University of Winnipeg receives $2.5M research grant

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This article was published 20/11/2017 (2894 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Canada’s youth will have better tools for understanding and preserving Rocky Cree language and culture, thanks to a $2.5-million SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada) grant.

The grant has been awarded to the university’s Mavis Reimer and her team for their project, Six Season of the Asiniskow Ithiniwak: Reclamation, Regeneration, and Reconciliation. Over seven years, 169 students will be trained and take part in the research for the project, which began when Reimer was approached about creating a children’s book.

“William Dumas asked whether I… would be able to help him create and publish a picture book, and my first response was to say no,” Reimer said. “We were scholars and we studied books — we didn’t produce them.”

Dumas relayed the story of how researchers had discovered the remains of a Cree woman in South Indian Lake in northern Manitoba. She had lived 350 years ago and was buried with tools and jewelry, and the community’s elders decided that her discovery could be an educational opportunity for youth.

Archeologists, anthropologists and researchers worked together to put together the woman’s story, and published a book on the topic in partnership with the Manitoba Museum. Although it relayed a lot of important information, it wasn’t entirely accessible, Reimer explained.

“William had felt this work did not address young people, and in that sense did not honour the elders’ understanding of the reason for the ancestor’s appearance,” Reimer said.

In an effort to bring the story to children and youth, Reimer, Dumas and a team worked to publish a children’s book titled Pisim Finds her Miskanow in 2013. Thanks to the grant from SSHRC, the group hopes to publish and create five more stories, digital book apps, teacher guides and exhibits.

“We knew there were more stories to tell,” Reimer said.

The project has clear community support, as SSHRC grants require the applicants to raise 30 per cent of funds themselves, which Reimer’s group was successful in. Over $3 million will go towards the project.

MP for Winnipeg Centre Robert-Falcon Ouellette was there to congratulate Reimer and her colleagues in their efforts to Indigenize the campus, a cause he advocates in the House of Commons.

“I’m pleased to be here to celebrate with you the hard work you’ve done to make research not just something for university, but to make it live today in the community, in our hearts, something lived and something important,” he said.

“To receive this grant is no small feat. They don’t give these out lightly, only 12 per cent of applicants will receive one in a given year. It’s a tough grant and very competitive so I’m very proud you’ve been able to earn that with community partners.”