Journal Articles by Gabrielle Legault
Journal of Indigenous Social Development, 2022
In consideration of current conversations on systemic racism and reconciliation in Canada, this w... more In consideration of current conversations on systemic racism and reconciliation in Canada, this work extends collective understandings of the impact of Canada’s policies towards Indigenous Peoples in Canada, including both the Manitoba Act (1870) and the Indian Act (1876), to examine how a “forcefield of settler colonialism” was deployed as a compounding tactic to divide and conquer Indigenous Peoples. These Acts fractured and
divided Indigenous communities, ultimately re-ordering their relationships with one another and the Land, while creating competition between Indigenous Nations over rights, lands, and resources. The residual effects of these policies continue to be felt by Indigenous peoples in Canada in the form of cultural dislocation, disconnection from traditional homelands, and interpersonal lateral violence. Following over a century of policies that sought to disrupt historically positive relations, attending to Indigenous philosophies of relationality and reviving inter-Indigenous alliance building offers hope for reconciling Indigenous relationships to land, identity, and one another.
International Journal of Critical Indigenous Studies, 2021
Viewing Métis identity not as a natural, essential, or fixed phenomenon, but as an experience for... more Viewing Métis identity not as a natural, essential, or fixed phenomenon, but as an experience formed through internal and external factors, this article examines the mechanisms by which people residing in British Columbia identify as Métis. Through interviewing Métis People and engaging in critical discourse analysis and narrative analysis, this research demonstrates how Métis narratives centre on and replicate three hegemonic discourses based on racial mixedness, Métis cultural values, and Métis nationalism. The "Métis subject" is then not an easily described coherent subject, but rather a co-constructed description based on transient identification with multiple and sometimes contradictory texts, which are themselves made meaningful through discourses. Understanding "Métis" in this way allows for an exploration of the role of power in producing meanings of "Métis" and how individuals, groups and institutions can strategically mobilise particular meanings and resist definitions of Métis prescribed by Eurocentric perspectives embedded in colonial institutions.
Making Métis Places in British Columbia: The Edge of the Métis National Homeland
BC Studies, 2021
Traditional territories and the connection that peoples have sustained to these areas are integra... more Traditional territories and the connection that peoples have sustained to these areas are integral to cultural resilience, but for Métis, as post-contact Indigenous peoples who, as a result of colonial expansion, have been historically displaced and relocated to British Columbia through several waves of mobility, relationships to place are complex. Complicating factors include disrupted relations to the Métis Nation’s historic homeland and the denial of a Métis historic existence in British Columbia, an area where First Nations have long-standing and overlapping claims to traditional territories. Conceiving of places and peoples as mutually constituted, this article examines contemporary Métis identity in British Columbia as informed by place, being the contextual basis upon which identity is formed and expressed. Simultaneously, the study demonstrates that Métis peoples are place-making in British Columbia, transposing kin, community relations, and cultural practices into new places. Though demonstrating the resilience of Métis culture, this transposition occurs in already Indigenous places and, problematically, at times with little accountability to the First Nations people on whose lands Métis peoples reside.
Disrupting the Settler Colonial University: Decolonial Praxis and Placed-Based Education in the Okanagan Valley (British Columbia
Capitalism Nature Socialism, 2017
This article demonstrates how decolonial Placed-Based Education can disrupt a settler colonial ac... more This article demonstrates how decolonial Placed-Based Education can disrupt a settler colonial academic status quo. We begin by situating our analysis in the unceded Syilx Territories of the Okanagan Valley (British Columbia, Canada) and proceed by illustrating how both taken-for-granted colonial epistemologies and banal exnominations of white supremacy remain orthodox within mainstream Canadian higher education. We next define “decolonial praxis” by drawing from insights offered by critical feminist, anti- racist, and Indigenous scholars and community organizers before moving into a summary of how we embraced theories and strategies of decolonization coupled with Place-Based Education in an introductory Gender and Women’s Studies course. We conclude with our response to the ongoing exclusions being reproduced by neoliberal universities that result from the primacy they grant to Western knowledges and rationales. The piece reveals how decolonial place-based methods can be leveraged against settler colonial institutions, discourses, and logics to unsettle their claims to legitimacy, land, and authority over learning.
Mixed Messages: Deciphering the Okanagan's Historic McDougall Family
Historical Archaeology is founded on the process of cross-referencing written historical records ... more Historical Archaeology is founded on the process of cross-referencing written historical records with archaeological remains, yet the demand to reconcile contradictions between historical and archaeological data can restrict analytical results. In a recent study of the ethnicity of the Okanagan's historical McDougall Family (18591905), historical and genealogical records suggested that the family was increasingly identifying with their Indigenous (Syilx) kin and community (Legault 2012). An archaeological survey of the vernacular architecture of Métis trader Jean Baptiste McDougall and his sons contradict the historical data, as the five houses studied increasingly exhibit features associated with upper class Euro-Canadian society. The discrepancies between the data sets are not indicative of a problem with the written and material assemblages, but are rather a matter of theoretical orientation. By overcoming the binary analysis (colonizer/ colonized) that is typically prescribed to historical peoples during the colonial period and instead employing nuanced notions of hybridity, the results suggest that the McDougall family was replicating the complex and contradictory identification that is commonly found amongst people of Métis and/or mixed Indigenous and Euro-Canadian heritage.
Relocating a Sense of Place Using the Participatory Geoweb: The Historical Document Database of the Métis Nation of British Columbia
The Interactive capability and ease of use of Geoweb technologies suggest great potential for Abo... more The Interactive capability and ease of use of Geoweb technologies suggest great potential for Aboriginal communities to store, manage, and communicate place-related knowledge. For the Métis, who have a long history of dispossession and dispersion in Canada, the Geoweb offers an opportunity in realizing the desire to articulate a coherent sense of place for their people. This paper reports on a community-based research project involving the University of British Columbia (UBC) and the Métis Nation of British Columbia (MNBC) – the political body representing the Métis people in BC. The project includes the creation of a Geoweb tool specifically designed to facilitate the (self) articulation of a Métis community in contemporary BC. It examines how Geoweb technologies have been used to create a participatory, crowd-sourced Historical Document Database (HDD) that takes meaning through the interface of a map. The paper further explores how the data contributed by members of the Métis community have been used to capture, communicate, and represent community memories in the dispersed membership. It concludes by examining challenges that have emerged related to platform stability and institutional relations related to the ongoing sustainability of the HDD.
Book Chapters by Gabrielle Legault
Neogeography: rethinking participatory mapping and place-based learning in the age of the geoweb
Neogeography: rethinking participatory mapping and place-based learning in the age of the geoweb., 2019
The term neogeography describes a new approach within GIScience teaching and research whereby geo... more The term neogeography describes a new approach within GIScience teaching and research whereby geospatial technologies are becoming web-based and increas- ingly accessible to a broad range of developers and users. Through engaging with the geoweb (geospatial web-based applications), users are creating maps and shar- ing spatial data that is relevant to their own lives and experiences. The develop- ment of geoweb tools has been especially important for students and faculty mem- bers who engage in the practice of participatory mapping. In this chapter we describe how, in a university taught neogeography course, undergraduate students created participatory geoweb applications to address local issues. One student constructed a geoweb-based platform for civic dialogue, a second team of students designed and deployed an application to address the logistical challenges faced by a local grassroots organization. We draw on the pedagogic theory of Place-Based Education (PBE) and consider it as an effective approach to teaching and learning neogeography. We observed how a PBE approach empowered students to critical- ly and effectively engage in civic matters, become more invested in ‘place’ and actively learn directly about social justice issues. The approach also supported an increased academic engagement, while providing a valuable learning experience in terms of developing technical, critical thinking and other soft skills.
Métis networks in British Columbia: examples from the central interior / Mike Evans, Jean Barman, and Gabrielle Legault, with Erin Dolmage and Geoff Appleby. In Contours of a people : Metis family, mobility, and history.
Book Reviews by Gabrielle Legault
Book review of "Metis": Race, Recognition and the Struggle for Indigenous Peoplehood by Chris Andersen
Book review of 'Cultural Grammars of Nation, Diaspora, and Indigeneity in Canada'. Edited by Christine Kim, Sophie McCall, and Melina Baum Singer.
Conference Papers by Gabrielle Legault
“It’s a long way for nothing”: The spatial requirements of Métis Harvesters in British Columbia
Paper presented at the 5th Annual Nordic Geographers’ Meeting. Reykjavík, Iceland. 14 June.
Métis Land Uses: A Holistic Exploration of Health Impacts.
Presentation at 13th Congress of the International Society for Ethnobiology. Montpellier, France.... more Presentation at 13th Congress of the International Society for Ethnobiology. Montpellier, France. June 2012.
Métis Women as Earthdivers: Active Agents of Past Communities.
Paper presented at the Borders and Border Crossing- Interdisciplinary Graduate Students Associati... more Paper presented at the Borders and Border Crossing- Interdisciplinary Graduate Students Association Conference. Kelowna, BC. April 2011
Ethnic Architecture in the Okanagan: Métis Constructs and Constructions.
Paper presented at Chacmool Archaeological Conference: Identity Crisis: Archaeology and Problems ... more Paper presented at Chacmool Archaeological Conference: Identity Crisis: Archaeology and Problems of Social Identity. Calgary, AB. 2009.
Producing Heritage: Decolonizing the Past
Paper presented at the 1st Annual Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies Student Conference. Kelowna,... more Paper presented at the 1st Annual Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies Student Conference. Kelowna, BC. April 2011.
Thesis Chapters by Gabrielle Legault
Politicians, the Canadian judiciary, Métis citizens, and scholars have attempted to develop defin... more Politicians, the Canadian judiciary, Métis citizens, and scholars have attempted to develop definitions for the term ‘Métis,’ arguing that until there is agreement on the definition of ‘Métis’ and requirements for citizenship and homeland boundaries are agreed upon, the Métis will not be able to capitalize on self-government opportunities (Belcourt, 2013; Chartrand, 2001). However, the ongoing inter and intra-community conflicts regarding Métis identity suggest that there remains a lack of consensus over the appropriate use of the term ‘Métis’. This study argues for a re-thinking of current understandings of Métis identity as inherent and singular. Instead, Métis identity can be understood as a socially constructed phenomenon, whereby collective and individual Métis senses of selves have developed throughout history by drawing on contemporaneous dominant discourses and are thus, performative in nature. Employing an indigenist research methodology that centres relational accountability, this study involved interviewing 20 Métis people residing in British Columbia’s Southern Interior Region to understand the ways in which people identify as Métis in BC. Employing methods such as Critical Discourse Analysis and Narrative Analysis, participant narratives as well as the scholarly, legal, and political texts that inform contemporary constructions of ‘Métis’ were explored, with three dominant discourses centred on racialized, ethno-cultural, and nation-based definitions of Métis emerging. Participants’ stories illustrate not only the ways in which dominant discourses of ‘Métisness’ are reproduced, cited, and reified, but also suggest that some Métis people attempt to subvert dominant discourses through a refusal to identify with particular discourses. The diversity of experiences identifying as Métis demonstrate that there are distinct differences between the rigid identities that are constructed and expected by decision-makers and the fluid realities of Métis identities, thereby undermining assumptions of Métis identities as fixed, instrumental, passive, and power-neutral in lieu of poststructuralist notions of identity as constructed, fluid, incomplete, and thus, continuously evolving.
Papers by Gabrielle Legault
Making Métis Places in British Columbia: The Edge of the Métis National Homeland
Traditional territories and the connection that peoples have sustained to these areas are integra... more Traditional territories and the connection that peoples have sustained to these areas are integral to cultural resilience, but for Métis, as post-contact Indigenous peoples who, as a result of colonial expansion, have been historically displaced and relocated to British Columbia through several waves of mobility, relationships to place are complex. Complicating factors include disrupted relations to the Métis Nation's historic homeland and the denial of a Métis historic existence in British Columbia, an area where First Nations have long-standing and overlapping claims to traditional territories. Conceiving of places and peoples as mutually constituted, this article examines contemporary Métis identity in British Columbia as informed by place, being the contextual basis upon which identity is formed and expressed. Simultaneously, the study demonstrates that Métis peoples are place-making in British Columbia, transposing kin, community relations, and cultural practices into new p...
Viewing Metis identity not as a natural, essential, or fixed phenomenon, but as an experience for... more Viewing Metis identity not as a natural, essential, or fixed phenomenon, but as an experience formed through internal and external factors, this article examines the mechanisms by which people residing in British Columbia identify as Metis. Through interviewing Metis Peoples and engaging in Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Narrative Analysis (NA), this research demonstrates how Metis narratives centre on and replicate three hegemonic discourses based on racial mixedness, Metis cultural values, and Metis nationalism. The ‘Metis subject’ is then not an easily described coherent subject, but rather a co-constructed description based on transient identification with multiple and sometimes contradictory texts, which are themselves made meaningful through discourses. Understanding ‘Metis’ in this way allows for an exploration of the role of power in producing meanings of ‘Metis’ and how individuals, groups, and institutions can strategically mobilize particular meanings and resist de...
Neogeography: Rethinking Participatory Mapping and Place-Based Learning in the Age of the Geoweb
GIScience Teaching and Learning Perspectives, 2019
The term neogeography describes a new approach within GIScience teaching and research whereby geo... more The term neogeography describes a new approach within GIScience teaching and research whereby geospatial technologies are becoming web-based and increasingly accessible to a broad range of developers and users. Through engaging with the geoweb (geospatial web-based applications), users are creating maps and sharing spatial data that is relevant to their own lives and experiences. The development of geoweb tools has been especially important for students and faculty members who engage in the practice of participatory mapping. In this chapter we describe how, in a university taught neogeography course, undergraduate students created participatory geoweb applications to address local issues. One student constructed a geoweb-based platform for civic dialogue; a second team of students designed and deployed an application to address the logistical challenges faced by a local grassroots organization. We draw on the pedagogic theory of place-based education (PBE) and consider it as an effective approach to teaching and learning neogeography. We observed how a PBE approach empowered students to critically and effectively engage in civic matters, become more invested in ‘place’ and actively learn directly about social justice issues. The approach also supported an increased academic engagement while providing a valuable learning experience in terms of developing technical, critical thinking and other soft skills.
Contours of a People: Family, Mobility and Territoriality in Metis History., edited by Nicole St-Onge, Carolyn Podruchny and Brenda Macdougall. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press., 2012
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Journal Articles by Gabrielle Legault
divided Indigenous communities, ultimately re-ordering their relationships with one another and the Land, while creating competition between Indigenous Nations over rights, lands, and resources. The residual effects of these policies continue to be felt by Indigenous peoples in Canada in the form of cultural dislocation, disconnection from traditional homelands, and interpersonal lateral violence. Following over a century of policies that sought to disrupt historically positive relations, attending to Indigenous philosophies of relationality and reviving inter-Indigenous alliance building offers hope for reconciling Indigenous relationships to land, identity, and one another.
Book Chapters by Gabrielle Legault
Book Reviews by Gabrielle Legault
Conference Papers by Gabrielle Legault
Thesis Chapters by Gabrielle Legault
Papers by Gabrielle Legault