Métis: a Global Indigenous People

我们在此提出的研究项目涉及赠款呼吁中的两个相互关联的方面：社区和公民话语以及代际正义，但它也对此处未具体提及的重要主题产生影响，例如历史(自我)代表性的挑战、对土著主权的理解引入流动性以及土著民族的全球关系。在这种情况下，我们关注的是梅蒂斯人--我们的合作伙伴克里斯·安德森教授的祖国--一个历史上高度流动性的国家，其人民是在北部平原的水牛经济时代形成的--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法典，成为一个与特定(通常是农村)地区联系在一起的民族。虽然与地点的关系是梅蒂斯政治和文化认同不可或缺的一部分，但这种地方性往往忽略了大规模流动，包括城市和全球流动，对梅蒂斯社会的发展和发展至关重要的方式。本项目将专注于梅蒂斯旅行和在三个欧洲城市--伦敦、爱丁堡和巴黎--的存在；在更广泛的梅蒂斯关系网络中，我们将被确定为多个节点或具有多样性、联系和过渡的地点。在揭示和说明梅蒂斯在这些地方存在的悠久历史时，我们将扩大目前狭隘的皮毛贸易交流的关注范围，将那些为外交、活动家、教育、军事、就业和旅游目的而旅行的梅蒂斯人物包括在内，向梅蒂斯和欧洲、学术和社区观众开放这段丰富的历史，并记录他们对传统/以游客为重点的城市历史的抹杀，作为社会正义的索引。这样做为在不同的地理和时间地点归还梅蒂斯知识(遗产和历史运动)提供了潜在的机会，审查了它作为正在进行的促进梅蒂斯集体福祉的工作的一个因素所起的作用。要了解梅蒂斯文化史的这一方面--它将追踪人和物品的运动--将涉及两种以土著自决为重点的方法干预以及档案研究。第一个是在艾伯塔省由安德森教授领导的访问会议，将探索混合年龄组的梅蒂斯焦点小组如何理解梅蒂斯运动的历史，特别是跨大西洋旅行。深入到社区层面对这段历史的理解将为研究团队构建该项目重点叙述的方式提供信息。它还将指导我们考虑将这一历史和文化知识以及梅蒂斯历史知识传回社区成员的最佳工具。第二个项目涉及这两个方面，将包括由安德森教授和斯特鲁普教授在伦敦、爱丁堡和巴黎主持步行和讨论会议。在居住在英国和法国的土著侨民(由英国的Leandra Nephin(UmoNhoN)和法国的Aaron Carr(Navajo)协调)的陪同下，这些课程将探索与梅蒂斯人存在相关的遗址，询问它们对当今土著游客的意义，并通过与所探索的遗址和历史的共同理解来形成徒步旅行的基础。该项目的成果将包括那些徒步旅行本身--既有基于应用程序的形式，也有可下载的形式--旨在进一步鼓励、吸引和引导梅蒂斯旅行者前往这些城市。我们的发现还将为扩展的数字故事地图提供基础，这些地图同样旨在为那些不能亲自旅行的人打开这些空间和知识(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).