M?tis Coming Together: Sharing Our Stories and Knowledges

M?tis Coming Together invites readers to witness the knowledge exchanges that occur in community. Diverse perspectives from M?tis across the homeland help us convene a dynamic and generous thinking space to broaden our individual and collective understandings of M?tis-ness. Topics addressed from a M?tis lens include relationality, kinship, history, storytelling, language revitalization, poetry, futurities, sexuality, feminisms, geographies, religion and spirituality, self-determination, and sovereignty. The collection provides opportunities to learn contemporary M?tis ways of knowing and being.

Laura Forsythe, PhD, is a Michif Assistant Professor at the University of Winnipeg in the Faculty of Education. Forsythe's research focus is M?tis-specific contributions to the academy, M?tis inclusion eff orts, M?tis research methodologies, and educational sovereignty. She is also the elected Bison Local Chairperson of the Manitoba Metis Federation, the official democratic and self-governing political representation of the Red River Metis. Her kinship ties include the Huppe, Ward, Berard, Morin, Lavallee, and Cyr lines. Her ancestors worked for the Northwest and Hudson's Bay Companies, fought in the Victory of Frog Plain, and owned Lot 31, the site of a contemporary M?tis space called Pakan Town.

Jennifer Markides, PhD, is a member of the M?tis Nation of Alberta, Tier II Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Youth Well-Being and Education, and an Associate Professor in the Werklund School of Education and the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Calgary. Her research focuses on the holistic wellbeing of youth and Indigenous education. Her M?tis family surnames are McKay, Favel, Ballenden/Ballendine, Linklater, and McDermott/MacDermott, including Scrip records and connections to Red River.