Upcoming gathering to connect Anishinaabe wild rice harvesters – Anishinabek News

July 10, 2024

BIIGTIGONG NISHNAABEG — Lakehead University researcher Keira Loukes and Biigtigong Nishnaabeg educator Rhonda Lyons are looking forward to holding the Following Manoomin: Connecting Anishinaabe Harvesters through the Manoomin Harvesters’ Gathering in September at Whitefish Lake.

Loukes, principal investigator for the research gathering and assistant professor at Lakehead University’s School of Outdoor Recreation, Parks and Tourism who has been harvesting manomin (wild rice) since 2020, is receiving a one-year Connection Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council in the amount of $24,996 for the research gathering, which is scheduled for Sept. 13-15 and includes partners Anishinaabek Employment and Training Services and Biigtigong Nishnaabeg Endzhi-gkinoohmaading Elementary School.

“This kind of grant is a connection grant so basically we’re just trying to get people connected,” Loukes says, noting that she met with Lyons last fall before she brought some of her students out to learn how to harvest manomin at Lyons’ camp on Whitefish Lake, located about 65 kilometres west of Thunder Bay. “We were talking about manomin and learning how to harvest, she was talking about her journey in learning and I was chatting about my learning how to harvest manomin in my grandfather’s community (Mississaugas of Alderville). I had just moved to Thunder Bay and was missing the harvest down south, so it was nice to do that again.”

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