In Conversation with... Cody Groat

Join Western Libraries for In Conversation..., our lunchtime series featuring Western faculty discussing their latest books. Bring your lunch and drop in for a casual conversation about new scholarship from our campus community. Geoffrey Robert Little, Vice Provost and University Librarian, will moderate.

Everyone is welcome. No registration required.

Our December guest: Cody Groat, Department of History (Western Social Science)
Author of Always a Part of the Land: The Federal Commemoration of Indigenous Histories (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2026)

About the book
Indigenous Peoples have long challenged the narrow interpretations of Canada's past found in museums, at historic sites and on monuments. In Always a Part of the Land, Groat shows how the federal government shapes national narratives of commemoration, from the earliest human habitation in North America to the residential school system. He also shows how Indigenous people have resisted those narratives to share their stories as they know them.

About the author
Cody Groat is an assistant professor in the Department of History and the Indigenous Studies Program. His research focuses on Indigenous cultural heritage, commemoration, governance and political sovereignty. He is project lead for a collaborative UNESCO World Heritage Site nomination of former residential school properties across Canada and serves on the UNESCO Memory of the World International Advisory Committee. An award-winning public historian, he has received the National Trust for Canada Governors' Award and a King Charles III Coronation Medal for services to heritage.