Northern CommunitiesTransitioning to Resilience

HI Paul,
These articles you shared in your email were very helpful.  The discussion on methodology (VC July 7) is a very telling reminder of  the gaps between academics and communities.  We all know we need a strong methodology in order to get this project funded by SSHRC but we need to make those discussions inclusive to involve communities in a meaningful way.  Academics struggle with finding the the proper word in the proper context.  The community members that I work with struggle to put food on the table, clean, hot water in their tea pots  and  to live in mold free  homes.   Academics coin terms like Critical Theory because they know governments are uncomfortable in funding a Marxist analysis.  I have been given clear direction to work on research projects that improve the quality of life at the community level and I take that mandate very seriously.  First Nations have serious power issues with the Dominant Society but that struggle is taken up by the leadership who have a mandate from the people to do so.  First Nations leaders have made it clear that their communities will not be pawns in someone else's chess match.  If this project is to be "grounded" in anything, it must be grounded in the needs and aspirations of First Nations.  These  communities  have shown tremendous resilience in the face of assimilationist policies that created  the postage stamp reserve system, the  residential schools and the Indian Act.  We need to begin our discussions about methodology not with theory but with the practice of the community members.
Brian Walmark