Editorial Team
Associate Professor Dr. Chantal Fiola, University of Winnipeg
Chantal Fiola is Michif (Red River Métis) with family from St. Laurent, St. Vital, Ste. Anne, and Ste. Geneviève, MB. Her ancestors Pierre “Bostonnais” Pangman Jr and Marie Wewejikabawik were among four Michif families who established the historic Métis community of St. Laurent. Chantal is a registered citizen of the Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF). Dr Fiola is the award-winning author of two books, including Returning to Ceremony: Spirituality in Manitoba Métis Communities. Currently, with funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Manitoba Research Alliance, she is Project Director on a research study titled, “Expressions of Métis Spirituality and Religion Across the Métis Homeland.” Dr Fiola is the Interim Associate Vice-President Indigenous at the University of Winnipeg where she is also Distinguished Indigenous Scholar’s Chair (2021-2024) and Associate Professor in the Urban and Inner-City Studies Department. She is a founding member of the Two-Spirit Michif Local of the MMF and is on the Board of Directors for Two-Spirit Manitoba which is preparing to host the first ever Two-Spirit Sundance. Chantal lives in Winnipeg with her wife and their daughter.
PhD Candidate Dawn Wambold, University of Alberta
Dawn Wambold, MA, is a member of the Métis Nation of Alberta and a scholar with the Institute of Prairie and Indigenous Archaeology. She is a PhD candidate at the University of Alberta and an Individualized Study Tutor in Indigenous Studies and Anthropology at Athabasca University. Her research focuses on how archaeology can support understanding of Métis relationships to the people and places of southern Alberta. Working with the belongings of Métis ancestors is a responsibility Dawn approaches with great care and respect. The Métis concepts of wâhkôhtowin (kinship) and keeoukaywin (visiting) shape all aspects of her work, grounding her in her responsibilities to both ancestors and her living community. Her Métis family names include Piche, Dumont, Boudreau, Blandion, Bernard, Cardinal, L’Hirondelle, and Moyon. Dawn currently lives within view of the Bow River, close to places her ancestors called home as early as the 1830s.
Graduate Student Erica Van Vugt, University of Calgary
Erica M. A. Van Vugt (She/Her) is the daughter of a Dutch immigrant father and a Métis mother. Her father’s people are Hopstaken/Van Vugt, and her mother comes from the Carrière, Parenteau, Caron, and Pilon families. Her grandmother was born in Batoche, with family ties extending to St. Vital, St. Norbert, and Red River. Erica is currently pursuing a Master’s in Archaeology at the University of Calgary, where her research focuses on Digital Heritage, Landscape and Plains Archaeology. Her broader interests include archaeology as service, community engagement, and data sovereignty. Outside of her academic work, Erica enjoys working on the land, volunteering with her sister in the Disability community, reading, and laughing.
Assistant Professor Dr. Jennifer Markides, University of Calgary
Jennifer Markides, PhD, is a card-carrying member of the Métis Nation of Alberta, SSHRC Tier II Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Youth Wellbeing and Education, and an Assistant Professor in both the Werklund School of Education and the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Calgary. Her research and teaching focus on the holistic wellbeing of youth and Indigenous education. Critical pedagogy, arts creation, and ethical engagement are at the heart of her practices. She values relationship building and prioritizes listening in community-led projects, allowing her to be responsive to the immediate goals and long-term visions of Indigenous community partners. Jennifer was raised in unceded Wet’suwet’en territory in northern British Columbia and now resides in Treaty 7 territory in southern Alberta. Her Métis family names are McKay, Favel, Ballenden/Ballendine, Linklater, and McDermott/MacDermott, including Scrip records and connections to Red River. Like many Métis whose families migrated west, she engages in ongoing processes of learning, relationship-building, and honouring commitments of service to Métis people, communities, and organizations, through her academic work and personal life.
Assistant Professor Dr. Laura Forsythe, University of Winnipeg
Laura Forsythe, Ph.D. is a Michif Assistant Professor at the University of Winnipeg in the Faculty of Education. Forsythe's research focus is Métis-specific contributions to the academy, Métis inclusion efforts, Métis research methodologies, and educational sovereignty. With five co-edited collections, the Metis Awareness Mondays Series, and the Assistant editor role at the Canadian Journal of Native Studies, Forsythe has helped lift up Indigenous scholars' work for over a decade. 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 Métis space called Pakan Town.
Associate Professor Dr. Lucy Delgado, University of Manitoba
Lucy Delgado (née Fowler), PhD, is a Two-Spirit Métis woman, born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba and an active member of the Two-Spirit Michif Local of the Manitoba Métis Federation. Her family were Sinclairs, Cummings, Prudens, some of whom took scrip in St Andrews and St Johns, and she also has other family and ancestors from Red River, Oxford House, Norway House, and Sioux Valley Dakota Nation, and settler family from Ireland and the Orkney Islands. Lucy is a community organizer, Chair of the Two-Spirit Michif Local of the Manitoba Métis Federation, and co-founder of the Mamawi Project, a grassroots Métis collective dedicated to virtual knowledge mobilization and creating kinship-building opportunities for Métis young people across the diaspora. Lucy is Canada Research Chair in Michif and Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer Education as Wellness and an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba, with a research and teaching focus on Métis youth identity, Indigenous education, queer theory, hip-hop pedagogies, and youth cultures.
PhD Candidate, Stephanie Erickson, University of Victoria
Stephanie G. Erickson is of mixed Red River Métis and European ancestry. Her paternal Métis family comes from Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan and has ties to St. Francois Xavier in the Red River settlement. Her family names are Swain, Breland, Dauphinais, and Grant. Born in Winnipeg on Treaty 1 territory, Stephanie grew up mostly in the Okanagan, the unceded territory of the Syilx people. There, she attended the Okanagan College before transferring to UBC (Okanagan campus), where she earned her BA in Creative Writing (2019). Stephanie’s passion for social justice then led her to McMaster University, where her thesis focused on reproductive futurism in the Gender and Social Justice MA program (2022). She is now a PhD candidate in the English department at the University of Victoria on the territories of the Lekwungen speaking peoples. Stephanie’s research is on Indigenous Futurism literatures as pathways of reconciliation in Canada. Alongside her dissertation research, Stephanie practices decolonial approaches to pedagogy through her work with UVic's Indigenous Storyteller in Residence program.