Research Findings
Each of the three research assistant teams (former students of the PPA Program) presented their themes and fundings during a Celebration of Findings, where staff and researchers came together to listen and to celebrate the work. Three graphic recordings were created from these celebrations as well as excerpts of the celebrations: Natoonikew Aansaam (Searching Together), Data Divas, and Michif Makers.
Métissage
We have woven together two narratives with various quotes from the interviews from the 3 cohorts of participants. These quotes capture the overall experience with the Project Administration Program. This creative method is known as métissage and we chose it to honour relationality and to treat the interviews, narratives, and experiences as relational and braided; rather than isolated and independent. (Donald, 2008).
As you listen to the métissage and the videos below, imagine the strands of different colours moving with it: red, blue, green, white, yellow, and black representing the voices of the Elder, learners, instructors, support staff, and researchers coming together; weaving and unraveling, learning and unlearning.
If you are interested in reading the academic paper and the project report come back soon. We are working on these!
The voice of our Elder and the Indigenous Ways of Being. The course within the program that inspired Indigenous Resurgence (Starblanket, 2018) and the cultural activities that nurtured students’ identity and connection.
The voices of Métis participant researchers, who investigated their and their peers’ experience post-graduation, and the tensions to decolonize our methodology.
The voice of the community: families, community partners, and our ways of connecting.
The voice of humility: all we still need to learn and unlearn.
There are also the voices of non-indigenous facilitators who, through a shared effort, increased their awareness to further augment Indigenous Ways of Knowing within their practice.