Research

The University of Winnipeg is proud of its Indigenous researchers, including three Indigenous Canada Research Chairs, and their many projects and publications. Current projects and publications are featured below.

Projects

GLAM Collective (Dr. Julie Nagam)

GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) is a collective of scholars that work though theory, curatorial, and artistic practice. Learn more about GLAM and their projects at https://glamcollective.ca.

Indigenizing the Faculty: Recruitment, Hiring, Retention, and Advancement Practices at University of Winnipeg (Dr. Julie Pelletier)

The University of Winnipeg has achieved much in decolonization and Indigenization in the areas of curriculum development and implementation, and administrative initiatives. An ongoing area of focus and concern is recruitment, hiring, retention, and advancement of Indigenous academics. This project will review and evaluate relevant existing policies and procedures, research lived experiences of Indigenous faculty and, possibly, Indigenous candidates, and recommend effective changes and approaches to support institutional EDI goals in relation to Indigenous faculty.

Clear Lake Sanitorium Indigenous Histories of Tuberculosis in Manitoba 1930-1970 (Dr. Mary Jane McCallum)

This CIHR-funded project seeks to uncover, explain, and preserve the experiences of Indigenous people with tuberculosis so that these experiences are not forgotten. For more information, see https://indigenoustbhistories.wordpress.com/.

Kishaadigeh: Indigenous Self Determination through Research for our Future Generations (Dr. Jaime Cidro)

The CIHR-funded Kishaadigeh project aims to up-skill research capacity and infrastructure for Indigenous communities and organizations undertaking health research. It focuses on promoting Indigenous self-determination in research through the development of community-based research lodges in partnership with five Manitoba Indigenous organizations. For more information see https://aabijijiwanmedialab.ca/current-projects/kishaadigeh.

Language is Identity and Well-Being (Dr. Lorena Fontaine)

Language is Identity and Well-Being is a SSHRC-funded series of three outreach activities that focus on the link between retention of First Nations languages and holistic well-being. The goal of these events is to pilot a series of community training activities in order to co-develop trauma-informed language revitalization action plans among First Nations communities that reach beyond school classrooms.

Manitoba sanitorium Manitoba Indigenous Tuberculosis Photo Project (Dr. Mary Jane McCallum)

The Manitoba Indigenous Tuberculosis Photo Project is a collaborative, community-based project led by UWinnipeg post-doc, Dr. Erin Millions, and history professor, Dr. Mary Jane McCallum. The project features previously unseen historical photos of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit patients and staff at Manitoba tuberculosis hospitals, with the goal of making images accessible to former patients. Learn more about this project on their Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/TBPhotoProject/), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/tbphotoproject/), and Twitter (https://twitter.com/TBPhotoProject).

Mite Achimowin Project Mite Achimowin (Dr. Lorena Fontaine)

The mite achimowin (Heart Talk): First Nations Women Expressions of Heart Health study was a CIHR- and SSHRC-funded collaboration between the University of Winnipeg and the University of Manitoba. The first phase produced digital stories (3–5 minute videos) touching upon various themes affecting First Nations heart health. The second phase facilitated dialogue sessions with undergraduate students in medicine and nursing on the videos to discuss ways to integrate Indigenous concepts of mite (heart) knowledge and patients’ experiences with biomedical knowledge and practice. To learn more about the project, see the video mite achimowin: Heart Talk – First Nations Women’s Expressions of Heart Health Digital Story Research Project, the podcast recorded with the mite achimowin (Heart Talk) project team, and https://www.nccih.ca/563/mite_achimowin_-_Heart_Talk.nccah.

Chasing Red Exhibit by Bekah Brown Nuit Blanche Toronto 2020-21 (Dr. Julie Nagam)

Dr. Julie Nagam is the inaugural Nuit Blanche artistic director for the 2020 and 2021 events in Toronto. The two-year curatorial theme for Nuit Blanche, “The Space Between Us,” focuses on the connections across urban, polar and pacific landscapes revealing the space between us as a potential site for sharing knowledges. For more information see https://www.toronto.ca/explore-enjoy/festivals-events/nuitblanche/.

Shekon Neechie logo Shekon Neechie (Dr. Mary Jane McCallum)

Co-founded and directed by seven Indigenous historians, including Dr. Mary Jane McCallum, Shekon Neechie provides a venue for Indigenous historians to gather as an e-community and share their ideas or works in progress. For more information see https://shekonneechie.ca/.

The Space Between Us Project The Space Between Us: Col(lab)orations within Indigenous, Circumpolar, and Pacific Places through Digital Media and Design (Dr. Julie Nagam)

The Space Between Us is an international partnership that explores how digital and new media art, created through innovative incubator labs, workshops, makerspaces and symposia, might create new paradigms for community engagement extending to remote and rural communities both nationally and abroad. For more information, see https://thespacebetweenus.ca.

North American Honeybee Swarming the Greenhouse Artlab: Artistic Encounters with Bee EcoCultures in the Age of Chthulucene - Digital Bee Stories (Dr. Lorena Fontaine)

This is a new research-creation project focusing on collaborative, queer, ecofeminist work and contextualizing our understandings of ecological knowledges alongside and in relation to Indigenous knowledges about land and language by working with the Cree concept of kwayekatasowin, "setting things right." Dr. Fontaine’s sub-project within this project is the recording of Indigenous bee stories and the creation of an illustrated book on Anishnaabe teachings about bees. For more information on SWARM see http://www.roewancrowe.com/portfolio-item/in-residence/.

The Transactive Memory Keepers (Dr. Julie Nagam)

These projects focus on creating a web-based archive of Indigenous performance, digital, and new media art. As part of this SSHRC-funded project, GLAM Collective hosted three media art incubators for Indigenous artists to create installations for night festivals across Canada. For more information see https://glamcollective.ca/Projects.

Understanding the Manitoba Friendship Centre Foundation: Listening to the Visionaries (Dr. Jaime Cidro)

This Urban Aboriginal Knowledge Network (UAKN)-funded project aims to direct a strategic vision for Friendship Centres in Manitoba in response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. For more information see https://aabijijiwanmedialab.ca/current-projects/friendship-centre-foundation.

Manitoba Indigenous Doulas Initiative Urban Indigenous Doulas Project (Dr. Jaime Cidro)

The Urban Indigenous Doula project is a community-driven partnership project that aims to establish a holistic model for urban Indigenous doulas service delivery, while providing support to Indigenous birth workers. The project will help inform the long term goal of developing a larger urban Indigenous doula research program housed at the Aboriginal Health and Wellness Centre in Winnipeg. For more information see https://aabijijiwanmedialab.ca/current-projects/urban-indigenous-doulas-project.