With my research Chair in Métis studies, I plan to work collaboratively with the Métis community of Cumberland House to center Métis histories and cultural understandings of water. By including historic downstream Métis communities that emerged during the fur trade period, my research will examine the riverlot communities that developed in the 18th and 19th centuries along the waterways, connected by kinship and a shared economy connected by Saskatchewan River, to highlight Métis geographies of space. Through this research, we will gain greater insight into Métis understandings and connections to water and place along the Saskatchewan River, up to and including the Saskatchewan River Delta. With my prior research on Indigenous women, I know that women have an important role in maintaining language, culture and history, as well as a special relationship to the waters. Looking through a gendered lens, I intend on taking the research up to the 20th century to examine the not only the environmental impact of dams and river pollution on Métis livelihoods, but also the cultural impact that has occurred in the Saskatchewan River Delta. While there has been much research on Métis connections to lands, I am interested in the importance of water to Métis history, culture and identity and the persistence of Metis communities to remain in place.
Working with the communities in collaboration with the Gabriel Dumont Institute, I would like to see a series of detailed maps created that provides a visual depiction of Métis spaces, stories and culturally significant locations for Cumberland House, and along the Saskatchewan River. It is my goal to see the Métis land and waterscape represented in a culturally sensitive manner that accounts for our stories and significant spaces.