not only identifying and developing practices, pedagogies, and methodologies but also developing a larger body of theory related to these practices, pedagogy and methodology. Research will be mobilized on local, regional, national and international scales. CAIR is committed to using decentralized methodologies that allow for a wide array of sites to be used to enact relationality within their subsequent localized contexts and forms of Indigenous knowledge. This is paramount to meaningful dialogue and collaboration.

as the foundation of our methodology and our knowledge mobilization plan. This concept has informed our kîhokêwin Declaration which is intended to guide our work. The Declaration provides a deeper understanding about the key tenants that visiting, as a prairie Indigenous form of knowledge transfer, possesses. Likewise, it also embodies the principles that guide our methods and procedures. The Declaration has since evolved into an agreement shared by all project participants after holding multiple consultation meetings with our partners. These discussions ensured that a wide range of people and and place-specific understandings of visiting were included in this living, collaborative agreement.

we assert the need to ensure the work of the twenty-five themed research projects is robustly interconnected. To do this, we have adopted the use of conceptual fingerweaving. This method is inspired by the rich traditions of fingerweaving in many Indigenous Peoples lives. This is a skilled craft characterized by intertwining numerous different threads into an intricate pattern and is a traditional method of creating a Métis sash. Dr. Jobin’s late aunt Laura McLaughlin was an accomplished Métis weaver, and these familial teachings and her art provide the visual metaphor we are using to interconnect this diverse research program.

Learn More about 'fingerweaving' as a research methodology.