Walter Currie

Currie, Walter

Walter Currie, teacher, administrator (b at Chatham, Ontario 1 Oct 1922). He was among the earliest activists in Indigenous educational reform during the period after the Second World War. A non status Indian born of Potawatomi and Ojibwa parents, Currie was a school teacher in Kitchener and principal in Toronto (1953-68) before becoming assistant superintendent for supervision with the Ontario Department of Education with responsibility for Indigenous and northern schools (1968-71). He was concurrently president of the Indian-Eskimo Association and first chairman of the Toronto Indian Friendship Centre (1969-71). He was first chairman of Trent's Department of Native Studies (1971-75) and one of the first two members of Ontario's Human Rights Commission (1972-74). He has advocated improving standards of government-funded Indigenous schools and fitting them more closely to Indigenous needs.