Shifts and Changes

By Sarah DeLaronde, 1st year MDP student

My practicum with the Indigenous Knowledge and Wisdom Centre (IKWC) was so inspiring. Being able to create social media content really shifted the way I think about social media. Social media can be used to catapult Indigenous businesses, organizations into the spotlight. Creating content for social media can be complicated; you have to choose what would be most appealing, simple and easy to read. Academic language shouldn’t be used as it would make the content inaccessible for people outside of academia and wouldn’t translate well into a social media post. Taking time everyday to focus on posts and thinking about what would be most aesthetically pleasing really worked well for me. I utilized my experience as a traditional maker to choose the right colours. 

Lastly, I also did some research on content creation to create the most effective posts. Social media can be utilized to get information out quicker and to a larger audience. By bringing attention to IKWC as a whole, more people would be able to get involved with the organization and they could, in turn, take on more work and improve their communities in this way. IKWC’s goal is to preserve knowledge so it can be carried forward to the next generations. Social media can reach the right age groups where youth start to self determine and become interested in who they are. Social media is truly innovative tool that I hope to improve on as I move forward through MDP. I would like to eventually do more social media content creation as a means to teach youth about their cultures.  

 

An international placement during a global pandemic: lessons learned

By Kate Robb, 2nd year MDP student

 

One of the requirements to graduate from the MDP program is an international field placement. In March 2020, when we began to experience the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, I had no idea just how much my studies would be impacted. Fast forward to this year, it began to seem more and more unlikely that my colleagues and I would get to undertake our field placements in person, let alone internationally. While it was obviously a disappointment, I know it was the right decision to stick to remote/local placements this year. Especially as I wasn’t eligible for my first vaccine until a few weeks after my placement started, it would have been irresponsible to travel for something that could be completed from the safety of my own home. Luckily, thanks to the internet, I was still able to connect and work with an organization outside of Canada and fulfill the international placement requirement.

 

Now that I have finished my placement, I can reflect on the experience of working for an organization located over 4,000km away from me. Overall, the experience was more successful that I could have expected, and I learned some skills that I wouldn’t have had I done the placement in person.

 

My top three lessons learned from an international placement from home are:

 

1)      Time Management: I’ve always had pretty good time management skills, but working from home requires a whole new level of it. It’s so easy to lose track of time and get distracted by household tasks or other non-work-related things when you aren’t in a dedicated workspace. A year of zoom university definitely helped prepare me, but shifting to working a full-time job from home was an adjustment. I got used to it and figured out what works best for me, and now I can confidently say that I can work well and productively from pretty much anywhere.

 

2)      The Power of the Internet: Although we had a pretty good understanding of how useful the internet is before the pandemic, I don’t think we had any idea just how easy it is to work remotely before we had no choice but to do so. I didn’t really know what to expect when I signed up to work with people who are in Alaska while I am in Winnipeg, but thanks to the internet, I now truly believe I could work with people located anywhere in the world with little difficulty. The team I was working with made really effective use of online tools like Google Calendar to make sure everyone was on the same page and could work collaboratively despite the distance. This experience has shown me just how much of an inequity it is that so many people living in rural and remote areas don’t have access to reliable and high-speed internet.

 

3)      Communication is Key: Despite having access to the internet and all of its tools, strong communication skills are still required to be successful in working remotely. My team had multiple zoom meetings a week which helped us all to stay on track, help each other out, and build relationships despite being in different places. It is easy just to rely on email for everything, but often it can be easier and faster to solve a problem when communicating face-to-face. Not only that, but regular meetings can help make people feel like part of a team and reduce the isolation effects of working from home.

 

All in all, while I wish I could have travelled to Alaska this summer to work in person, I am grateful that my virtual placement was such a success. As we are likely to continue with some variation of work-from-home into the future, I will take the best practices I’ve learned this summer forward to any virtual workplaces I find myself in going forward.

 

 

Working in the Homelessness Sector: A Memorable Experience

 By Emeka Ezeh, 1st year MDP student

I am currently working on my first placement with the University of Winnipeg in collaboration with End Homelessness Winnipeg. We are working on an Indigenous Focused Pandemic Response Plan for the homelessness sector. By reviewing case study cites around Canada, we were able to look at their roles and involvement in assisting the homeless populace during the COVID-19 pandemic. I am working with a team of 5 researchers who critically applied their knowledge and expertise on different sectors involving homelessness.

I worked on the human rights-based approach to housing and the Reaching Home Strategy enacted by the legislation in 2019. I researched the implementation of the strategy in Canada and Winnipeg in particular, successes, and lessons learned. I also researched the history of rights-based approach to housing and how the rights to housing affect other rights like rights to life, rights to privacy, rights to vote, rights to social security, etc. Canada being a signatory to international conventions that fully support and advocate for the rights to adequate housing signifies its unending commitment to ensuring the eradication of homelessness in Canada.

One of the challenges of working during the COVID-19 pandemic was working outside my comfort zone (interacting with people and working in the fields) as this was an unfamiliar experience for me.

The screen time was also a little challenging as I was looking forward to meeting my team in person and comprehensively discuss complex issues on homelessness in Canada.

My Field Placement with Portage & Main Press

By Tara Myran, 1st year MDP student

Boozhoo, my name is Tara Myran and I am entering my second year of the MDP in Indigenous Development at University of Winnipeg. This year for my summer field placement I was fortunate to have the opportunity of conducting a research project under the umbrella of the Six Seasons of the Asiniskaw Ithiniwak: Reclamation, Regeneration, and Reconciliation project. The title of the research is called “Exploring the Reconciliatory Potential of Marketing Processes in the Publishing Industry”. The research partners for this project are MITACS, Six Seasons and Portage & Main Press. During the summer I also enrolled in the MobilizeU workshop that also equipped me with the knowledge and tools needed to conduct this research in a good way.

Portage & Main Press introduced me to the publishing world and opened my eyes to all the fascinating behind the scenes work that is done when publishing any type of book. They also take pride in publishing Indigenous reading content and making sure to have those right connections in place when doing so. They also have Highwater Press which is an imprint of Portage & Main Press that published award-winning stories written by Indigenous authors.

I found it to be a challenge at times trying throughout the summer trying to work during the pandemic, but I was able to utilize traditional teachings from my late grandfather to help me mentally, spiritually, physically, and emotionally. On top of my academic studies, I had to focus on my children and their state of being during the pandemic and I am grateful for a program like MDP to have the supports put in place to help graduate students when needed. I would like to say Meegwetch to the MDP Program supports, my research supervisors Drs. Mavis Reimer and Linda DeRiviere, Portage & Main Press (Catherine and Laura) for hosting me and for my children who have given me the strength to continue on in this innovative and unique  program.

Done and Dusted!!! My Field Placement with Tataskweyak Cree Nation

By Babatunde Alabi, 2nd year MDP student

Finally, my 3-month field placement with Tataskweyak Cree Nation (TCN) came to successful completion. During this placement, I attended a Comprehensive Community Planning (CCP) workshop, reviewed community planning documents, analyzed data, and researched youth development and funding resources available for Indigenous youth-led programming. Additionally, I developed a training manual for youth development capacity workshops, reviewed a needs assessment report, and developed literature and presentation on the benefits of community development corporations. I also participated in planning and organizing community engagements by conducting background research and developing presentations on the subjects of such engagements, including streamlined planning, conflict resolution, and risk management. All these tasks culminated in the writing of a CCP draft for TCN.

This placement has helped me to acquire new technical and interpersonal skills and become more informed and better grounded in the principles and practice of community development planning. I also used both my previously and newly acquired skills and knowledge to contribute my little quota to the understanding of various development issues facing TCN and developing a CCP to address these issues. My time with TCN, working to develop a draft CCP for the community, was indeed an exciting and rewarding one. I am particularly glad because I will be awarded a certificate by the community upon completion, which I believe will help to improve my resume and position me to work with Indigenous communities in my career as a development practitioner.

Reflecting on what I’ve learned and honouring wahkootowin

By Kiera Kowalski, 2nd year MDP student

As I wrap up the last of my placement deliverables I find myself reflecting about the work and emotional labour that has been done by Indigenous leaders, and the work that has yet to be done to ensure community self-determination and empowerment for Indigenous communities across Turtle Island into the future. Through this placement I have been able to listen to first hand accounts from Indigenous leaders working to support community-based and decolonial approaches to development in Winnipeg. While we study these topics in different classes throughout the MDP, it’s much different hearing first hand from the individuals who were on the ground, even if its only through interviews. I am grateful to have been privy to these extremely raw, honest and important conversations.

I think understanding historical context is very important to further understand the way things change and happen in present day, and as I hope to work for my community in Winnipeg I think it’s important to appreciate those leaders that have come before us. As a Michif woman I understand honouring those leaders this as part of my obligation to wahkootowin, the concept of “being a good relative”. Remembering and centering their work within the context of my work reinforces my respect for their efforts. As a soon to be graduate entering the working world I am inspired by their approach to community development, activism and space making in Winnipeg.

Kiera (R) and classmate Ali (L) at a graduation celebration hosted by the MMF

Costs, Benefits and Growing Plants in Water

By Andrea Dsouza, 1st year MDP student

 

Hello, my name is Andrea Dsouza. I was born and raised in Bangalore, India. In 2020 I completed an undergraduate degree in Indigenous Studies from the University of British Columbia. My field placement this summer was with Canadian Feed the Children (CFTC).

CFTC is a Canadian charity that works worldwide to ensure that children thrive free from poverty and hunger. In Canada, Bolivia, Ethiopia, and Ghana, CFTC partners with communities to strengthen their capacity to achieve long-term and sustainable change. This is done by supporting innovative food security endeavours, educational campaigns and monitoring and evaluation. What drew me to working with CFTC is that they integrate intersectional analysis into their work.

 

My task this summer was to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of indoor-growing units for CFTC’s partners in Canada. Many of these Indigenous communities are in rural and remote areas of Canada’s north, where the lack of access to sufficient affordable, nutritious food continues to be a critical issue. One possible way of meeting this need is by building hydroponic units in shipping containers. This method of growing does not require any soil, just water to grow a wide variety of leafy greens in communities. It is highly efficient as it uses less time, space, and crop inputs than traditional farming. It allows for year-round growing as all the elements involved in growing are monitored and controlled for optimal outputs.

 

I doubt that my placement would have looked different than it did if it wasn’t a pandemic. I enjoyed the fact that the work I was doing allowed me to work from anywhere! This meant I could head back to Vancouver for the summer and spend some with friends and family. I saw this work as an extension of my first year of university that took place entirely online. Therefore, doing this placement during a pandemic was not too challenging for me. I practised the communication and time management skills that I built during the year during this placement, which made it a success!

 

 

Connecting with community through a Pandemic

By Alex Cote-O’Brien (They/Them), 1st year MDP student

I finished up my placement with KaniKanichihk at the end of July! It was definitely a bittersweet moment! After living in Winnipeg for almost a year I was never fully able to embrace the community and all the opportunities that Winnipeg had to offer due to the hands of the pandemic. Even though the majority of my placement was online and in a way removed from most parts of the community, I was able to connect with amazing young people, Elders, and peers who are change makers within their community.

This exchange of learning, friendship, and challenges, definitely left me with a lot of self-reflection and personal growth. At certain times in my placement I was gifted with the opportunity to go into the community to deliver program baskets, and got to interact with the family of the youth who were receiving them (at a safe and covid friendly distance though!). These interactions definitely kept my flame lit through hybrid working. Even though I didn't get to fully interact with the community like I hoped to, this placement gave me the opportunity to plant my feet into the ground, and meet various different community members to hopefully aid in my journey of community connection when the time is right and safe to do so!

My placement with Nature United - Part 2

By Hannah Johnston, 1st year MDP student

One really interesting aspect of my field placement is attending organization-wide events, and having personal interviews with employees. One employee I interviewed discussed their relationship with ocean conservation, as someone who isn’t from British Columbia, but has grown to love it over time. It feels very validating to hear Western scientists such as them citing Indigenous science and teachings as crucial components of conservation, particularly in British Columbia but also in Western environmentalism as a whole.

 

It’s really valuable to learn lessons from others. As people, sometimes it clicks to learn something from another human being rather than textual sources. I spoke with another employee who discussed the importance of establishing and maintaining relationships in and amongst Indigenous communities. Especially from the positionality of a nonprofit organization such as Nature United, it’s important to do a certain amount without overextending, while remaining staunchly rooted in the needs of the community. Because there is no real way to teach relationship-building in universities, there’s an essential respect and understanding that you have to come in with. Especially during times of pandemic, it’s heartening to hear that human relationships are at the core of communications.

 

Working virtually with Nature United is a bit of an outlier, as well as remote placements go. They were actually remote before the pandemic, so they’re actually ahead of the curve! It’s interesting observing their culture, because there’s this sense of making bigger meetings count, as far as congratulating one another on accomplishments. This culture is supportive, although I’m sure employees can still benefit from reaching out to one another and check on their many projects