Appreciating community collaboration

By Kiera Kowalski 1st year MDP student & Courtney Bear

As our field placement comes to a close we want to thank all who supported our experience. Thank you to the community members of Peguis First Nation who shared their knowledge and agricultural expertise during the focus group, as well as Elder Carl McCorister for providing guidance. Thank you to Agriculture Manitoba as well for hosting us, providing mentorship and support. We have learned so much in such a short period of time and appreciate everyone who shared their knowledge along the way.

To recap from our previous blog post, we worked with Agriculture Manitoba to hold a focus group session in Peguis First Nation to better understand Indigenous youth perceptions of the agriculture industry in Manitoba. The participants were all on-reserve youth from Peguis between the ages of 18 to 35. During the focus group we adhered to Indigenous research protocols. We believe this was very important to conducting a successful, community collaborative project. In addition to conducting the focus group we also analyzed the findings and produced a final report, which is what we’ve been working on throughout the month of July.

It was such a great feeling to complete our final report and represent the views of Peguis youth. In the report we summarized the participants vision for agriculture in their community based on the main themes that emerged during the focus group. The participants determined that all agricultural projects should be driven by cultural knowledge and revitalization, support food security and food sovereignty efforts and foster a holistic connection to land. The expressed interest in a greenhouse initiative so that they can grow produce year round, and a summer agriculture institute to engage and teach youth about sustainable community gardening practices.

Again, we acknowledge and greatly respect our participants for sharing their knowledge on this topic. Without our participants’ patience and willingness to help, especially while navigating COVID, we would not have been able to complete this project.

At Kiera's cottage on Lee River after finishing writing our final report. Courtney (R) gave birth to a baby boy exactly 2 weeks later!

Reflecting on Field Work

By Kiera Kowalski & Courtney Bear, 1st year & 2nd year MDP Students

If there’s one thing COVID-19 has taught us its that working behind a computer screen will never replace connecting and maintaining relationships face-to-face with people especially when it comes to community engagement. 

This summer our field placement is with the Province of Manitoba in the Department of Agriculture and Resource Development. The Government sought to understand youth perceptions of the province’s agriculture industry and so our assignment became consulting youth, between the ages of 15 to 30 years old, in Peguis First Nation.

Kiera & Courtney at the Peguis sign. "We have become close through working together on this project. We aren’t just great teammates but friends as well"

For the most part, we have been delivering our work tasks for our field placement from behind a screen. However, we were able to travel to Peguis First Nation to connect with community members in person and conduct our focus group. Originally the focus group was going to be conducted via Zoom, but as COVID-19 restrictions lifted in both Winnipeg and Peguis First Nation, we realized we could complete it in the community. To ensure the safety of everyone involved we followed the recommended precautions including working in a space where everyone could social distance, sanitizing all surfaces before everyone arrived, and having hand sanitizer available for use.

We were honoured and very grateful that we could be with the Elder Carl McCorrister and the participants while conducting our focus group. We strongly believe that the personable interactions and long-lasting relationships will last a lifetime. As Indigenous and Metis women we know the importance of establishing, building and maintaining our relationships with the participants of our focus group. 

Doing this community focus group made us realize how important it is to connect with individuals in person, especially when utilizing Indigenous research methodologies. Maintaining respectful and reciprocal relationships are a crucial to the research process, and its clear that computers can not replace the connections and relationship building that happens in person. Especially following protocols like having a feast and sharing stories. We had Elder Carl guide us during our focus group which we will forever be grateful for. That words cannot express the gratitude we have for all of his support while we were in the field.

As this was our first time going into the field doing a focus group we understand the importance of sharing who we are and why we are in the community. Doing so not only helps the participants in making the decision to participate in our research project but it also allows for trusting relationships to be established among us.  When reflecting on research with Indigenous peoples the understanding of an Indigenous framework is critical for creating spaces and knowledge of Indigenous perspectives. The participants of the focus group are the ones who carry the knowledge and acknowledging their voices is essential. We will use the Elder and participants’ information in the most respectful way because this it is their truth.

We had a great group of people willing to help us and participate in this focus group session. We are very grateful for all of the knowledge and time that they shared with us.