Lourdes Curaçao

Lourdes Curaçao is an Acadian-Cree researcher, performer and indigenous and human rights advocate and consultant. She is a classically trained musician and has been a professional producer, songwriter/composer, story-teller and spoken word performer, beginning in 1992. She is a certified television and broadcast producer and former CEO of a film, sound and stage production company. Lourdes carries a BA in English Language and Literature, and Music Performance and an MA in Applied Linguistics and American Indian Studies, in which she also completed her doctoral studies, and an MA in Human Rights Practice.

She has maintained a multi-disciplinary career, including two active duty wartime service tours in the United States Air Force and Air National Guard, where she held responsibilities as a critical mission deployment specialist and supervisor. Lourdes is a recipient of an Air Force Humanitarian Service medal for her performance as a first responder. She is a former member of the American Indian Movement (1994-2000).

Lourdes is a registered journalist with Native American Journalists Association, and consults, trains and teaches in decolonizing pedagogy, leadership and communication, field research, experimental curriculum design, mediation, conflict resolution and consensus-building. She is the designer and was Program Director of the Leadership and Communication program for undergraduate preceptors at the University of Arizona and currently directs a private US-based 501(c)3 Civil Service Organization committed to indigenous studies, decolonization and training field researchers and educators.