Acimowin

By Christy Bird, 2nd year MDP student  

Boozhoo! I am excited as I wrap up my final field placement as a part of my MDP studies. I appreciate the opportunities I have had assisting Dr. Shailesh Shukla in community-led research of a traditional food guide with and for Fisher River Cree Nation. 

Last year I had a remote field placement due to the ongoing pandemic, but this year I was excited to be in the community and, most importantly, listen to stories from community members about their community and the traditional foods harvested in their community. As a part of building relationships is sharing stories; a highlight for me was speaking to community members who shared stories of my Murdock grandparents, as my Papa was a fisherman for many years in Fisher River. In addition, it was exciting to visit with youth that encompasses knowledge of the land and sustainable harvesting and take pride in their story of the history of Fisher River and their vision for a healthy community.  

The education I obtained through the past two years and last year's field placement enhanced my awareness of the importance of ethics and Indigenous research methods that ensured that I adhered to the ethical practice of community-led research and to ensure that value, respect, reciprocity, and honour were at the forefront of the research. Fisher River is a strong Cree community, and the work Fisher River is completing reinforces that Indigenous-led wellness has to be community-led and specific to their community. 

Again, I am thankful for all that was shared with me; it has greatly influenced the work I will embark upon as I exit my studies. Ekosi. Miigwech. 

Wahkomiwew - Being connected to the People

By Christy Bird

 

Christy and Kaitlyn Murdock 

Boozhoo, Tansi. Christy Bird ndizhnikaaz Peguis/Fisher River indoonji. I am near completion of my time in MDP, and it has been a great learning experience. For my final field placement, I am working under the supervision of Dr. Shailesh Shukla with Fisher River Cree Nation (FRCN) developing a traditional food guide that is reflective of their community. 

My Mom is Cree from Fisher River, and I spent a lot of time with family in Fisher River, so I am very grateful for this opportunity to connect with family and friends and build new relationships with youth in the community. 

As a part of my placement, I have met with several community members that work in the community and have participated in a community event organized by Sharon Monkman from Fisher River Health seeking their inputs in designing traditional food guide project through a written survey. Community members provided useful feedback on potential content of the Fisher River food guide including important and healthy traditional Fisher River food items that should be included in the guide. 

I have also had the opportunity to visit Fisher River High School Land-Based educator Kaitlyn Murdock in their land-based program. In addition, I had the privilege to host two focus groups with youth that attend the program. There are still more interviews with knowledge keepers, youth and elders in the community that need to be completed, but it has been great to put learn and apply community-based research for this important project. 

Our key focus would be to engage local youth and knowledge keepers and build in their voices into their own food guide. We would also like to organize traditional recipe events open to FRCN community members sometime in early August. At the end of the event, we plan to host a community feast to present the traditional food guide to the community. 

Finally, it has been great to be in community, around people, especially after 2 years of virtual learning. Although virtual meetings occur weekly, in person dialogue and community visits are something that I enjoy the most. Miigwech.

Thinking About Indigenous Food Security and Research During COVID-19

By Taylor Wilson, 2nd year MDP student

In my previous blogpost regarding my field placement, I shared that I chose to re-adjust my placement plan and do something different. Some other students did the same as I did while others chose to continue their plans while adjusting to COVID-19 rules. Like I had previously mentioned I had initially planned to work in my home community of Fisher River Cree Nation. I was going to create a food guide. This guide was to map our food system and provide information on how to eat nutritionally and traditionally in ways that are accessible, affordable, and easy. I had hoped it could be a guide to revitalizing Fisher River’s unique food culture as they are a Cree community living amongst a sea of Anishinaabe communities. Unfortunately, that did not happen.

Corn growing m my yard in Fisher River

There were several reasons why I chose to not do my initial plan during the pandemic. One of the larger ones was that my community chose to close its borders to nearly everyone except for on-reserve members, which I found to be a valid choice. The other major reason I chose not to do my placement there during the pandemic was because of the topic. I was looking at food sovereignty and food security and I didn’t think it was fair or right that I, even as a community member, go to Fisher River during a time of uncertainty and do research about the food system.

If there is anything that MDP has taught me over my two years in the program, it’s the importance of doing research the right way. Fisher River is fortunate enough to be a thriving Indigenous community with capable and amazing community members, but it doesn’t exempt them from the myriad of issues surrounding Indigenous communities and the struggle for food sovereignty and security. Who was I to come into the community, someone who hadn’t lived on-reserve for nearly 10 years, and begin to question the food system during a time like this? Or ask questions about how people access and afford their food during what could arguably be called an economic crisis? Where access to affordable foods might be difficult. Not only that, commercial fishing, a huge source of income and food in the community, was halted across Manitoba. As soon as I realized these things, I called it off. I spoke with Shailesh and voiced my concerns, and thankfully (as much as we both would like to do this project), he agreed that this was not the right time.

Doing research on/in/with Indigenous communities during times like these means that as a researcher, even an Indigenous one, we need to think about the consequences, impacts, and realities of what our research does. Honestly, even without the pandemic, we need to consider these things. Even with our community partners being open, willing, and excited to work on this project, we need to understand and consider the impacts any research we do. I encourage other researchers, students, organizations who want to do research with Indigenous communities to think about what this pandemic is doing to Indigenous communities, and consider “is this the right time to be doing research”?

I look forward to working on this project in the future and being back home on the land. For now, I will continue to do work and learn about what research is and needs to be.

Yours, Taylor 

My yard in Fisher River

Fisher River and Financial Exclusion Research

By Gabrielle Héroux, 1^st year MDP student

Day 4 of the trip to Fisher River, the other site for our research project on Indigenous Financial Exclusion.  It’s the last official week of my field placement.  It’s been a good week.  Got off to a fairly inauspicious start, though, when Stella, her family, and I got completely lost in the backroads of rural Manitoba.  How’s that for a terrible way to die.  Word to the wise: if you’re going to Fisher River, do not rely on Google Maps for directions.  Anyways, got back on the right path with the help of a kind stranger in a minivan.  Got here midday-ish on Monday, headed straight to the band office to meet up with Dion McKay, the band councilor who’s been our main contact in FRCN.  We hashed out the finer details of our stay here, discussed accommodations, work space, and our student assistant.  For the latter, we were set up with Taylor, a young woman who is about to start her third year at the University of Winnipeg, and is participating in FRCN’s youth summer employment program.

And not to put too fine a point on it, or anything, but she has been amazing.  There’s no way we could have accomplished even half as much as we have without her.  She’s organized, she’s motivated, she’s been calling everyone she knows and recruiting people like gangbusters.

Recruitment, predictably, has been the most difficult part of the week.  There are the obstacles of not knowing many people here, of our very short time frame, and of there not really being one central place to find a bunch of people at once.  But it’s also a busy week for the community, for good and not-so-good reasons.  For one, they’re having Treaty Days next week, and lots of people are involved with that, preparing food stands and organizing events.

Dion also let us know that the band office’s long-time receptionist passed away on the Saturday before we got here.  So, naturally, a lot of focus and energy is on that.  It’s been weighing heavily on everyone’s hearts and minds.  Her funeral is today in Fairford, where she was born.  So the band office is closed, and a good number of community members are out there.

The only ATM in Fisher River Cree Nation. 

We have nevertheless gotten a good deal of research done.  As in Winnipeg, people have been very interested in our topic, and eager to share their experiences.  Some notable trends have emerged so far, different from some of what we saw in the city.  For instance, I don’t think I’ve surveyed anyone yet who has used a payday lender or pawnshop, and if they’ve used fringe financial institutions at all, it’s been the local store.  Which makes sense – people use what’s available and convenient.  People are also highly mobile here, traveling back and forth to Winnipeg and other nearby communities, doing their banking at banks or credit unions there.  Some respondents have expressed the wish to have a bank here, but it doesn’t seem to be a gigantic obstacle.  The community has adapted.

Diane Roussin, of Ma Mawi, made an interesting point at an Advisory Committee meeting earlier in the summer.  She said that people’s dreams and expectations around banking are shaped by their experiences.  They may not want more than what has been available to them, not because their current situation is the most advantageous, simply because we know what we know.  It can be difficult to want to something that’s essentially always been outside your reality.  How do you know your Access to Basic Banking Services (ABBS) rights aren’t being adequately upheld, if you don’t know you have those rights?  Which is not inconceivable.  Many people don’t know about ABBS.  For that matter, I’ve worked with tellers who don’t know about ABBS.

Anyways, it’s an important point that makes a lot of sense, and might mean something as yet undetermined for our results.  Not sure what kind of impact that will have on our Ideal Bank participatory method, or on people’s responses to the survey questions about how satisfied they are and what, if anything, they would change about their financial services.  That’s a difficult thing to control for.

But we’ll forge ahead anyways.  I have one day left in FRCN, and I’m hoping to get some financial life histories and a focus group done tomorrow.  Then it’s back to Winnipeg, and then back home.  I can hardly believe this placement is almost done.  That’ll take some processing time.  I know this project isn’t done, not even close.  So the summer may be coming to an end.  But we still have work to do!