UNews - Melissa Shouting

Sokkinakia’pi collaborative project to shape the future of health-care delivery for Kainai Nation

trevor.kenney — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 23:05:45 +0000

The first stage of a collaborative multi-phased approach to enhance health and well-being on the Kainai Nation is underway in a good way, and today the project between the Blood Tribe Department of Health Inc. (BTDH) and ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge was named — Sokkinakia’pi.

Elders, members of the Blood Tribe Department of Health and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge following the naming ceremony and gift exchange to launch the Sokkinakia'pi project.

The name, bestowed upon the project at a Saapihtsimaani (offering prayers with the pipe ceremony) and naming event held in Standoff on Tuesday, is an “all-encompassing term that includes everything that has do with health,” explains Martin Heavy Head, Elder and Blood Tribe Department of Health Board of Directors Chair.

“The word Sokkinaki is the verb ‘to heal or doctor’, and a’pi means ‘all that has to do with’. The full meaning of the word is ‘all that has to do with healing or health’,” says Heavy Head.

In September 2022, BTDH and ULethbridge signed a memorandum of understanding to honour the health-related Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, partnering to expand health services capacity and delivery on the Blood Reserve. That work has now begun, with the first phase of the plan kicking into gear — a community needs assessment.

The overall project will be co-led and co-managed by the BTDH and ULethbridge, with the research being headed by Melissa Shouting (BHSc ’19) and Janetta Soup (BMgt ’07). Shouting is a registered member of the Kainai (Blood) Nation and faculty member in the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s Faculty of Health Sciences. Soup is also a registered member of the Kainai (Blood) Nation and the Quality Control Manager with the BDTH.

The aim of the Sokkinakia’pi project in its first two phases is to build upon the existing Kainai Health Services Plan (2016-2025) to identify and/or reconfirm the health needs, tools and resources for the Blood Tribe over the next 10 to 12 years.

The Kainai Health Services Plan sets out a vision of how and where the Tribe will develop its land and community supports/advancements based on data collection and recommendations from various stakeholders using a strength-based holistic approach to maximize self-determination/reliance efforts impacting Blood Tribe members by following Kainayssini.

“To be Blackfoot means an ongoing lifelong relationship with the environmental totality of Blackfoot Territory,” says Iikaisskini (Low Horn), Dr. Leroy Little Bear (BASc (BA) '72, DASc '04), Vice-Provost, Iniskim Indigenous Relations. “Pursuant to the embodiment of the relationship with the environmental totality, Blackfoot, as part of their cultural practices, developed practices not only to maintain good physical well-being but also good mental well-being. In other words, it has long been recognized that mental and physical health go together: mental and physical well-being cannot be separated.”

It's significant to note that Shouting and Soup will lead the first all-Kainai research team in ULethbridge’s Faculty of Health Sciences to undertake a project such as this and that the work will ensure community members are involved in identifying needs as well as participating in both the planning and delivery of service care.

“This project will be the first of its kind, in that it will incorporate the Indigenous-driven international Buffalo Treaty, which serves as a meeting place for place-based knowledge systems to affirm Kainayssini as a governance model as a means to establish collaboration and engagement within community,” says Shouting. “This approach also seeks to build health research capacity within community while enhancing pathways to post-secondary success for Blackfoot students in varying health careers related to their field of study.”

Upon fully understanding the key priorities for the community, the project will move to a phase of action planning where training needs will be identified, recommendations for health priorities will be established and career pathways developed. The overarching goal of Sokkinakia’pi is to expand capacity on the Blood Reserve to support access to high quality health care and health services, and to do so by increasing and creating new pathways for educating, training and preparing health professionals within the Blood Tribe community.

“This partnership is a huge benefit for the Blood Tribe and will support the enhancement of health services for our people,” says Derrick Fox, Chief Executive Officer, BTDH. “This is very exciting for our youth as this ensures our children will have every opportunity to gain education and training to continue our ancestors’ legacy of caring for ourselves in a respectful and dignified approach based on traditional ways of knowing and being.”

Further partnerships will develop as the project moves through its various phases, and at the core of all the work is a commitment to stay true to a journey of co-creation to be rooted in shared values of humility, respect, honesty, kindness, collaboration and strength.

The intention of the Sokkinakia’pi project is to co-create a translatable model that infuses Siksikaitsitapi cultural notions and strengthens the voice and recommendations by and for community members to enable and align the creation and expansion of providing federal and provincial health mandates on the Blood Reserve.

PUBlic Professor Series to examine biases of web creators and strategies to advance cultural renewal

trevor.kenney — Thu, 11 Jan 2024 18:20:23 +0000

The web is an integral part of our digital lives and like all media, how websites are designed and developed reflects cultural values. This influences what we see and what we don’t see, what we can do there and what we can’t.

Melissa Shouting, left, and Christine Clark have been working together exploring the intersection of technology and cultural renewal.

On Thursday, Jan. 25, 7 p.m. at the Sandman Signature Lodge, Melissa Shouting (BHSc ’19) and Christine Clark (BFA – New Media ’10, MFA ’14) will explore how the web is being reshaped in Indigenous worldviews for cultural revitalization, renewal and relationship building in their PUBlic Professor Series talk — Weaving World Views: The Web as a space for cultural vitality.

Shouting and Clark have been working together the last five years exploring the intersection of technology and cultural renewal.

“All online spaces reflect the culture from which they are created. Values are embedded in content presentation and what options are available to us,” says Clark, an associate professor of Web Design and Development in the Department of New Media. “We might think that some social platforms like Facebook or Instagram are culturally agnostic because whoever uses the platform can choose what they post. But in fact, there are myriad little design decisions that these companies have made that encourage patterns of use. We end up becoming complacent with fitting ourselves into Instagram size boxes.”

Shouting, a registered member of the Kainai (Blood) Nation who holds a faculty position in the Faculty of Health Sciences, says their talk connects web design with health outcomes for Indigenous communities.

“Given how our digital identities are interwoven with our sense of self, it is important to establish a nurturing environment online and offline,” she says. “It begs the question, what do online spaces feel like when they are designed from different cultural perspectives? What can they feel like when they are designed to reflect Blackfoot cultural values?”

Clark’s research and creative practice are rooted in design collaborations that promote decolonization and environmental sustainability at local levels. She and Shouting, with many others, are currently working on the Mootookakio'ssin [MOO-DOO-KAK-IO-SIN] research project, an international collaboration exploring how to provide access to Blackfoot items held in museums in Europe using digital technologies, like photogrammetry, RTI and web-based interfaces.

“In our talk we’ll look at examples of how web technologies reflect the biases of those that make them, and ways that Indigenous people are reshaping the web in their own worldview.”

This is the fourth of the six-part PUBlic Professor Series of talks. Initiated in 2014, the monthly lecture series is designed to spark thought-provoking discussions and bring a diverse group of experts and researchers from the ULethbridge campus right into the community.

Check out the PUBlic Professor Series web page for the 2023/24 talk schedule, to register for priority seating or to join the series mailing list.

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge unveils Mootookakio’ssin website, creates bridge to historical belongings

trevor.kenney — Thu, 18 Nov 2021 16:41:56 +0000

Utilizing the latest in web technology, the new Mootookakio’ssin website launched today creates a bridge that connects Blackfoot peoples to historical Blackfoot items housed in British museums, thereby reinvigorating a rich, cultural past through in-depth storytelling and laying a foundation to keep the knowledge of Elders alive for future generations.

Each item was photographed digitally to create 3D images for the website.

The culmination of an ambitious and challenging three-year research project, Mootookakio’ssin (moo-DOO-ka-keyo-sin) has brought together ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge and United Kingdom (UK) researchers, three British museums, as well as graduate and undergraduate students, all led by Blackfoot advisors and Elders. The result is a stunning, engaging and interactive website that is now a part of the Blackfoot Digital Library and allows users to see and manipulate historical Blackfoot belongings while telling a story that truly brings them to life.

“We use stories to connect with one another and utilizing the story technique allows us to control the narrative about the item and how it is being delivered,” says Melissa Shouting (BHSc ’19), a member of Kainai Nation and a graduate student in the Faculty of Health Sciences. “Storytelling also allows us to

An example of a Blackfoot Awl Case.

showcase who we are as a People, and how we think collectively when it comes to our knowledge systems.”

Shouting is an accomplished beadmaker who, like many Blackfoot artists, can now utilize the incredible detail of the website to see the intricacies of the historical items to guide their own artistic practices. She was part of the delegation that travelled to Britain to document and photograph the historical items housed in British museums.

“One of the reasons I said yes to going there was because we weren’t just going to look at the items and keep that knowledge to ourselves, we were going there to eventually create this website that really illustrates who we are, and then deliver it back to our community,” she says.

A Blackfoot weapon, this Big Whip is part of the collection.

Blackfoot Elder Jerry Potts, a key resource throughout the project, says the significance of showing these belongings, some which date back to the 1700s, is immeasurable.

“Some of these items were from the first contact the Blackfeet had with settlers. The material we are looking at was developed before there was any trade, so they were made with quill work and natural dyes,” says Potts. “The Blackfoot People are so tied to nature and the landscape, so you look at these items and try to imagine what they saw. Our culture and our belief system are captured in this art — there’s a lot of value in that.”

Christine Clark (BFA ’10, MFA ’14), professor of new media in the Faculty of Fine Arts, says the group accomplished even more than it set out to with its initial proposal, thanks in large part to the cooperative nature of the project.

3D imagery is able to capture the incredibly fine detail of this Blackfoot Moccasin.

“We weren’t sure if we were going to be able to meet all our goals because there were so many unknowns,” she says. “The team dynamics were so important for this project because if any one piece had fallen off, the whole project would have fallen apart.”

Named by Elder Dr. Leroy Little Bear (BASc (BA) '72, DASc '04), Mootookakio’ssin translates to “distant awareness.” The aim is to connect people living in traditional Blackfoot territory with these non-sacred, historical Blackfoot belongings housed in British museum collections. While COVID-19 restrictions limited the workshopping and outreach activities the group had planned initially, they did allow for more intensive work on the website.

“Our primary goal was to design and build a custom site for the 3D material and involve as much storytelling as possible with each piece, and we were able to do that,” adds Clark. “We were also able to incorporate a feature called RTI (reflectance transformation imaging) where you can change the light source to reveal the surface detail on the items. This has definitely been the most multifaceted website I’ve worked on, and I was really lucky to have one of our recent graduates, Calvin Lloyd (BSc ’20), lead the development of this very challenging project.”

Potts sees the website as another small step forward in educating Blackfoot youth and non-Indigenous people alike on the roots of a rich culture, its resilience and how it continues to resonate even today.

“It’s very new and innovative thinking to try and capture this idea and this traditional knowledge and use it to build bridges and understanding,” he says. “It’s a pretty good start and it works because there was a will at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge and with their researchers to make a difference and they had the right people in the room to give direction to the project. We’ve opened up some doors now with other ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ and museums in Britain and that’s really exciting.”

Elder led research and creation project Mootookakio’ssin reactivates Indigenous objects

trevor.kenney — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 16:56:24 +0000

Mootookakio’ssin, at its simplest description, is a project to create detailed images of historical Blackfoot objects housed in British museums. At its most complex, it is creating a virtual home for Indigenous objects, a place to reactivate the Blackfoot relations within them and transfer that knowledge all the way from Britain back to their peoples in southern Alberta.

Melissa Shouting leads a beading workshop in the U of L Art Gallery.

After two years of research, construction and creation, this collaborative project between ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge and UK researchers, led by Blackfoot advisors and elders, is coming to fruition, culminating in presentations, exhibitions, workshops, and the launch of the digital object microsite in summer 2021, to be housed in the Blackfoot Digital Library.

Named by Elder Dr. Leroy Little Bear (BASc (BA) '72, DASc '04), Mootookakio’ssin translates to “distant awareness.” The aim of the project is to connect people living in traditional Blackfoot territory with non-sacred, historical Blackfoot objects housed in museum collections in Britain, using digital imagery to record objects in great detail.

Mootookakio’ssin is truly guided by the peoples the project aims to serve. From the onset, Blackfoot elders have been involved, providing guidance, knowledge and appropriate cultural practices. Funded by the Government of Canada’s New Frontiers in Research Fund, principal investigator Christine Clark is leading the development of a microsite presenting the digital images and their associated knowledge. Alongside Clark and her U of L research team are a UK research team, a Blackfoot Elder advisory group, consultation with additional Blackfoot Elders, a design advisory group, and numerous student researchers, developers and artists, all contributing to and aiding in the key outcome of the project -knowledge transfer.

“The items documented within this project opened doors for conversations that are holistic in nature, and that welcome the collectiveness of knowledge translation and transmission within the Blackfoot confederacy and its people,” explains Melissa Shouting, master’s student, artist and research assistant. Shouting was one of the Blackfoot members that visited with the objects in British Museums, alongside representatives from all four Blackfoot tribes, sharing and connecting their experiences and interpretations of the knowledge shared through the items.

"Indigenous knowledge transfer is reliant on personal lived experiences and the interpretation of the knowledge shared through oral history practices, creation stories, ceremonies and kin-based knowledge systems," says Shouting. "This mode of knowledge translation has the ability to connect individuals to the knowledge that is attached to the objects revealing a connection with their ancestors. In sharing this knowledge, it allows us to understand not only the objects but the purpose, the history and the teachings associated with crafting together such objects.”

The ability to bring this knowledge back to southern Alberta was tackled by Clark and a team of student developers. They created web-based prototypes featuring digital models of the objects using spatial web technologies to reunite the objects with their associated knowledge and culture. Clark continued to meet with Blackfoot advisors throughout the development of the protypes and the microsite that will host them.

“My part in those discussions was to listen and learn about what was important to them, working to ensure that the microsite would support these goals,” says Clark. “Too often, Blackfoot items are displayed as relics of the past, of a culture that has died away. The collection should feel alive and feel connected to contemporary Blackfoot artistic practices. For the design of the site, we have animation incorporated into the 3D models, so it avoids them feeling static.”

In addition to public access to the microsite, the U of L Art Gallery continues to play a role in education and outreach through exhibitions and workshops, and by engaging students in the discussion. Partnering with Dr. Jackson Two Bears’ Indigenous Art Studio classes in Spring and Fall 2020, students, both Indigenous and not, created responses to Mootookakio’ssin – to the digital images, the techniques and knowledge that can be learnt from the historic Blackfoot objects, and to the research generated around the colonial history of these objects.

The first student exhibition, Stories That Objects Tell, was set for installation in March 2020 when the gallery closed due to COVID restrictions. Gallery staff completed the installation behind closed doors and presented a virtual format in Fall 2020. The second exhibition, Virtual Stories That Objects Tell, was approached from the beginning as a virtual exhibition, putting new meaning to Mootookakio’ssin.

“The students had to make their work from home and make work that either exists purely in a digital format or that would work well when documented and presented online,” says Dr. Josephine Mills, art gallery director and curator. “The students created ambitious, insightful, and emotional works that engage with identity, personal history, the legacies of colonialism, and museum practices.”

To learn more about Mootookakio’ssin, join Danielle Heavy Head, Christine Clark (BFA ’10, MFA ’14), Melissa Shouting (BHSc ’19), Louisa Minkin and Josephine Mills on Thursday, March 4, from 2 to 3 pm as part of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s Indigenous Awareness Week.

Stay up to date on upcoming events and opportunities to participate at blackfoot.cctbd.ca/.

Virtual Stories that Objects Tell is available online at ulag.ca/virtualstories.

Blackfoot Women’s Empowerment project highlights community and collaboration

caroline.zentner — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 18:18:01 +0000

When Tanya Pace-Crosschild (BSc ’98), director of the Opokaa’sin Early Intervention Society, saw a call for proposals from Women and Gender Equality Canada in 2018, she immediately recognized an opportunity to develop a project to foster the economic empowerment of Indigenous women in southern Alberta.

“Many of our families are living below the poverty line and Blackfoot women don’t have the same opportunities as a lot of other Canadian women,” says Pace-Crosschild. “We wanted to look at what economic prosperity means to Blackfoot women and how to go from economic security to prosperity, keeping in mind many of our women aren’t even at the security level.”

Pace-Crosschild reached out to her network of women, including, from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, Drs. Carol Williams (history, women and gender studies) and Jan Newberry (anthropology) and Rhonda Crow (BMgt ’99), coordinator with Indigenous Governance and Business Management at the Dhillon School of Business. They submitted a proposal and succeeded in getting $350,00 in funding for a three-year project called Blackfoot Women’s Empowerment from Security to Prosperity.

From left to right are Crystal Good Rider, Marjie Crop Eared Wolf (BFA ’09), Dr. Carol Williams, Dr. Jan Newberry, Rhonda Crow, Marsha Wolf Collar (BA ’11), Robin Little Bear, Tanya Pace-Crosschild, Coby Royal and Melissa Shouting (BHSc ’19), U of L graduate student.

“We’re really excited about Blackfoot Women’s Empowerment because it’s a grassroots initiative,” says Pace-Crosschild. “It acknowledges the voices of women, the strengths of Indigenous women, specifically Blackfoot women, and it gives us a basis to move forward. Our goals and dreams with this project are to empower women.”

Now in their final year of funding, they recently launched the Blackfoot Women’s Empowerment website, a portal for Blackfoot women to access resources to enhance their entrepreneurial skills and learn more about traditional ways of life. In addition, the website highlights two projects the group has funded — the Paahtómahksikimi Cultural Centre online craft store and the Red Woman Talks series.

The online gallery and store showcases the talents of 10 artisans and includes artwork, jewelry, accessories, clothing, moccasins and more available for purchase through the click of a mouse. Red Woman Talks is designed to be a series of seven interviews featuring Indigenous women’s successes in communities within the Blackfoot Confederacy. Still in the planning stages, the goal is to inspire, empower and motivate by having role models talk about the challenges they faced and how they overcame them on their path to success.

This fall, the Blackfoot Women’s Empowerment group partnered with the Dhillon School of Business. Starting in January, Drs. Tanya Drollinger and Katie Lafreniere will lend their expertise in promotion to the two projects.

“We needed help in marketing and developing an online presence,” says Crow. “Hopefully, it will be an ongoing partnership because we’re hoping this project doesn’t end when the government funding ends. We’re looking at sustainability and how we can ensure this becomes a permanent program.”

The project began in 2018 with the formation of an Indigenous women’s council. With the help of Coby (Eagle Bear) Royal (BA ’08), they organized a series of meetings with Blackfoot women, both on and off reserve. Along with meetings in Lethbridge and Calgary, they met with women from the Siksika, Piikani, Kainai and Blackfeet First Nations to ask them how they define economic prosperity and what it means to them.

“The results were similar to what I had expected,” says Pace-Crosschild. “Economic prosperity to Indigenous families is not just based on money. It’s based on relationship — relationship with each other, to the land, and to the resources within the community.”

Following the meetings, the women developed a community plan and were asked to submit proposals to Blackfoot Women’s Empowerment. Crystal Good Rider (Ba/BEd ’04, MEd ’10) was hired as project manager to help implement the successful proposals.

“The website was developed in response to what the women were saying in the community needs assessment,” says Good Rider. “When you empower the women, you empower the whole community. There are so many challenges, but this is one positive. Everything we do has been guided by the Blackfoot women’s voices.”

The women identified needs for including cultural content, showcasing Blackfoot women role models and providing entrepreneurial opportunities for women.

“With the website, we’ve been able to work with the Paahtómahksikimi Cultural Centre to highlight artists within the community,” says Good Rider. “With that project, we were really focused on the collective effect of their proposal.”

Newberry says Blackfoot Women’s Empowerment highlights the many connections between the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ and the larger community. Almost all the women involved in the project are either employees, faculty or alumnae of the U of L.

“This is a very exciting project,” she says. “It’s been going on for a while and we’re finally seeing some of the fruits of our labour. We used an assets-based model and the projects we’re supporting definitely build on the strengths that already exist among Blackfoot women.”

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