Molly Bigknife Antonio, PhD

Molly Bigknife Antonio’s heritage is Shawnee, Munsee Delaware, Cherokee, Irish, and English. She uses she/her pronouns and has taught and advised undergraduate and graduate students at Prescott College for since 2011. She is currently full faculty in the online graduate program and coordinator for the Master of Arts Interdisciplinary Studies. Molly holds a PhD in Sustainability Education/Indigenous Studies (Prescott College); M.A. in Adventure Education/Indigenous Studies (Prescott College); B.A. from the Arizona International College (University of Arizona); and AFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts (Santa Fe).
Molly is the mother of three amazing adult children. She embraces diversity and inclusivity and is passionate about creative expression, community building, and supporting webs of relationships. Molly co-founded the non-profit Pollen Circles in 2010 and works with this Indigenous, community-based program as its Executive Director. The mission of Pollen Circles is to promote wellness culturally, individually, and collectively using Indigenous traditional, creative, and environmental-based learning projects and experiences: www.pollencircles.org.

Dr. Bigknife Antonio’s doctoral research, entitled “‘Sitting to My Loom’: Weaving Sustainability Through Navajo Kincentric Wisdom,” utilized Indigenous methodologies with narrative methods with Navajo wool rug weavers. Dr. Bigknife Antonio was interested in learning how sustainability might be conveyed by some Navajo (Diné) weavers through their art and life practice related to weaving. The collective words of knowing and being expressed through the traditional Navajo weavers’ worldviews forms a beautiful tapestry emphasizing the human being’s responsibility to creatively weave a more balanced and thriving world for all of life.