2022 ISSP Research Mentors and Projects

Lead Researcher and Mentor: Dr. Roland Bohr

The purpose of this project is to recover, reclaim, revitalize, and validate Rocky Cree knowledge of their places and place names in the communities of Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation, known in English as Nelson House (NCN), and O-Pipon-Na-Piwin Cree Nation, known in English as South Indian Lake (OPCN). This project proposes to document the history of place names in the NCN/OPCN area. Preserving historical memory, as well as cultural norms and values, place names are an indicator of who lives in the region and how. In this way, traditional place names around NCN and OPCN continue to serve as historical markers of contested spaces and as anchors of culture and values of the Asiniskaw Īthiniwak.

This project on place names is part of a larger project that aims to generate a community-driven, scholarly survey of Rocky Cree history that has so far been absent. The survey to be undertaken in this phase of the project will form the basis for the creation of grade-school teaching materials on local history. This project developed out of and runs parallel to the Six Seasons of the Asiniskaw Īthiniwak SSHRC Partnership project. Steeped in collaboration, it brings together researchers, knowledge keepers, and members of Cree communities in northern Manitoba.

Six Seasons Project Website

Lead Researcher and Mentor: Dr. Nora Casson

Our lab works to unravel relationships between water and nutrient cycling, to understand how patterns and processes vary across the landscape and how human activities impact the surface waters that drain forested ecosystems. We combine field work, laboratory studies and data synthesis to expand understanding of how human activities impact ecosystems, by diving deep into the mechanisms that underpin observed changes and also by looking broadly at controls on regional-scale patterns. The ISSP student will assist with building and deploying field equipment either within Winnipeg or at a forested site near Kenora and processing soil and water samples in the lab. The project may be modified depending on the COVID-19 situation.

Researchers and Mentors: Dr. Paul DePasquale and Dr. Kathryn Ready

The project is a collection co-edited by Paul DePasquale (Associate professor, English and an Upper Mohawk member of the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory in Ontario) and Kathryn Ready (Associate Professor, English), with a projected completion date of fall 2022.

The collection will encompass a range of topics, notably treaty and legal history, with special interest in the Royal Proclamation of 1763, the focus of TRC call to action 45, asking for a new Royal Proclamation and Covenant of Reconciliation; colonialism and politics; travel and mapping; religion; literature (including European "captivity" narratives and the Georgie) and language; and visual and material culture. As an overarching aim, it will consider how a multi-disciplinary critical engagement with the history of Indigenous-settler relations in the eighteenth century might suggest more productive paths forward in contemporary settler-colonial societies.

This collection will gather materials from a special program on the Indigenous eighteenth century organized as part of the joint conference of the Canadian Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies and the Midwestern American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, an event which took place in October of 2021.

The Elders and distinguished speakers who have agreed to contribute are Calvin Pompana, working with Dr. DePasquale, Louis Bird, working with Maureen Matthews, Jeannette Armstrong, Thomas Porter, and Annette Trimbee and Jennefer Nepinak. Other contributors include Cary Miller (Associate Professor, Native Studies, University of Manitoba), a plenary speaker at the conference and expert on eighteenth-century Anishinaabe culture.

Lead Researcher: Laura Forsythe, PhD Candidate

This gathering will take place in Winnipeg, Manitoba, from May 3-6, 2022, at WAG-Qaumajuq. Métis scholars, art makers, knowledge holders, students, language speakers, organizers, writers, and other community leaders to share knowledge and engage in conversation. The symposium will speak to a range of Métis priorities and scholarship areas through visiting while nourishing our relationships and celebrating the different forms that we are carrying and building Métis knowledge.

As the first symposium of its kind there is a need to document the event and to collect the voices and reactions of those in attendance. Through a series of surveys of particpants and semi structured interviews in the weeks following we will be able to see the impact of Metis-specific research symposiums and academic gatherings that include community.

Lead Researcher and Mentor: Dr. Caleb Hasler

Many Lake Trout populations are in decline in North America including some lakes in Manitoba. Lake Trout in Manitoba are poorly understood and under-studied despite a high degree of promotion of these fisheries.  Contemporary stock status information will assist fisheries managers select appropriate management tools to protect and enhance these valuable fisheries for continued use by recreational anglers. This work requires the collection and sampling of aging structures of fish of various sizes, and then aging of the structures to determine size structure, growth, and population vital rates.

Researchers and Mentors: Dr. Melanie Martin (Lead Researcher), Dr. Ingvar Fife, Dr. Harry Ingleby

Fluoroscopy is a type of medical x-ray imaging that provides live images of patient anatomy. It is often used in therapeutic procedures to provide guidance for the insertion of catheters and other surgical instruments. As with any imaging procedure using ionizing radiation, the benefits of the procedure must be balanced against any potential risks from radiation. It is thus desirable to use the least amount of radiation feasible while still achieving clinical goals.

Fluoroscopic systems are equipped with feedback control systems that regulate the number of x-rays produced by the x-ray tube in response to the number of x-rays reaching the detector. In order to maintain diagnostic image quality, the control system will increase the number of x-rays produced as the amount of absorbing material in the x-ray beam increases. If a lead shield is placed in the beam with the intent of protecting part of the patient's anatomy, the number of x-rays produced will be driven up by the control algorithm, potentially increasing radiation dose to the unshielded anatomy.

The intent of this project is to investigate the increase in patient dose for unshielded anatomy as a function of the proportion of the x-ray beam blocked by a lead shield. This will provide valuable insights into the clinical implications of using lead shielding during fluoroscopic procedures.

Researchers and Mentors: Dr. Mavis Reimer (Lead Researcher) and Dr. Melanie Braith

This project is a SSHRC Partnership project with the goal of supporting the ongoing work of reclaiming Indigenous languages, histories, and knowledges among the asiniskaw īthiniwak (Rocky Cree). This work takes place in the context of the calls to action by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (2015) for, among many other things, the revitalization of Indigenous cultures, the “relearning of Canada’s national history,” and the reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. At the heart of the project is the creation of a cycle of six historical picture books set in the proto-contact period that tell stories about the people thriving on their land and teach readers about asiniskaw īthiniwak history and culture. The project members also work on creating a teachers’ guide and a picture book app for each of the six books. This project is steeped in collaboration as it brings together researchers, knowledge keepers, and members of Cree communities in northern Manitoba.

Six Seasons Project Website.

Lead Researcher and Mentor: Dr. Mark Ruml

This research grew from a book project on which the late Don Daniels, from Long Plain First Nation, and Dr. Ruml were collaborating: “Don Daniels: The Life and Teachings of an Anishinaabe (Ojibway) Healer.” The outline they developed partly guides this project, which examines the spiritual biography and teachings of Indigenous healers and spiritual leaders. Documenting the spiritual biography of well-known Indigenous healers and spiritual leaders values their life story and the significant contributions that they have made to the survival of their people and to Canadian society.

Researchers intend to conduct video interviews of healers and spiritual leaders, primarily located in Winnipeg, Southern Manitoba, and the surrounding area. They will be asked questions related to their own spiritual journey and traditional teachings. In addition, by gathering testimonies through interviews and social media, researchers will document the influence that healers and spiritual leaders have had on those they have impacted.

Throughout this project, Dr. Mark Ruml and the Indigenous student researchers will be guided by instruction received from Elders and traditional teachers regarding respectful behaviour.

Researchers and Mentors: Dr. Lydia Schoeppner (lead researcher), Tagak Curley

This project involves the translation and analysis of the letters from Nunavut Elders. The handwritten letters in Inuktitut syllabics were sent to Tagak Curley in the 1960s and 1970s. Deeply concerned about the effects of colonialism that threatened the survival of Inuit identity, culture and language in the Arctic, Tagak Curley - a well-known Inuk politician – had reached out to Inuit community leaders in the Arctic five decades ago to hear their perceptions of the impacts of colonialism. In their letters, Elders voiced their concerns about cultural loss and uncertainty about continuing the Inuit way of life. The authors of the letters also made suggestions on how to protect Inuit culture, which ultimately constituted a community mandate to Curley and other Inuit leaders in Canada to organize Inuit collectively, which eventually led to the creation of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Canada's national Inuit organization and the Inuit Circumpolar Council.   

Making these letters and their content available to a larger audience will contribute to the telling of Canadian Indigenous history in the voices of Inuit from across Nunavut. The translated letters will also allow insights into Inuit resistance, resilience, leadership and conflict resolution practices.   

The project is funded by a grant from the Government of Nunavut's Department of Culture and Heritage.

Lead Researcher and Mentor: Dr. Gina Sylvestre

Seniors in Canada are a rapidly growing segment of the population, with a distinct spatial distribution and gender balance; and nearly one-third (32%) are renters (CMHC, 2020).  Affordability is the number one challenge for seniors trying to find housing, with 60% of senior renters in core housing need (Cho, 2019). These challenges disproportionately impact senior women, who often rely more on affordable rental housing, and who tend to live on lower incomes and are more likely to experience financial difficulties resulting from cumulative disadvantages over their lifetimes. To understand the circumstances of these older female renters, this project will identify the personal circumstances that lead to housing insecurity for senior women, as well as the structural issues, barriers, and policy, that create barriers to senior females’ housing trajectories. The project will follow a feminist gerontological lens to capture the interlinkages of aging, gender, and housing precarity. The proposed research study seeks to gain understanding of the lived experience of single older women who are at greater risk of insecure housing and homelessness.

Lead Researcher and Mentor: Dr. Janis Thiessen

The Manitoba Food History Project is driven by two research questions: How has food been produced, purchased, and consumed in Manitoba? And how have those processes changed over time?  We document and interpret the history of food production, retailing, and consumption in Manitoba. Outcomes of this SSHRC-funded project include oral histories, ArcGIS Story Maps, and a podcast series ("Preserves").

The Manitoba Food History Truck (in partnership with UW's Diversity Foods) travels the province, inviting Manitobans to cook local, historical, meaningful recipes aboard the truck while students and project members conduct oral history interviews with them. Additional oral history interviews are conducted off the truck, in food-related businesses. These oral histories contribute to our understanding of the business, labour, ethnic, Indigenous, and local histories of the province.

Manitoba Food History Website
Manitoba Food History Instagram
Manitoba Food History Twitter
Manitoba Food History Facebook

Researchers and Mentors: Dr. Sanoji Wijenayake (Lead Researcher) and Dr. Nora Casson

Water is an essential resource for life and clean freshwater in lakes, streams, and wetlands support biodiversity. However, results of climate change in Canada's northern boreal regions have greatly impacted the composition and health of the water sources. One of the great advantages of combining ecotoxicological research with molecular biology techniques is that it allows us to explore the impact of increased atmospheric deposition of phosphorous on water quality and the health of the native microbiota that lives in these water bodies at a species and genotype level. In this collaborative project with Dr. Casson (Canada Research Chair in Environmental Influences on Water Quality) and Dr. Wijenayake (Assistant Professor of Cell and Molecular Biology), we will investigate the abundance of 10 species of native protozoans in local streams near agricultural field sites in Randolph, Manitoba using RT-qPCR followed by PCR sequencing and genotyping to identify and characterize the microbial profiles. The identification of different genotypes of protozoans in water and sediment samples can be useful to determine the quality, health, and level of contamination of the streams. Briefly, samples will be collected monthly in a ditch near an agricultural site treated with swine manure. The raw water and sediment samples will be collected and filtered through cellulose ester membranes (1.2 um pore size) and transferred to the UW laboratories, where DNA extraction (FastDNA SPIN Kit for Soil, MP Biomedicals) will be conducted according to manufacturer's instructions. Primers designed against 18S ribosomal RNA (18s rRNA) will be used to detect protozoans with RT-qPCR. All samples with positive RT-qPCR results will undergo genotyping and analysis.