Chris Andersen
Director, Rupertsland Centre for Métis Research
University of Alberta
Yvonne Poitras‑Pratt
Assistant professor
University of Calgary
Chris Andersen: Well, one of the things that our research demonstrates is how distinctive the different policy silos are through which Métis research takes place in Canada—very provincially based, very sectorally based. And so very often policy actors don’t, kind of, know what’s going on in other provinces in terms of best practices. And so one of the things that we at least hope that our research will do, is [to spark] a broader conversation about what the best practices are and what policy actors can learn from each other in the different provinces.
Yvonne Poitras‑Pratt: We had a variety of Métis organizations take part in our study, and they became very excited about the idea that we would have a national gathering around Métis education. In terms of being aboriginal people, having our people come together for a national conversation on Métis education, I think, would [start] a very interesting and valuable dialogue that we’ve not yet had.
Chris Andersen: One thing that we’re working on right now that we’re hoping will be the lasting legacy of the project is a crowdsourcing database, so that different policy actors can upload policy documents into a single centralized location to make it easier for other policy actors to take a look at what is concretely going on in different policy environments.
Yvonne Poitras‑Pratt: There’s a rich wealth of information that’s not yet surfaced, and so to bring that into a crowdsourcing database would be a really great way of sharing knowledge, not only with the Métis community, but with the wider Canadian community.