Digging Through the Archives: A Journey of Metis Self-Discovery.
The speaker is...
Jesse Thistle, a road allowance Metis from Saskatchewan. His journey from homeless addict to successful university student is unusual among graduate students, but his path has shaped the way he approaches homeless studies, Indigenous history, criminology, social work, and addiction studies. His distinct perspectives were further developed as he participated in a wide range of Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and Canadian Institutes of Health Research projects as a research assistant and researcher.
Jesse sits as the national representative for Indigenous homelessness in Canada at the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness. Jesse uses his lived experience as a former homeless addict to bridge policy and practice, academia and the streets, in working with and researching homeless Canadians, especially Indigenous people. He has worked as an interviewer and ghost writer for many homeless consumer survivors, encouraging them to tell their stories and creating ways for researchers to hear homeless voices.
I had never heard of "road allowance" people of any sort. So I looked it on google and up came his story. Fascinating. I had no idea. Thanks John. Cheers, BT
ReplyDeleteMy Canadian history classes back in the 1950s slid over Louis Riel so fast I barely learned how to spell his last name. There was no discussion, just a shrug, a few sentences, and we raced to the West Coast and Victoria to form Canada. Done. Sigh. Thanks for this post, John - I've been reading all year on settlers mentality vis a vis First Nations... Clearing the Plains was another eye-opener as well.
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