{"id":27312,"date":"2021-03-08T13:52:51","date_gmt":"2021-03-08T18:52:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/?post_type=cu_people&#038;p=27312"},"modified":"2025-07-08T15:17:27","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T19:17:27","slug":"romola-vasantha-thumbadoo-trebilcock","status":"publish","type":"cu_people","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/people\/romola-vasantha-thumbadoo-trebilcock\/","title":{"rendered":"Romola Vasantha (Thumbadoo) Trebilcock"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"mb-6 cu-pageheader cu-component-updated md:mb-12\">\n    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold !mt-2 mb-4 md:mb-6 text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] relative after:absolute after:h-px after:bottom-0 pb-5 after:w-10 after:bg-cu-red after:left-px\">\n                    \n             \n                \n            <\/h1>\n\n    \n    <\/header>\n\n\n\n<p>I am of East Indian ancestry, was born in South Africa, and have resided in Canada since 1970, earning degrees in English Literature at McMaster University (BA Hons and MA). &nbsp;I worked extensively for the federal government, chiefly within the criminal justice system (federal corrections, Aboriginal justice and restorative justice), for over twenty-five years. Over the past seventeen years, I have served as voluntary coordinator of the Circle of All Nations.&nbsp;I also serve as volunteer director with the Wolf Project, which is dedicated to honouring efforts to promote racial harmony.&nbsp;I have written two books on the work of William&nbsp;Commanda&nbsp;and have published a photo journal on my kayaking explorations of Bitobi Lake, Quebec, viewing&nbsp;environment&nbsp;in part through the lens of indigenous wisdom, reflexivity, subjectivity and inter-subjectivity. &nbsp;I propose to integrate my past work, volunteer and educational background in my doctoral examination of William Commanda\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Circle of All Nations&nbsp;<\/em>discourse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am presently engaged in doctoral studies in geography and cybercartography at Carleton University, inquiring into the contemporary relevance of the environmental stewardship work and legacy of William Commanda&nbsp;&nbsp;(late Algonquin Elder,&nbsp;1913 \u2013 1911; Officer of the Order of Canada, carrier of Sacred Wampum Belts, holder of two honorary doctorate degrees, and a Key to the City of Ottawa); this includes his efforts to&nbsp;challenge colonization and&nbsp;historical oppression of Indigenous voice, and advance Indigenous awareness,&nbsp;environmental stewardship,&nbsp;racial harmony, and peace building through a process of inclusion and reconciliation in his<em>&nbsp;Circle of All Nations&nbsp;<\/em>work. This work entailed the creation of a&nbsp;global eco-community linked by his unshakeable conviction that in a very fundamental way, as children of Mother Earth, we all belong together, irrespective of colour, creed or culture, and that recognition of&nbsp;<em>relationship<\/em>&nbsp;with Earth, fundamental to Indigenous thought,&nbsp;is critically important to a contemporary understanding of environmental challenges and &nbsp;global connections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am exploring whether and to what extent an analysis of the work, thoughts and influence of William Commanda on environment, relationships and related matters can contribute to a great contemporary integration of his&nbsp;<em>Anicinabe<\/em>&nbsp;approach to&nbsp;knowledge&nbsp;generation in academic discourse on these issues. In part, this examination entails the creation of a cybercartographic atlas to map historical and emergent data on his work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14709,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"cu_people_first_name":"Romola","cu_people_last_name":"Vasantha (Thumbadoo) Trebilcock","cu_people_initials":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_people_type":[46],"cu_people_expertise":[],"class_list":["post-27312","cu_people","type-cu_people","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_people_type-graduated-grads"],"acf":{"cu_people_job_title":"","cu_people_degree":"","cu_building":false,"cu_people_office_num":"","cu_people_pronoun":"none","cu_people_designation":"","cu_people_email":"","cu_people_phone":"","cu_people_phone_ext":"","cu_people_linkedin":"","cu_people_bluesky":"","cu_people_twitter":"","cu_people_instagram":"","cu_people_facebook":"","cu_people_website":"","cu_people_orcid":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people\/27312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_people"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people\/27312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27313,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people\/27312\/revisions\/27313"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_people_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people_type?post=27312"},{"taxonomy":"cu_people_expertise","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people_expertise?post=27312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}