Kaella-Marie
Earle (Azhiinikwe Newatchegiizhik, Angel Woman Light Coming Over The Clouds) is
an Ojibwe/Odawa/Potawatomi Anishnaabekwe from Wikwemikoong First Nation and
Aroland First Nation. She is a proud Sudburian and claims that she never gave
up because she is made of Sudbury slag. From the time she was a young girl, she
knew that she wanted to be a scientist and engineer. Her father Henry John Earle, who is also an
engineer, inspired her from a young age by bringing her to industrial
processing plants and to see how electricity is generated.
Kaella is a
scholar graduate of chemical engineering technology – lab and process control
(advanced diploma) from Cambrian College of Applied Arts and Technology. During
college, she completed a work placement in extractive metallurgy (acid
digestion of copper ore samples and inductively coupled argon plasma spec
analysis) at Shenyang Research Institute
of Nonferrous Metals in Liaoning, China.
Following her
college graduation, Kaella-Marie enrolled at Laurentian University Bharti School
of Engineering and studies chemical engineering with interests in industrial
processing, mining and environmental management. She is currently completing a
16-month co-op in district engineering for the Northern Region of Enbridge Gas
Distribution, where she advocates for Indigenous inclusion in operations,
Indigenous supply chain management, Indigenous employment strategy, Indigenous
virtue ethics in engineering, and the development of inclusionary corporate
culture and Indigenous cultural training as an element of health and safety.
She feels honoured for the opportunity to learn about gas pipelines and gas
pipeline safety, integrity and maintenance from a group of really amazing and
experienced industry professionals.
Apart from her
studies, she has advocated for the rights of Indigenous people in natural
resource industries and in STEM-related fields in academia. She discusses
barriers to the success of Indigenous students in STEM, including chronic
underfunding of First Nations education, societal rhetoric suggesting Indigenous
people do not belong in science and engineering, lack of education to the
general public on the vast contributions of Indigenous people to the global
science and engineering community, the presence of intergenerational trauma,
and systemic anti-Indigenous racism present in academic institutions.
Kaella is also
the co-founder and director of the non-profit organization Maamiwi Gibeshiwin
Indigenous Cultural Training Camp, an annual camp dedicated to providing a safe
platform for young Indigenous people to reclaim their Anishinaabeg culture and
identity and for non-Indigenous people to develop their Indigenous education
and allyship skills.
Her goals are to
build stronger, more respectful and equitable relationships between Indigenous
communities and natural resource industries through employment, procurement,
operational inclusion, Indigenous cultural safety training and by teaching
about Indigenous virtue ethics in engineering. She believes this can be done by
weaving her cultural values into her engineering work. She wants to be an example for youth on
Anishinaabeg cultural identity reclamation and teach that Indigenous people
really do belong in science and engineering, and have in fact made some of the
most important technological and scientific contributions to the world.
