When Margaret Mackenzie came to McGill in 2018 for a Bachelor of Education, she was too shy to go to First Peoples’ House to meet other Indigenous students.
“I have struggled with not fitting into the stereotypical perception of an Indigenous person. I want people to understand that Indigeneity doesn’t just have one box,” she said.
Mackenzie, a citizen of the Métis Nation, British Columbia, has family ties to the Manitoba Red River Métis community. Her family names are Chartrand, Sanderson and Ducharme. Raised in Vancouver, she did not have many opportunities to connect with her community, beyond her own family. The Métis are a distinct group descended mostly from French fur traders and Indigenous women. With a rich cultural heritage, they are known as the flower beadwork people and share a language called Michif.
Discovering opportunities to connect
It was not until her final year as an undergraduate that Mackenzie became deeply involved in the Indigenous community at McGill. Her younger sister, also at McGill, pushed her to apply for the Indigenous Mentorship and Paid Research Experience for Summer Students (IMPRESS) program. That experience changed her trajectory.
Through IMPRESS, Mackenzie helped to create the Critical Campus Tour, along with an Indigenous grad student mentor and two other IMPRESS participants in Claudia Mitchell’s Participatory Cultures Lab in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education. The interactive tour provides insight into the University’s colonial history and highlights contemporary contributions of Indigenous people. It is led by Indigenous students and faculty during the McGill’s annual We Will Walk Together event.
She also participated in professional development workshops, cultural activities like beading and soapstone carving, and social outings with other IMPRESS participants.
Mackenzie and her Indigenous colleagues at the Lab facilitated a workshop with fellow cohort members to create the 2023 IMPRESS Collage Zine, which showcased the impacts the program had on participants’ lives. After her participation in IMPRESS ended, she and two colleagues presented about it at a conference in Germany and gave a guest lecture at Johannes Gutenberg University. Earlier this year, they co-published an article in the Canadian Journal of Education about how zines can be used as an educational tool for Indigenous topics.
“The program provides an opportunity to build a community and to feel supported,” explained Mackenzie. “I had such a wonderful experience and made a lot of really good friends.”
A lasting impact on campus and beyond
Mackenzie currently is working on a digital version of the Critical Campus Tour.
And she is pursuing a Master of Arts in Educational Leadership as a 2024 McCall MacBain Scholar, something she credits in part to her participation in the IMPRESS program.
“I never thought of myself as someone who would go to grad school. No one in my family did that. It opened my eyes to research,” she said. “Without my mentor really believing me and really pushing me as another Indigenous scholar I really wouldn’t have considered doing it.”
Indigenous research methodologies
The knowledge and skills Mackenzie acquired by working with people from diverse Indigenous communities are guiding how she approaches her master’s thesis research, which explores the experiences of Métis people in Quebec.
“I am using Indigenous research methodologies like Wahkohtowin, which are focused on relationality,” she said. “I don’t want to be extractive. I want to put care into my approach and to do research with a good heart.”
Part of her approach is conducting sharing circles with people with whom she has already established relationships through her time at McGill.
“It is an opportunity to uplift the voices of people who are also living in the diaspora by sharing their experiences,” she said. “And this is part of what drives me to do this research. It is not just about me; it is about the community I am connected to.”
Working to make an impact for Indigenous education
Mackenzie is also a part-time McGill staff member. As Indigenous Program Advisor at Branches – McGill’s Community Outreach Program at Enrolment Services, she manages the department’s outreach programs: Pick Your Path, Indigenous – a six-month learning and mentorship experience with streams offered to both aspiring CEGEP students and McGill undergraduates – and IMPRESS.
Mackenize hopes to continue to help make education more inclusive of Indigenous perspectives.
“My dream job is to work with a school board on creating resources and Indigenizing their curriculum so teachers can feel confident teaching about Indigenous topics, and our past and present,” she said. “When I was in school there were not many opportunities to learn about Indigenous people in school, and definitely not through an Indigenous lens. I want future generations to have that.”
