Lakehead University announces Anishinaabekwe as new Canada Research Chair

By Rick Garrick

THUNDER BAY — Netmizaagamig Nishinaabeg’s Melissa Twance was recently appointed as the Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Land Pedagogies and Indigenous Futurities at Lakehead University, effective January 2025. Twance’s appointment includes $600,000 in funding over five years and a $39,000 research infrastructure grant from the Canada Foundation for Innovation.

“It’s a five-year position but it’s meant to fund research in emergent areas, so for me, the area I’m going to be focusing on is really looking at how our Indigenous communities engage with land-based practices and how those land-based practices can help support and shape desires and successful futures for our young people and for our communities,” Twance says. “As part of my research program, there’s a couple of studies that I would like to undertake, one of them is working with local hide tanners within the Thunder Bay community to reach out to them to talk about hide tanning as a resurgent practice and just to see what their perspectives are on the work that they do and how they see that as contributing towards success for Indigenous folk.”

Twance says another project that she wants to do is to bring together hide tanners from across the Great Lakes region so they can share knowledge together.

“And really talk about land-based practices in this kind of forum in terms of educating our young people,” Twance says.

Twance says her dissertation work looked at beading circles as a way for Indigenous people to share knowledge with one another.

“So, I’m hoping that I will be able to incorporate more of that into the work that I’ll be doing moving forward,” Twance says. “I think art is a really good way to get folks to come together to chat about things that are important to them, and it allows a multitude of perspectives to come through, so you can have young people engaging with older people so it really contributes to this kind of intergenerational transmission of knowledge.”

Twance says she hopes to build relationships within the community across Anishinabe territory over the five years of her position as the Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Land Pedagogies and Indigenous Futurities.

“I’m hoping to draw on expertise from folks within that area and bring folks together from across the area,” Twance says. “It’s going to be a lot of work trying to bring folks together but I know every community has people working on Indigenous research and practices and land-based learning and trying to get those kind of things going on in their schools, so I’m hoping to reach out to everybody and bring them together, organizing a conference, and putting together possibly a research journal so that we can kind of get these perspectives shared on a broader platform.”

Twance says the $39,000 research infrastructure grant will be used for equipment to undertake her research, including recording equipment and laptop computers to record and document land-based practices within communities.

“When we look at research across Canada, there’s a whole bunch of folks doing stuff in different areas so I think it’s really important to have that Indigenous voice contribute to things,” Twance says. “I think Lakehead (University) is really well positioned because they’re located in Anishinabek territory to really promote different perspectives and different voices, so I’m glad I’m able to share my voice in that conversation.”

Andrew P. Dean, vice-president, Research and Innovation at Lakehead University, says they are pleased to welcome Twance as the Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Land Pedagogies and Indigenous Futurities.

“Lakehead University is extremely pleased to welcome Dr. Melissa Twance as our newest Canada Research Chair,” Dean says. “We look forward to the research contributions Dr. Twance will make over the term of this appointment.”