Going into the practical aspect of the MDP,
I was initially poised to start off with an international placement in
Dominica, with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). Plans
however changed when the global pandemic hit. The pandemic forced a nationwide
lockdown which meant I had to take a domestic virtual field placement. I was
first placed with a not-for-profit organization but unfortunately, things did
not work out and I was re-placed to assist on a project called
Kishaadigeh.
Kishaadigeh is a research project funded by
the Network Environments for Indigenous Health Research (NEIHR) and
predominantly led by female Indigenous scholars. Its mandate is to develop a
pathway for existing and upcoming Indigenous scholars to work alongside and
within Indigenous organisations and communities to lay a foundation for
self-determination in research. The current primary focus of the project is the
development of research lodges at the community level and to this end, it has
partnered up with four Indigenous organisations.
I was assigned a role that has constantly
expanded and evolved far beyond what I had imagined. My initial part in the
project was to draft seed grant application forms for potential Indigenous
health researchers. This responsibility evolved to a position as the project’s
social media coordinator, in which I was tasked to create a social media
presence for the project. My involvement with Kishaadigeh has seen me
coordinate with its Indigenous research partners, conduct interviews, and
develop valuable networks. Moving forward, plans have been made for me to
attend board meetings and sit with the adjudications committee in August,
indicating exciting new prospects to come. While I was very apprehensive of
this third placement initially, these new-found skills and relationship
building are things that cannot be quantified and things I will not trade for
anything now.
What worked: Because of an imposed new normal brought
about by the pandemic, the mode of my field placement has not been a
business-as-usual style but rather, a learn as you go approach. This came with
obvious challenges which I discuss below but there are things that worked well
too. One of the reasons my initial local placement did not work out was because
of the structured, inflexible work-plan laid out for me prior to the
organisation’s realisations of the dire impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Indigenous
communities it worked with. Restructuring and trying to fit me in proved
challenging for the organisation. However, with Kishaadigeh, restructuring did
not prove problematic. As new needs came up, I was kept in the loop and there
were check-in sessions held to monitor and evaluate my progress. This structure fostered flexibility and made
it easier for me to adapt to a new normal.
What did not work: The lack of a concrete
structure was what was most challenging for me. In the past, I thrived
working with set deadlines and well-defined tasks. With this placement, I had
to set deadlines for my task and work with a broad mandate. This is something
that turned out to be a valuable learning experience and made me learn
to be a more independent worker capable of working under minimal supervision.
COVID- 19: The COVID-19 pandemic in many
ways has been both a challenge and a blessing. The mandatory lockdown has been
mentally challenging and I have tried to curb the effects of anxiety and feelings
of isolation with yoga and online gaming. This allowed me to fill in the social
void caused by the lockdown while still keeping fit. The challenge that the
pandemic also caused with my field placement in general taught me resilience and as I move into the last half of this year’s
placement, I move with a more positive mindset.
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