Métis: a Global Indigenous People

我们在这里提出的研究项目涉及到两个相互关联的股在赠款呼吁：社区和公民话语和代际正义，但它也有重要的主题没有具体命名这里的影响-如历史（自我）代表性的挑战，进口流动性的理解土著主权，和土著民族的全球关系。在这种情况下，我们的重点是梅蒂斯人-我们的Co-I的祖国，克里斯·安德森教授-一个历史上高度移动的国家，其人民是在北方平原的布法罗经济时代形成的-像整个美洲的土著人民一样，通过立法，土地分配和流行的叙事逐渐成为一个与特定（通常是农村）地区联系在一起的民族。虽然与地方的关系是梅蒂斯人政治和文化身份的组成部分，但这种地方性往往忽视了扩张运动，包括城市和全球运动，对梅蒂斯人社会的成长和发展至关重要。在更广泛的梅蒂斯人关系网络中，我们把这些位置确定为“节点”或多重性、连接和过渡的地点。在揭示和阐明梅蒂斯人在这些地方存在的悠久历史时，我们将扩大目前对毛皮贸易交流的狭隘关注，以包括为外交，活动家，教育，军事，就业和旅游目的而旅行的梅蒂斯人，向梅蒂斯人和欧洲人开放这一丰富的历史。学者和社区观众，并记录他们从传统/旅游为重点的城市历史作为社会（不）正义的指数擦除。这样做为在不同的地理和时间地点遣返梅蒂斯人的知识（遗产和历史运动）提供了潜在的机会，并审查了其作为正在进行的梅蒂斯人集体福祉工作的一个因素的作用。了解梅蒂斯人文化历史的这一方面，将追溯人和物体的运动，将涉及两种方法干预，重点是土著自决，以及档案研究。其中第一个是由安德森教授领导的阿尔伯塔访问会议，将探讨混合年龄组梅蒂斯人焦点小组了解梅蒂斯人运动历史的方式，特别强调跨大西洋旅行。深入了解社区层面对这段历史的理解，将为研究团队构建该项目所强调的叙事方式提供信息。它还将指导我们考虑将这种历史和文化知识以及梅蒂斯人历史知识归还给社区成员的最佳工具。第二，解决这两个方面，将涉及由安德森和Stirrup教授在伦敦，爱丁堡和巴黎的步行和讨论会议的领导。在英国和法国的原住民外籍人士的陪同下（由英国的LeAndra Nephin（UmoNhoN）和法国的Aaron卡尔（纳瓦霍人）协调），这些会议将探索与梅蒂斯人存在相关的遗址，询问他们对今天的原住民游客的意义，并形成步行图尔斯之旅的基础，通过与这些遗址和历史的具体遭遇和共同理解而产生。该项目的产出将包括那些步行图尔斯之旅本身--以基于应用程序和可下载的格式制作--旨在进一步鼓励、吸引和引导梅蒂斯人旅行者前往这些城市。我们的研究结果还将为扩展数字故事地图提供基础，这些地图同样旨在向那些无法亲自旅行的人开放这些空间和知识（为那些无法轻松获得技术的人提供硬拷贝格式）。

The research project we propose here relates to the to two interlinked strands in the grant call: community and civic discourse and intergenerational justice, but it also has ramifications for important themes not specifically named here--such as the challenge of historical (self-)representation, the import of mobility to understandings of Indigenous sovereignty, and the global relationality of an Indigenous nation. In this instance, our focus is on the Métis--the home nation of our Co-I, professor Chris Andersen--an historically highly mobile nation whose peoplehood was forged in the era of the buffalo economy of the northern plains--have, like Indigenous peoples throughout the Americas, gradually become codified through legislation, land allocation, and popular narrative as a people tied to a specific (usually rural) locale. While relationship to place is integral to Métis political and cultural identity, such locatedness tends to overlook the ways in which expansive movement, including urban and global movement, has been central to the growth and unfolding of Métis society.This project will focus on Métis travel to and presence in three European cities--London, Edinburgh, and Paris; locations that we identify as "nodes" or sites of multiplicity, connection and transition, in the wider Métis networks of relation. In uncovering, and illuminating, the long history of Métis presence in these locations, we will broaden the currently narrow focus on fur trade exchange to include Métis figures who have traveled for diplomatic, activist, educational, military, employment, and tourist purposes, opening up this rich history to both Métis and European, scholarly and community audiences and documenting their erasure from conventional/tourist-focused urban histories as an index of social (in)justice. doing so opens potential opportunities for the repatriation of Métis knowledge (of heritage and historical movement) in diverse geographical and temporal sites, scrutinizing its role as a factor in ongoing work for collective Métis wellbeing. Understanding this aspect of Métis cultural history, which will trace the movement of both people and objects, will involve two methodological interventions focused on Indigenous self determination, alongside archival research. The first of these, visiting sessions in Alberta led by Prof. Andersen, will explore the ways a mixed-age group Métis focus group understand the history of Métis movement, with a particular emphasis on transatlantic travel. Drilling in to community-level understanding of this history will inform the way the research team frames the narratives the project highlights. It will also direct us as we consider the best vehicles for repatriating this historical and cultural knowledge, and knowledge of Métis history, to community members. The second, which addresses both of those aspects, will involve the leading of walking and discussion sessions by profs Andersen and Stirrup in London, Edinburgh, and Paris. Accompanied by Indigenous expatriates resident in the UK and France (coordinated by LeAndra Nephin (UmoNhoN) in the UK and Aaron Carr (Navajo) in France) these sessions will explore sites associated with Métis presence, interrogate their significance to Indigenous visitors today, and form the basis of walking tours produced through embodied encounter with and through shared apprehension of those sites and histories explored. The outputs for this project will include those walking tours themselves--produced in both app-based and downloadable formats--designed to further encourage, engage, and orientate Métis travelers to these cities. Our findings will also provide the basis for expansive digital story maps similarly designed to open up these spaces and knowledges to those who cannot travel in person (with hard copy formats made available for those without easy access to technology).