Faculty of Education building connections, elevating the voices of Indigenous scholars and thinkers
Mawachihitotaak (Let’s Get Together): Métis Studies Symposium Sept. 25 to 28
From September 25 to 28, the University of Manitoba will host Mawachihitotaak (Let’s Get Together): Métis Studies Symposium, organized by Lucy Delgado, Assistant Professor in Faculty of Education and Laura Forsythe from the University of Winnipeg. This four-day event will bring together over 225 Métis scholars and community members from across Canada and the United States. Participants will present their research, build connections, and spend time visiting and rebuilding kinship connections.
“We are so excited to welcome Métis thinkers and creators from all over to our homeland for this incredible gathering,” says Lucy Delgado. “These thinkers come from a range of academic disciplines as well as those outside of academia who theorize and create knowledge in other spaces.”
Forsythe continues, “Our aim at Mawachihitotaak is to create space that lifts up Metis scholarship and provides the community with a sense of belonging, pride, healing, and empowerment.”
The gathering will include keynotes from Kokum Charlotte Nolin, speaking about her experiences as a Two-Spirit Elder and Knowledge Keeper, Janelle Delorme and Shirley Delorme Russell, speaking about Métis residential school experiences, and Sherry Farrell Racette, whose research merges archival and oral history research with material cultures.
Another keynote will feature two panels of speakers include faculty members and graduate students from several institutions speaking to the pervasive issue of Indigenous identity fraud.
While non-Métis people are welcome to come and learn from the speakers, Mawachihitotaak prioritizes Métis presenters, and those who submitted abstracts were required to also provide Community Connection Statements, outlining their relationships to and within the Métis Nation. Niney-seven presenters will share their knowledge and expertise with the community, and time to visit and spend time building knowledge has been built into the conference schedule.
In-person registration has closed, but a virtual registration option remains open until September 28. The virtual registration will allow review of authorized recorded videos from sessions on a private website for 30 days, allowing participants to see things they missed in other sessions or tune in if they had not been able to make it.
With support from fifteen different faculties and departments at the University of Manitoba, as well as the Office of the Vice President (Indigenous) and Office of the Vice President (Research and International), Mawachihitotaak is an example of how academic institutions can work towards Reconciliation through elevating the voices of Indigenous scholars and thinkers.