Kim Anderson

Research Interests

The overall objective of my Canada Research Chair is to explore how to “story” hopeful futures by drawing on Indigenous practices of relationality with all our relations (human, non-human, ancestral). Over the next five years I will be examining how to 1.) build and explore Indigenous relational spaces through a land based research hub (Nokom's House) 2.) create and mobilize decolonizing narratives through performance and museum exhibitions; 3.) advance theory, methods, and practice of Indigenous oral history; and 4.) explore Indigenous revitalization through storied practice with international Indigenous partners in Sweden and Ecuador. The “headquarters” of all this work will soon be “Nokom’s House,” a land-based research hub I am building in the University of Guelph arboretum with colleagues Dr. Sheri Longboat and Dr. Brittany Luby.

Positionality

I am an Indigenous (Métis) scholar. While working within Métis and other Indigenous communities, I continue to learn about my multi-generational Indigenous family. My paternal grandmother, Catherine Anne Sanderson (b. 1902) was the granddaughter of Métis voyageur Thomas Sanderson and her family included Gillis, Harper and Asham kin living in Kinosota, Fairford, Cumberland House, Moose Factory and Reedy Creek across the generations.

My paternal grandfather James E. Anderson was born in Portage la Prairie in 1899, and, like my grandmother, came from a deep lineage of marriages among Indigenous peoples over five generations that included the surnames Landry, Harper and Moosoo. I am grateful for having lived and worked all of my adult life in the lands of Anishinaabek and Haudenosaunee peoples.

I give credit for the many things I have learned from these nations, and I am indebted to urban Indigenous communities, organizations and the Friendship Centre movement, as all of these relations have informed my identity as an urban Indigenous person working in inter-national contexts.

In the last twenty-five years, I have enriched my western Métis kinship and identity through the lodge family of my teacher, mentor and friend Maria Campbell. With Maria and other lodge family members, I am part of a large Métis network grounded in kinship, visiting, friendship and collaborative work.

I affiliate primarily with Indigenous Studies, which adheres to inter-disciplinary standards and conventions, as well as the ethics of Indigenous studies and Indigenous research methodologies that put Indigenous peoples and Indigenous communities first. The majority of my scholarship is informed by Indigenous feminism and is qualitative, community engaged, interdisciplinary and applied.

I have an evolving interest in arts-based methods of research, performance and curating. I am well suited to supervising students studying Indigenous relationships, community building through Indigenous ways of knowing, and gender and Indigeneity, including Indigenous feminisms and Indigenous masculinities.

Education

• PhD (History) – University of Guelph, 2010
• Masters (Adult Education, Sociology and Equity Studies) – OISE/University of Toronto, 1997

Recent Publications

Books

Meshake, Rene & Kim Anderson (2019). Injichaag, My Soul in Story: Anishinaabe Poetics in Art and Words. Winnipeg, Canada: University of Manitoba Press.

Anderson, Kim, Maria Campbell and Christi Belcourt, Eds. (2018). Keetsahnak / Our Missing and Murdered Indigenous Sisters. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press.

Anderson, Kim. (2016). A Recognition of Being: Reconstructing Native Womanhood, 2^nd Edition. Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press.

Innes, Robert A. and Kim Anderson, Eds. (2015). Indigenous Men and Masculinities: Legacies, Identities, Regeneration. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press.

Anderson, Kim. (2011). Life Stages and Native Women: Memory, Teachings, and Story Medicine. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press.

Journal Articles

Leddy, L.C., B. Luby, K. McLeod, E. Stelter and K. Anderson. (2023). “Refusing Confederation: Indigenous Feminist Performance as a Tool for Colonial Reckoning and Community (Re) Building. Native American and Indigenous Studies, 10 (2): 5-35.

McLeod, K., L.C. Leddy, B. Luby, E. Stelter and K. Anderson. (2023). “I Guess it was Unsettling: Indigenous Performance, Nationalist Narratives, and Conciliation. Theatre Research in Canada, 44 (1): 55-81.

Easby, A., * A. Bergier and K. Anderson. (2022). “Exploring Self-determined Urban Indigenous Adult Education in an Indigenous Organization.” Diaspora,
Indigenous and Minority Education. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1080/15595692.2022.2055542, 21-30.

Bergier, A. & Anderson, K. (2021). “ ‘ Step into Learning When Ready’: Towards a Strength-Based Approach to Indigenous Language Education in a University Setting.” WINHEC: International Journal of Indigenous Education Scholarship, 16 (1): 12-46.

Groat, C. & Anderson, K. (2021). Holding Place: Resistance, Reframing, and Relationality in the Representation of Indigenous History. The Canadian Historical Review, 102(3), 465-484.

Maracle, S., A. Bergier, K. Anderson and R. Neepin. (2020) “ ‘The Work of a Leader is to Carry the Bones of the People:’ Exploring Female-led Articulations of Indigenous Knowledge in an Urban Setting.” AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, 16 (3), 1-9.

Anderson, K. (2020). Musings. On Seasons of Indigenous Feminism, Kinship and the Program of Home Management. Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, 35(1), 204-213.

Anderson, K & Cidro, J. (2020). Because We Love Our Communities: Indigenous Women Talk about their Experiences as Community Based Health Researchers. Journal of Higher Education, Outreach and Engagement, 24(2), 16.

Anderson, K & Cidro, J. (2019). Decades of Doing: Indigenous Women Academics Reflect on the Practices of Community-based Health Research. Journal of Empirical Research on Human Ethics, 14(3), 222-233.

Anderson, K, Ruiz, E, Stewart, G & Tlostanova, M. (2019). What can Indigenous Feminist Knowledges and Practices Bring to Indigenizing the Academy? Journal of World Philosophies, 4(1), 35.

Books Chapters

Anderson, K, Lalor, Amina, Longboat, Sheri & Luby, Brittany. (2023). Learning to be Good Relatives: Building Nokom’s House. In Hétu, Dominique, Amanda Fayant, Marie Carrière, and Libe García Zarranz (Eds.), Living and Learning with Feminist Ethics and Poetics Today. Edmonton, Canada: University of Alberta Press. (In Press)

Anderson, K & Hokowhitu, B. (2021). Pretty Boy' Trudeau vs. the 'Algonquin Agitator': Hitting the Ropes of Canadian Colonialist Masculinities. In Adese, Jennifer & Robert Alexander Innes (Eds.), Indigenous Celebrity: Entanglements with Fame. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press.

Bergier, A, Anderson, K & Meshake, R. (2021). We Stand Strong in our Knowledge: Anishinaabemowin One Bundle at a Time. In Justyna Olko & Julia Sallabank (Eds.), Revitalizing Endangered Languages: A Practical Guide. London, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.

Brant, J. & Anderson K. (2021). Indigenous Mothering: New Insights on Giving Life to the People. In Andrea O'Reilly, Ed., Maternal Theory, Essential Readings (2 ed.). Toronto, Canada: Demeter Press.

Anderson, K & Meshake, R. (2021). Conclusion: Still Here. In Linda Morra & Sarah Henzi (Eds.), On the Other Side(s) of 150: Untold Stories and Critical Approaches to History, Literature, and Identity in Canada (pp. 299-303). Waterloo, Canada: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.

Anderson, K. (2021). Multi-generational Indigenous feminisms: From F word to what IFs. In Brendan Hokowhitu, Aileen Moreton-Robinson, Linda Tuhiwai-Smith, Chris Andersen & Steven Larkin (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Critical Indigenous Studies (pp. 37-51). New York City, United States.

Anderson, K & Meshake, R. (2019). Kinship as Research Methodology: Travels to Truth and Reconciliation. In Andrea Breen, Shawn Wilson and Lindsay Dupré (Eds.), Research as Reconciliation: Unsettling Ways of Knowing through Indigenous Relationships. Toronto, Canada: Canadian Scholars' Press.

Anderson, K & Ball, J. (2019). Foundations: First Nations and Metis Families. In Gina Starblanket, David Long and Olive Dickason (Eds.), Visions of the Heart: Issues Involving Aboriginal Peoples in Canada (5 ed.). Toronto, Canada: Oxford University Press.

Guide for Prospective Students

What are the qualities of a student who would be successful in your lab?

• I do a lot of community based research with Indigenous peoples and communities; experience in this area is very helpful. Writing skills and creativity are important in all the work that I do. Enthusiasm and hard work are much appreciated!

How would you describe your mentoring style?

• I like to meet with students in a kitchen table environment through bi-weekly research team meetings where we eat, visit and do collaborative work.

Is there anything else you’d like your potential students to know?

• Indigenous students will have access to distinct funding opportunities at Guelph and through Indigenous mentorship and networking grants.

Current Projects

I am working on projects in the following areas: exploring Indigenous relationality with "all our relations" (land, water, animals, human, spirit); decolonizing narratives of settlement and encouraging Indigenous storywork through museum exhibitions; Indigenizing the campus at Guelph through language and placemaking; theorizing on Indigenous oral history and practice; promoting international Indigenous conversations through visiting and storytelling.