Learning By Doing, Asking and Listening

By Stella Rakwach, 1st year MDP Student

Problem tree (causes & effects of financial exclusion) - focus groups results at Ma Mawi

Research is a very important aspect of community development, often providing solutions to challenges affecting them. Such solutions should be context specific, informed by local cultures and world views to improve their acceptance in such communities. One size fits all policies/solutions may not be applicable in addressing modern day development issues. What is considered a problem in one community may not be an issue in another. This is very evident when comparing financial exclusion in different communities for example Canada has three major financial sectors: mainstream financial institutions (MFIs), fringe financial institutions (FFI) & informal borrowing/lending. I was comparing that to my country Kenya which on the contrary only has the MFIs & informal borrowing/ lending. FFIs maybe a problem in Canada but is almost non-existent in Kenya. Hence in terms of financial systems in Canada there could be a middle ground while in Kenya you are either in or out of the system. Recently our team has been working on indigenous financial exclusion (IFE) & literacy research data collection. Finding participants for the research methods has not been very easy but it has worked out well courtesy of partnerships with SEED Winnipeg, Ma Mawi & Fisher River Cree Nation (FRCN). By taking part in various activities at the sites I met new friends who introduced me to potential participants and later made use of the snowball effect to get more.

Money Management Class at SEED Winnipeg

We attended a money management class and had a small exercise dubbed ‘money & me’ which involved writing on a piece of paper about what one would like spend money on. Then we walked around the room as we asked each other questions and it was interesting to find out that people were saving for items like mattresses, glasses, couches, children’s education and cars etc.  SEED is doing a great job through its savings program which helps their participants save to meet their financial objectives and in addition to that an initiative to help parents set up RESP accounts to save towards their children’s education. In one activity, the class was divided into groups and tasked with identifying the challenges facing their community and suggest possible solutions to these challenges. Part of this activity included separating individual and communal solutions to the communities’ problems. I presented for my group and I had a wonderful time sharing especially on the one person solutions as that would be a development practitioner’s main job. So I talked about charity, volunteering, scholarships/sponsorships, voting, keeping rules, reporting crime as these would be key in promoting education, and good leadership and hence better laws and promote security and other areas of community development.

Cooking Class at Ma Mawi (McGregor site)

 

Lunch is ready! Stella (L) & Grenda (staff member at Ma Mawi)

The cooking began with a short orientation from the lady in charge of the kitchen, I washed my hands and she handed me a pair of gloves and something to cover my hair which I put on then she showed me around the kitchen cabinets to know where to get the cutlery, plates, cups etc. On the menu today is split peas soup & salad and bread.  I helped by dicing some onions and bacon then she put all the ingredients together into a large pot to get the soup boiling. Then we made some caesar salad together as we talked about mainstream banks and fringe banks (pawnshops & payday lenders) and by 12 noon lunch was ready and I put on my name tag and served lunch to the community at the kitchen counter. Later I walked around the dining area with a tray serving fritas for dessert. All that’s well ends well; the staff were very grateful and offered to introduce me to a few people who were interested in participating in the IFE research.

Finding Fisher River

At the beginning of the third week of July, we travelled to Fisher River Cree Nation, as we had completed data collection for the IFE study in Winnipeg. The journey began around 8:30 am after getting directions on Google maps hoping to get there before 11am. All was well till we reached a dead end at a quarry/ construction site, and we had to drive back to the main highway and get new directions from there. We later found our way and arrived safely. We had a wonderful reception courtesy of the band office, the people were nice and respectful. The place was quiet and full of fresh air and it felt so peaceful and refreshing away with no TV and the hustle and bustle of daily life in Winnipeg. In the afternoon of the same day and following days we visited the band office, community store and the Charles Sinclair High school and met a few participants interested in taking part in the resident survey, financial life histories or the focus groups. Therefore for community research & or development to be successful, one must be willing to take part in community activities, exchange knowledge and earn the people’s trust hence learning by doing, asking & listening.

Enjoying some fresh air in Fisher River after a successful day collecting data

Research and the Three Rs

By Gabrielle Héroux, 1^st year MDP student

It’s been almost two months since the official start of my field placement.  But the truth is, the lessons started even earlier – patience, open-mindedness, the ability to roll with the punches and adapt.  My first two field placement choices fell through.  So it goes, and so here we are.

And here I am, sitting at a bus stop across from Winnipeg Square waiting to meet up with Stella.  It’s raining.  Again.  We made this plan to touch base briefly here, she en route to Ma Mawi for the afternoon, I en route to campus.  We have materials and information to exchange.

We’ve been working with Dr. Jerry Buckland as research assistants on a project concerning financial exclusion, defined as the failure of the mainstream banking system to provide credit and depository services at competitive prices to all individuals, households, and businesses.  As a subset of broader social exclusion, it usually affects lower income people and communities.  In this project, we want to know how it affects indigenous people, both in Winnipeg and in Fisher River Cree Nation.  Here in the city, we’ve been working in partnership with SEED Winnipeg and Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata (Ma Mawi for short).  Our plan is to develop recruitment strategies with them to find participants for the various methods we intend to use (a quantitative survey, financial life histories, and two focus group-type activities).  We’re still in the initial phases of establishing these relationships.  So far, most of the work we’ve done has been from home, or from the University, drafting our literature review and mapping out protocols.

Stella Rakwach (L) & Gabrielle Héroux (R)

The two of us spent a few hours at Ma Mawi last week.  We had a meeting with Garry Richard, the manager of their McGregor location.  It’s a fantastic site, a bright and airy building that also houses a daycare, a youth YMCA complete with indoor skatepark and climbing wall, and a quick-care clinic on the second floor.  Ma Mawi itself offers different programs and classes – for youth, for seniors, for women, for parents – but most people just drop in.  They come to have coffee or something to eat, to use the computers or laundry facilities, to sit and chat with their friends.  It’s always busy.  They are clearly a crucial part of the community.

Everyone, no matter their reason for being there, has to sign in.  So Garry told us that one thing we could do would be to sit at their greeter desk, signing people in, and also handing out flyers about our project to stir up some interest.  This seemed like a good idea, so we went with it.

After an hour or so, an elderly man, non-Aboriginal, came up and read our flyer.  And he had lots to say on the topic of indigenous financial exclusion.  He called another man over, an older Anishinaabe man we had seen around and briefly spoken to.  “Did you read this?” he asked.  “The university girls want to help you Aboriginals.”

Oh no, I thought.  That won’t go over well.  Sure enough…  “You want to help us?” he asked.  “Then do us a favour and go back to where you came from.  Give us back our land.”  With that, he tore up the flyer and walked away.

I wasn’t sure how to respond to that whole exchange.  For one, I felt it was neither the time nor the place to hash it out.  But it made me think about what I’m doing, why I’m doing it, and how best to do it.

It’s been clear to me, from the start, that I’m not out to “help the Aboriginals”, as though I’m some sort of crucial part of the equation without which they’ll never get anything done, as though I alone have something to offer that they, in their deprivation, need.  That isn’t what this is about.  I’m doing anyone any favours.

So what am I doing, then?  Jerry told Stella and me in one of our meetings that, in order to be a good development practitioner, you have to have a good sense of who you are.  Otherwise, you’ll be running around, haphazardly, trying to convert everyone to your way of thinking.  Being told to go back to where I came from really gave me pause.  Where is that, anyways?  Am I from France, because that’s where my Héroux ancestor came from in the 1670s?  Am I from Pinaymootang, because that’s where my Cree ancestors were from, where my mother is registered?  I’ve never been to either of those places.  What does this all mean?  And how much of your identity has to do with who claims you, as opposed to who you claim to be?

I’ve also been thinking about what Darren Courchene told us during our field placement orientation, about the elder who didn’t answer the researcher’s questions, because that wasn’t the lesson she wanted to teach him that day.  I’ve been thinking a lot about how that story illustrates the three Rs.  Respect.  Relationship.  Reciprocity.  As our research unfolds, as we begin to collect our data and generate results, we’ll all have to think very carefully about the practical application of these principles.  I know I’m bringing some biases into this project, naturally, having always been banked, having worked in a bank for years, having grown up the way I did.  So how can the three Rs temper the assumptions with which I’m starting out, and really make this work meaningful?

Indigenous Research & Community Engagement

By Stella Rakwach, 1st year MDP student

 

My field placement is in Winnipeg, I have been working on Indigenous Financial Exclusion (IFE) Literacy project, which is headed by Dr. Jerry Buckland. I began my practicum on the 1st of May and will be done at the end of July. As part of my practicum I am working as a research assistant under Dr. Buckland and I have also met with IFE the project’s steering committee. I will help conduct the IFE study which will be done in three sites namely: SEED Winnipeg, Ma Mawi and Fisher River Cree Nation (FRCN). The study focuses on the use of mainstream financial institutions (banks and credit unions) and the use of fringe banks (payday lenders) by Aboriginal people. We have been working on the literature review and will soon be starting the data collection which will be done through: key informant interviews, resident surveys, financial life histories and participatory methods (needs and resource assessment, problem tree & ‘perfect’ bank).

Initially I worked from the Global College during May. Since the beginning of June I have had the chance to visit all the three project sites SEED Winnipeg and Ma Mawi where I had a brief orientation into their programs and FRCN where I attended a community health fair and visited the band office. I also met Councillor Dion McKay to discuss how to find participants for the study.  From June I have been based at Ma Mawi (McGregor site) and am enjoying meeting various people and getting immersed into the community.

Attending the community health fair held at the Charles Sinclair School in Fisher River. From L to R: Brielle Beaudien, Carole Cochrane,, Dr. Shailesh  Shukla, Gabrielle Heroux and Stela (me).

In addition to the research project, I had a wonderful reunion with the Winnipeg MDP team (Badriyya, Gabrielle, Evelyn and Naomi) at the ‘’Models & Best Practices-Sustainable Northern Development’’ round table held at the Richardson College building on June 12th. Together we met The University of Winnipeg President, Dr. Lloyd Axworthy and listened to the keynote speech from Justice Thomas Berger on development in Northern Canada.