Our Research

The research team would like to acknowledge the Future Skills Centre for its funding of Project Connect and of the evaluation program. We also wish to thank Métis Nation BC for its partnership in delivering the program and assisting with the important task of supporting students. Our heartfelt appreciation to research participants who generously gave their time to share their experiences.

The research team appreciates the ongoing support provided by Professional and Continuing Studies (PCS) at Royal Roads University to undertake this research project. The time provided by participants for the research is invaluable, including the time and effort provided by PCS staff.

We look forward to continuing our research and building meaningful relationships.

Woven Together

In a weaving process, people come forward as needed to provide expertise and move back at other times. In many ways it is the process of weaving that forges and forms leadership qualities in the individual and in the collective …people are not typecast into leader or follower; instead, each is simultaneously a leader and a follower (Spiller et al., 2020, p. 523). 

We often think about our research process as weaving. Our individual ways of being, thinking, and doing can be weak or incomplete. However, when we come together with our various cultures and ways, we engage in weaving and in unravelling too, learning and unlearning. It is the warp and weft, the back and forth, that makes us stronger.

In his book, Research is Ceremony, Shawn Wilson shares: “Relational accountability requires us to form a reciprocal and respectful relationship within the communities where we are conducting research.”  Most of the people who engage in this research process already know each other well, which is why our work is grounded on a commitment to each other and a sense of being woven together.

Our goal is for our research process to be participatory-based and to include arts-based methods. We want to intentionally engage in a process that is founded on relationality and culture, to explore ways to tell our experiences and stories in a good way.