Manitoba Agriculture

Manitoba Agriculture is a department of the Government of Manitoba that regulates many aspects of agriculture and food in the province including food production, food safety, consumer rights and business development. Courtney Bear and Kiera Kowalski worked with Manitoba Agriculture to run a focus group in Courtney’s home community of Peguis First Nation so that the department could better understand Indigenous youth perceptions of the agriculture industry to support policy and program development. Kiera and Courtney were responsible for conducting a literature review, preparing the focus group materials including consent forms and questions, analyzing the data and writing a final report on their findings for the department. 

Engaging in this focus group gave them the opportunity to practice utilizing Indigenous research methods in the field. They had a very successful experience with one Elder and six youth participants who shared their knowledge and truths about agriculture in Peguis. Utilizing Indigenous research methodologies allowed the research to be lead by participants and valuable relationships to be built prior to engaging in research. This field placement exhibited how many aspects of Indigenous life are interrelated as it addressed many topics such as food security, traditional knowledge revitalization, land based education and reconciliation.