Maamwizing Indigenous Conference

MAAMWIZING ​Pursuing Indigenous Research “In a Good Way”

The Maamwizing Indigenous Research Institute at Laurentian University and the University of Sudbury, which are located on the traditional territory of the Atikameksheng Anishnawbek, are pleased to announce a three-day multidisciplinary conference taking place November 16th-18th, 2018. Building from the success of the inaugural Maamwizing conference in 2016, Maamwizing 2018 will focus on the nature and role of Indigenous research.

In postsecondary education we are entering a new era of unprecedented attention towards Indigenous cultures and, simultaneously, seeing increasing numbers of Indigenous students and faculty. Like the newly formed Maamwizing Indigenous Research Institute at Laurentian University, other Indigenous research organizations are emerging across the country. This conference aims to question the way in which universities, including such institutes, conduct Indigenous research by better understanding the relationships between students, researchers, and communities. This includes discourse around the prioritization of Indigenous voice and the roles of Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers, or as one Indigenous Maamwizing member stated, “nothing about us, without us.”

Historically, non-Indigenous academics were often considered the “experts” in various disciplines (including Indigenous Studies), and therefore academic relationships with Indigenous communities were built on a paternalistic set of relations and hierarchies. Today, there are examples of both non-Indigenous and Indigenous researchers who are working respectfully together in various ways, with a better understanding of what it means to work “in a good way” with Indigenous peoples and communities.

These evolving relationships are affecting the way that Indigenous research is conducted and this conference will encourage modes of exchange that promote the conduct of research carefully, in a good way. Such questions will ultimately challenge existing and emerging research practice by questioning what, more precisely, is meant by “Indigenous research” and in what way, and to what extent, the Indigenous voice informs and guides it.  

*Artwork: Name' by Celeste Pedri-Spade.

In Anishinabemowin, the word name' refers to the practice of finding or leaving signs of one's presence. Name' speaks to our collective responsibility of learning from the marks made by our ancestors while at the same time leaving our own marks to guide those coming behind us.