Opening the Circle of Collaboration

Kristina Fagan Bidwell, a citizen of NunatuKavut, is Canada Research Chair of Applied Indigenous Storytelling at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. She co-edited Orality and Literacy and Call Me Hank, and currently leads a community-partnered project that seeks to amplify stories from urban Indigenous communities. Sophie McCall is a settler scholar and Professor at the University of Toronto, whose research embraces collaborative and interdisciplinary approaches to Indigenous literary arts and contemporary Canadian literatures. She is the author of First Person Plural: Aboriginal Storytelling and the Ethics of Collaborative Authorship (2011) and has co-edited several collections of essays, stories, and visual arts.

• PART I: BEGINNINGS What is the Collaboration Project? – Kristina Fagan Bidwell and Sophie McCall Opening Dialogue: Orienting Ourselves – Kristina Fagan Bidwell and Sophie McCall Introduction – Kristina Fagan Bidwell and Sophie McCall PART II: CONVERSATIONS Gathering at Wanuskewin – Kristina Fagan Bidwell and Sophie McCall with Jordan Abel, Olivia Abram, Kim Anderson, Otoniya Juliane Okot Bitek, Melanie Braith, Maria Campbell, Warren Cariou, Keith Carlson, Ki’en Debicki, William Dumas, Deanna Reder, and Si:yemiya Reflections from the Collaboration Project Given your experience and what you know about collaboration now, what guidance would you offer someone who is interested in engaging in collaboration with Indigenous people? – Jordan Abel, Otoniya Juliane Okot Bitek, and Melanie Braith Nâkateyihcikewin/responsibility, you begin to recreate: A Conversation – Maria Campbell and Kim Anderson Six Seasons of Collaboration: A Rocky Cree Research Miskanaw – William Dumas, Melanie Braith, and Warren Cariou Sustaining and Deep Conversations: Collaboration Across Cultures and Between Friends – Si:yemiya and Keith Carlson (a conversation with Olivia Abram and Sophie McCall) PART III: PLACES “We All Have a Piece of the Puzzle”: Collaboration as Narrative Negotiation in Newfoundland Mi’kmaq Literature – Kristina Fagan Bidwell Lost Islands of the Salish Sea – Sophie McCall Reflections from the Collaboration Project Collaborative Research in Indigenous Contexts: Listening as the Starting Place; Visiting to Theorize Together – Deanna Reder, Michael Nest, and Eric Bell Métis Community Resilience and Collaborative Reading Practice – Erin Akerman PART IV: PRACTICES The Table Manners of Collaboration – Kristina Fagan Bidwell with Warren Cariou, Keith Carlson, Daniel Coleman, Deanna Reder, Alice Te Punga Somerville, and Elizabeth Yeoman Creative Collaborations: Boundary Crossers – Sophie McCall with Jordan Abel, Otoniya Juliane Okot Bitek, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, and katherena vermette Reflections from the Collaboration Project On Not Collaborating – Ki’en Debicki Calls to Collaboration, from a Fledgling Perspective – Leah Alfred-Olmedo and Olivia Abram, with Erin Akerman, Tenille K. Campbell, Tianne Jensen-DesJardins, Zandria Sarrazin, Challen Ruzibayne Marie Gladman, Jaron Judkins, Maya Schwartz, and Patrizia Zanella PART V: FUTURES Gathering at Winnipeg – Kristina Fagan Bidwell and Sophie McCall, with Jordan Abel, Olivia Abram, Leah Alfred-Olmedo, Otoniya Juliane Okot Bitek, Melanie Braith, Tenille K. Campbell, Warren Cariou, Ki’en Debicki, Margaret Dumas, William Dumas, Tianne Jensen-DesJardins, Jaron Judkins, Zandria Sarrazin, Si:yemiya, Shannon Webb-Campbell, and Patrizia Zanella Closing Dialogue – Kristina Fagan Bidwell and Sophie McCall Appendix: Compilation of Lists In Grateful Acknowledgement of Works in Conversation Index Biographies: Contributors’ Collaborative Work