Wîpinâhwasowin: Metis Methodologies and Spirituals Protocols for Honouring Metis Ancestors

Abstract

The Metis women research team engaged in a pre research project grounded in the Cree-Metis concept of wîpinâhwasowin meaning ‘peace offering’. The Research Team consisted of two Metis women, Dr. Anna Corrigal Flaminio, and Metis Scholar and Artist, Leah Marie Dorion.  We enacted the Metis-specific visiting method of kiyokewin/ keeoukaywin and Metis land-based methods, involving offerings tea, berries, tobacco to land and ancestors. The researchers enacted the method of sitting on the Earth with our relatives: mâmawapôwin achiôma, ni-wahômâkanak(sitting together here with my relatives). We explored ways Metis women hold the role of peacemaker of ancestral graves in their communities.