Maamwizing: Pursuing Research in a Good Way – over 250 attend research conference, seek to build capacity

By Laura E. Young

SUDBURY – As Celeste Pedri-Spade reviewed the program for Maamwizing 2018, the research conference co-chair noticed a unique moment.

It was one of the first research conferences where an entire day of programming encompassed all local, northeastern Ontario-based Anishinaabe researchers at the forefront.

“To me that’s amazing. I haven’t seen that.”

Over 250 researchers from around the globe gathered for two-days of research discussions and other events at the second-ever conference, Maamwizing Pursuing Indigenous Research in a Good Way, on November 16-18, at Laurentian University.

With research from the likes of local filmmaker and writer Darlene Naponse and Stephanie Johnston, reflecting on language learning perspectives, the presentations pursued knowledge beyond studies in traditional fields of health, social work and education.

“Those are the fields that are important and we often see how that’s how [students] come into the academy,” says Pedri-Spade, an anthropologist from Niizatikoong (Lac des Milles Lacs) First Nation in northwestern Ontario.

“But now, we have Indigenous architectural research, we have Indigenous anthropologists doing research on settler governance and politics. We have people trained or in different disciplinary areas. That means we are everywhere and we are changing the discourse, the theory, the practice within all sorts of discipline spaces.”

Finding a definition of Indigenous research is a whole other matter, however.

There has been a growth across the country in the emergence of Indigenous research institutes and in scholarship. At Laurentian alone there is the Maamwizing Indigenous Research Institute.

In one example of capacity building in June, the first cohort of 25 scholars attended summer school’ as part of Ontario’s Indigenous Mentorship Network. This connection features 13 research institutions and 70 researchers tapping into over two-million-dollars of funding over five years to research health problems identified by Inuit, First Nations and Métis nations.

For Laurentian’s Pedri-Spade, more Indigenous people are entering graduate-level training in pursuit of Master’s and Doctoral studies.

“That means they’re engaged in research. We’re seeing more people use research as a means to work and give back to their own family and community, really being grounded in family and community relationships,” Pedri-Spade says.

What’s key is that the research needs to be lead by Indigenous people if institutions want to show that they are serious about building Indigenous capacity for research. Such research must also be conducted with Indigenous partners for their communities, notes Pedri-Spade.

“I think we often forget that research is a cultural activity. It’s a social activity, but it’s like art. You can’t say Indigenous art being done non-Indigenous people.”

Getting to that point is about the complex issue of funding and making changes within the system for Pedri-Spade.

At the same time, she also views building relationships as a necessary part of increasing research capacity. Researchers must also maintain and grow relationships with their home communities or the places they might be working.

“It’s on us as Indigenous researchers that we are always accountable to our communities to say we’re here and we’re here to help. When you talk to people who pursue research, they’re doing it to help [their] family and community. It’s the reason why. I’ve never heard another narrative.”