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!

A Sense of Community

By Chelsie Parayko, 1st year MDP student

Is there such thing as an unbiased researcher? Human error, emotion or aptitude makes me lean towards no as a simple answer. We all, no matter how removed we want to be, impact data or the outcomes of our research, but does all of this have to be viewed as a negative factor. Does the notion of remaining emotionally unattached to the community have to be how we operate as Indigenous researchers?   

L-R: Chelsie, MDP alumni Rachel Bach & Vanessa Tait

I am not saying one should compromise their research, but what I am questioning is the current norms that are in place through academia. Throughout our MDP courses we have been taught that, as development practitioners that work with Indigenous communities, we must take directives first and foremost from the people of the community. We are taught that the most important thing is to get to know who we are working with and what the community would like to see as the ultimate goal. None of this is done without developing meaningful relationships. Open and honest dialogue comes from a place of trust, connection, and understanding.

What does it look like if researchers, working with Indigenous communities, hang up the clinical academic boundaries and immerse themselves within the community. What happens if we all worked a little harder to have the community truly in our hearts? Is this the key to effecting real change?

I met a beautiful Cree woman, who I now call my friend, during my time at the first Cree Birthing Gathering. We sat down to talk about her experience at the gathering and she told me she had never been to an event that included ceremony or traditional practices. She told me that she was finding herself crying nearly every hour as she watched these events take place, as it had put actions to the feelings she was having deep within her, her blood memory was radiating. I couldn’t help but shed a tear after for both my friend and for the cultural and spiritual loss my people continue to experience. I had an emotional connection to this person, and later, through that connection, I learned details to her birthing story that she may not have shared with others.  

Taking advantage of the beautiful evening and creating memories at Nibi Gathering. L-R: Stephanie Sinclair, Jerilyn Huson, Michelle Audy, Jolene Mercer, Chelsie and Rachel Bach

I believe community and connection are critical to success, both in terms of research and for your own self-care and preservation. Through my field placement I developed friendships and connections with people who I now consider a part of my community and it has made me a better person and a more efficient researcher. I am inspired to work harder for these people, for my people. My friend taught me a Cree word – kiwícéwákan, which roughly translates to, the one you walk with. She said it is used when you find a deeper connection with others. It’s time to walk with community.

Noretta Miswaggon, Chelsie & Sonia Spence at the 2nd land-based Cree Birthing gathering in Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation

And All Other Duties as Required

By Chelsie Parayko, 1st year MDP student

When signing up for the MDP program, I did not envision what exactly working with community would look like, and I would imagine typically that’s not something that most people consider. It is likely that most of us thought about the great work in research we will do, the positive impacts we may potentially have and maybe, just maybe, we think about how community will change us and impact who we are. 

On Blackfoot traditional territory during the Pathways Annual Gathering: “Land-based learning and healing”

What we don’t talk about is how sometimes we have to roll up our proverbial sleeves and drive a 15-passenger van down a windy highway, be a cheer leader for a young artist who is unsure of her talents, run bear-watch, or how we might have to become hosts to elders and run to ensuring their dinner is everything they expect, and their water is always topped up.

We have been told to “check ourselves at the door” and to enter a community with humility, understanding and with no set idea of how your time will turn out to be, but this is just the beginning of that story. As Dorothy says, “we are no longer in Kansas anymore,” we are here for the community and most of our preconceived notions are proven to be completely incorrect.

Elder Mabel Horton sharing teachings in Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation

Our job as researchers is to disrupt the norms and to be the community’s biggest advocates. During a fire-side-chat, Bonnie Healy, of the Blood Tribe, said that “we are all aware that Indigenous peoples have been researched to death, but it is our responsibility as Indigenous researchers to research ourselves back to life.” This is true for both Indigenous researchers and our allies as well.

I have had the great pleasure of working with Nanaandawewigamig this summer and I have seen this happen in its truest form. The staff in the Research Department have an extremely long list of experience, western education and what seems like endless knowledge of and appreciation for Indigenous ways of knowing and being. 

This group of individuals make up some of the foremost Indigenous researchers, however when tasks need to be taken on, they are always the first to roll up their sleeves and do what needs to be done. I am perpetually in awe of this group of people and feel incredibly privileged to have had to opportunity to learn from and to have worked along-side them.

Traveling North - Pisew Falls, MB. (B-F) Rachel Bach, Stephanie Sinclair & Chelsie Parayko