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Initial exploration of Indigenous Defence engagement as a strategy of Reconciliation

In this presentation, Federica Caso and Grazia Scoppio will introduce the initial steps of a pilot project titled Indigenous Leadership in the Canadian Armed Forces. The project aims to examine the formal and informal leadership opportunities that the Canadian Armed Forces generates for Indigenous service men and women and how these opportunities can advance national reconciliation.

Bios:

Dr Federica Caso was born in Sardegna, a Mediterranean island belonging to Italy, where she developed intimate familiarity with questions of militarism and cultural self-determination. In 2015, she moved from the UK to Meanjin/Brisbane to pursue a PhD at the University of Queensland, which she gained in 2019. Federica researches the relationship between Defence and settler colonialism which she gathers under the concept of ‘settler military politics’. She has recently concluded a project that maps the history and politics of Australia’s war commemoration along the development of the settler (martial) state. This research is collected in the forthcoming book Settler Military Politics: Militarisation and the Aesthetics of War Commemoration (2024, Edinburgh University Press). She is now focusing on Indigenous military service in the present, including Indigenous participation in the Regional Surveillance Units (of which NORFORCE is the most recognisable), Defence Indigenous Procurement, and the contribution of Indigenous women in Defence to gender equality and reconciliation. She is working to establish a network of scholars interested in settler military politics across Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.

Dr. Grazia (Grace) Scoppio is a Professor in the Department of Defence Studies at the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) and is cross-appointed in the Queen’s University Department of Political Studies. In 2021, she was a Fulbright Canada Research Chair in Peace and War Studies at Norwich University, in Vermont, USA.  Dr. Scoppio was the Dean of Continuing Studies at RMC from 2017 to 2020 after having served as Associate Dean from 2013 to 2016. Between 2002 and 2013, she held various appointments at the Canadian Defence Academy and the Canadian Forces Leadership Institute (CFLI). She has authored or co-authored numerous publications including books, technical and scientific reports, journals articles and chapters in edited books. One of Scoppio’s recent publications is a book that she co-edited with Sara Greco, entitled: The Power of Diversity in the Armed Forces – International Perspectives on Immigrant Participation in the Military. She has presented her multidisciplinary research at many national and international conferences. Her interdisciplinary research areas include: diversity and gender in military organizations, indigenous people and the military, organizational culture, migration, military education, distance learning, comparative and international education, whole of government & comprehensive approach, lessons learned & organizational learning.