Hanna Paul (she/her/hers) graduated from the University of British Columbia, Okanagan (UBCO) on unceded Syilx territory with a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in Anthropology and minoring in Indigenous Studies. She is now a first-year graduate student at UBCO. Hanna is originally from northern Alberta and is a Michif scholar working to create and take up space for Indigenous ways of knowing through academia. She is focused in Michif methodologies and ethnography; specifically, she is looking to merge the two methods in a positive and holistic way. Hanna is a recipient of the 2020 Undergraduate Research Award and will bring this research project and concept into her graduate studies. Her research project is rooted in Indigenous body holism and dynamic balance through Michif Moon Time teachings. She created this project upon the reflection of western teachings she had received about menstruation (Moon Time) during her upbringing and Michif knowledge of Moon Time. Hanna noted that there is often a taboo associated with this vital bodily process and she wondered where this had rooted from. In marrying Anthropology and Indigenous Studies, Hanna’s goal is to work with and for Indigenous communities and decolonize the way that menstruation (Moon Time) is understood and help decolonize Indigenous women’s body images. This work has resulted in an open access co-authored publication with her supervisor, Dr. Fiona P. McDonald on methods in Anthropologica. Hanna is also a 2021 Editorial Assistant with the Institute for Community Engaged Research (ICER) Press.

Hanna was awarded a 2021 SSHRC Canadian Graduate Master’s Award for her research that advances her work as a Michif scholar under the supervision of Métis Scholar Dr. Gabrille Legault and anthropologist Dr. Fiona P. McDonald.

Fiona P. McDonald completed her PhD (2014) in the Department of Anthropology at University College London (UCL) in visual anthropology & material culture (Supervisors: Professor Susanne Kuechler and Professor Christopher Pinney). Her dissertation is entitled, Charting Material Memories: a visual and material ethnography of the transformations of woollen blankets in contemporary art, craft, and Indigenous regalia in Canada, Aotearoa/New Zealand, and the United States . This project was undertaken as both an historic and contemporary visual and material ethnography of the material nature and transformations of woollen (trade) blankets that were produced in the United Kingdom since the seventeenth century. Her work addresses both historical and contemporary uses of woollen blankets through a direct examination of the pluralistic histories that things and objects have when re-worked and recycled by contemporary artists and customary makers in North American and Aotearoa New Zealand. Fiona is currently translating this research in to a book project.

Fiona McDonald is also the co-founder of Ethnographic Terminalia Collective (ETC) (est.2009), an international curatorial collective that curates exhibitions at the intersections of arts and anthropology. ETC have curated and organized exhibitions and workshops across North America (Philadelphia, New Orleans, San Francisco, Montreal, New York, Austin, Chicago, Denver, and Vancouver) where they aim to move academic research beyond the academy through public engagement.

Use these keywords to search below for related publications with ICER Press.

Moon Time, menstruation, menstruating people, Métis, Indigenous, women, young girls, At-risk youth, empowerment, reconnection, care, self-esteem