"You had to be there": what researchers can learn from Anishinaabe hide-tanning practices and gatherings

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Abstract

Our goal is to share about an ongoing research project focused on hide-tanning practices that is part of our personal and professional lives. We are guided by going slow and building relationships based on trust and friendship. This does not mean that we arranged a number of formal meetings with community partners, but rather that we respectfully built relationships with community members by participating in Anishinaabe gatherings and practices, including visits, protests, film screenings, art shows, powwows, workshops, conferences, maple sugaring, and countless hide-tanning visits and gatherings. We offer this paper now as a reflection of one part of this project–an opportunity for two university researchers to share and reflect on the project’s methodologies and the decolonial languages that inform this work. We share what this work means to us and how we think it speaks to, fits within, and shapes the current discourse on reconciliation and resurgence.

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Keywords

land-based education, hide tanning, Anishinaabe land-based practices, cultural resurgence

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