Shekon Neechie provides a venue for Indigenous historians to gather as an e-community and share their ideas or works in progress. “Historian” in this case is broadly defined as a person who researches and presents Indigenous histories in essays, stories, photographs, videos, podcasts, or through other means and whose work is based in oral history and traditions, archival research, archaeology, and material interpretation. The historians featured here are formally trained – either within the academy or in the community – or self-taught.
We encourage well-established Indigenous historians, graduate and undergraduate students, and community historians from around the world to submit their works (written pieces should be between 500 and 2500 words). Those submitting to Shekon Neechie will be given feedback from other Indigenous historians. We consider Shekon Neechie a place for thoughtful and generous peer review, as pieces will be read to ensure quality of writing or other formats, as well as the argument presented.
Shekon Neechie is entirely Indigenous conceived, created, and controlled. Though there are many history websites in Canada and abroad that attempt to convey Indigenous perspectives, their managing boards, advisory councils, editors, staff, and contributors are all (or nearly all) people who reflect the relative homogeneity and whiteness of the historical profession writ large. While these sites offer opportunities for Indigenous writers and scholars to contribute pieces for special Indigenous-focused issues or invite Indigenous scholars to act as guest contributors., they are not sites where Indigenous peoples have a stake in the production or curation of intellectual discourses. It is important for Indigenous historians to find our way into spaces dominated by non-Indigenous scholars. However, it is equally important for us to carve out spaces where our work is centered and in conversation with other Indigenous historians. Shekon Neechie is one such space.
People
Managing Board
Kim Anderson (Metis) is faculty in the Tri-University Graduate History Program of the Universities of Guelph, Laurier and Waterloo and an Associate professor in the Department of Family Relations and Applied Nutrition at the University of Guelph. Her books include Life Stages and Native Women: Memory, Teachings and Story Medicine (University of Manitoba Press, 2011) and the co-edited collections Keetsahnkak/Our Missing and Murdered Indigenous Sisters, with Maria Campbell and Christi Belcourt (University of Alberta Press, 2018) and Indigenous Men and Masculinities: Legacies, Identities, Regeneration, with Robert Alexander Innes, (University of Manitoba Press, 2015). Kim is the series co-editor, with Mary Jane McCallum, of the UBC Press Women and Indigenous Studies Series.
Alan Ojiig Corbiere, Bne doodemid, Anishinaabe aawi, Mchigiing njibaa. Alan is an Anishinaabe of the ruffed grouse clan from M’Chigeeng First Nation on Manitoulin Island. He was educated on the reserve and then attended the University of Toronto, earning a Bachelor of Science, he then entered York University and earned his Masters of Environmental Studies. During his masters studies he focused on Anishinaabe narrative and Anishinaabe language revitalization. For five years he served as the Executive Director at the Ojibwe Cultural Foundation (OCF) in M’Chigeeng, a position which also encompassed the roles of curator and historian. He also served as the Anishinaabemowin Revitalization Program Coordinator at Lakeview School, M’Chigeeng First Nation, where he and his team worked on a culturally based second language program that focused on using Anishinaabe stories to teach language. He is currently in his first year of the Doctorate program in History at York University.
Susan M. Hill is a Haudenosaunee citizen from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. She recently joined the University of Toronto as an Associate Professor of History and the Director of the Centre for Indigenous Studies. Her areas of research include Haudenosaunee history, Indigenous research methodologies and ethics, history of education, Trans-Indigenous histories, and Indigenous territoriality. She is the author of The Clay We Are Made Of: Haudenosaunee land tenure on the Grand River (University of Manitoba Press, 2017), awarded the 2017 Prize for the Best First Book in Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAISA) and two prizes from the Canadian Historical Association (2018 Indigenous History Studies Group Book Prize and 2018 Clio Ontario Book Prize). She held previous faculty and administrative appointments at the University of Western Ontario and Wilfrid Laurier University.
Robert Alexander Innes is a member of Cowessess First Nations located in Treaty 4 Territory. He is an associate professor in the Department of Indigenous Studies at the University of Saskatchewan and is the author of Elder Brother and the Law of the People: Contemporary Kinship and Cowessess First Nation (University of Manitoba Press, 2013) and co-editor, along with Kim Anderson of Indigenous Men and Masculinities: Legacies, Identities, Regeneration University of Manitoba Press, 2015).
Brenda Macdougall is the Chair of Métis Research at the University of Ottawa and an associate professor in the department of geography. She holds a PhD in Native Studies and has been researching the history of various Metis communities in Canada for many years. Her first book was One of the Family: Metis Culture in Nineteenth Century Northwestern Saskatchewan was published in 2010 and she was co-editor Contours of a People: Metis Family, Mobility, and History. In her role as research chair, Brenda has built a strong program of research in the connections between Metis families across the homeland. More recently, she and her colleagues created the Digital Archives Database Project, an online archive of transcribed historical records, with the support of the Métis and Non-Status Indian Relations Directorate.
Mary Jane Logan McCallum is a member of the Munsee Delaware Nation and a professor of history at the University of Winnipeg. Her research focuses on modern Indigenous histories, especially in the areas of health, education and labour. Her book Indigenous Women, Work and History: 1940-1980 (University of Manitoba Press, 2014), explores Indigenous women’s labour history in four case studies. Her current work focuses on Indigenous histories of tuberculosis in Manitoba in the years 1930-1970. Themes in her work include race and racism in the English Canadian historical profession, intersectionality, Indigenous social history, ethics and archival research, First Nations women’s politics; settler colonialism, racism and Canadian history; anti-Indigenous racism in the health care system, and digitization of Indigenous historical primary sources.
Winona Wheeler is a member of the Fisher River Cree Nation in Treaty No. 5 territory though her family hails from George Gordon’s First Nation in Treaty No. 4 territory. Of Nehiyaw/Nakoda/Anishnaabe and English/Irish descent, Winona has been a professional historian and a professor of Indigenous Studies since 1988. Winona’s areas of research include exploring the nature and challenges of the discipline of Indigenous Studies, Cree intellectual traditions and oral history methodologies, Indigenous knowledge, anti-colonial theory & approaches, history of Indigenous-visible majority relations, land claims & treaty rights, community-based/engaged research, history of First Nations education, and Indian residential schools. For over 20 years, she has developed numerous community-based, experimental learning courses by working with communities and organizations such as Poundmaker Cree Nation, Fisher River Cree Nation, Wanuskewin Heritage Park, and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Contributors
Paul Seesequasis is a ᓃᐱᓰᐦᑯᐹᐃᐧᔨᓂᐤ nîpisîhkopâwiyiniw (Willow Cree) writer, cultural worker and commentator currently residing in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. For three years he has curated the Indigenous Archival Photo Project, an online and physical exhibition of archival Indigenous photographs, that explores history, identity and the process of visual reclamation. His photo book, ‘Blanket Toss Under Midnight Sun’, will be published by Penguin Canada in spring, 2019. His writings have appeared in The Globe and Mail, The Walrus, Brick, and Granta magazines, among others. He has been active in the Indigenous arts, both as an artist and a policy maker, since the 1990s.
Web design
Noah Favel is a member of Poundmaker Cree Nation located on Treaty 6 territory. He is an undergraduate student at McGill University in History and World Cinemas.
To submit:
Send all submissions to shekon.neechie@gmail.com