NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Gwich'in Settlement Area, South Slave Region

Tags: social sciences, traditional knowledge, culture, women, creative skills, beadwork

Objective(s): Project objectives include visiting with Elderly Aboriginal women in Fort McPherson and Fort Smith to conduct interviews to learn about their experiences with bead work.

Project Description: Project objectives include visiting with Elderly Aboriginal women in Fort McPherson and Fort Smith to conduct interviews to learn about their experiences with bead work. A study of women's participation in bead work may help the researcher to better understand the importance of participating in traditional cultural activities to identity formation and individual health and well-being. The researcher will visit Fort McPherson and Fort Smith to conduct interviews with four to eight women in each community. A series of approximately 3-4 interviews, 2-3 hours in length, will take place over a one-month period in both communities between December 2007 and March 2008. Consent will be obtained from each participant. The researcher will develop and share a personal narrative to reflect upon and interpret learning experiences during this study of beadwork. She intends to apply an Indigenous research method based upon her own identity, experiences, perceptions and perspective as a woman of the Gwich’in and Cree Métis peoples from the Northwest Territories. Following completion of the interviews, she will visit the Pitt Rivers and British Museums in England to study collections that include a pair of moccasins on display at the Pitt Rivers Museum made by her late grandmother, Joanne Edge (McLeod) formerly of Fort Smith, NWT and whose family is from Fort McPherson, NWT. She will explore the role of memory and storytelling, formation of teacher/learner relationship when participating in traditional cultural activities, and consider how these activities influence relationships with the broader environment. This research will contribute to completion of a doctoral degree with a specialization in Indigenous Peoples Education. Project results will be made available in a video and community report in plain language with photographs. The researcher will provide copies of interview transcripts to project participants. She will be available to speak about the project at the community or regional level should the opportunity arise. Potential long-term outcomes include development of curriculum resources with Aboriginal content. Social, cultural and educational benefits include raising awareness amongst Aboriginal women in the communities of Fort McPherson and Fort Smith about the activity of bead work as contributing to establishment of teacher/learner relationships and identity formation, the role of participation in cultural activities to identity formation and mental, physical, spiritual and emotional health and well-being, and impacting on our relationships to the environment. Fieldwork will be conducted from December 01, 2007 to March 31, 2008 in Fort McPherson and Fort Smith, NWT.