativedrums.ca and www.nativedance.ca. Those two websites were CIRCLE projects funded by Canadian Heritage, Canadian Content Online Program . Each website contains a wide array of photos, videos, overview essays as well as certain specific culture essays, plus educational kits designed to be used within science, music, social studies, native studies curricula according to provincial educational guidelines at the elementary and secondary levels in Canada.
Other important linguistic initiatives with Aboriginal languages, specifically East Cree and Innu, have been supervised by Marie-Odile Junker, occasionally calling upon the expertise of CIRCLE members and using the DT 1923 space. In addition to many printed materials prepared on these languages, she organized the website EastCree.org.
From SSHRC Professor Junker holds two important grants: 1) Community University Research Alliance grant for Knowledge and human resources for Innu language development as co-investigator with Marguerite MacKenzie (Memorial University) for five years (2005-2009), and 2) SSHRC Aboriginal Research Grant (3 years) for L’encyclopedie linguistique vivante du cri, for three years (2005-2007).