Asael E. & Maydell C. Palmer Annual Lecture in Canadian Studies
This presentation discusses the significance of Cree-Métis women’s laboring and loving as a decolonial practice in the face of a dehumanizing colonial enterprise in Canada. The love and work of Indigenous women spanning generations illustrates the dynamics of matriarchal social relations in Cumberland House. In crafting moccasins for beloved family members, Cree-Métis women’s practices and ways of being enabled individuals and collectives to recenter women’s knowledge and authorities in hostile spaces, while ensuring the survival of communities of Indigenous belonging.
Allyson Stevenson (Métis) teaches in the Indigenous Studies Department at the University of Saskatchewan where she is the Gabriel Dumont Research Chair in Métis Studies. Her research focuses on decolonial Prairie Métis history and Indigenous women’s history. Her book, Intimate Integration: The Sixties Scoop and the Colonization of Indigenous Kinship, was published with the University of Toronto Press in 2020.
Part of the Kennedy Center's fall 2024 lecture series, "Legacies of Colonialism," and co-sponsored by the Canadian Studies program.