About the Métis Thinkers Network
Our Vision
A core objective of this Metis Thinkers Network is to foster a deep sense of belonging and self-worth among Métis scholars by creating institutional and community-rooted spaces where their identities, knowledge systems, and scholarly contributions are recognized, valued, and supported.
This includes increasing the visibility of Métis research and creative work and affirming the legitimacy of Métis epistemologies and methodologies within academic and public discourse. To achieve this, we developed a dedicated website as digital and relational platform designed to connect community members, students, emerging scholars, and established academics.
This network will serve as a knowledge hub, mentorship space, and collaborative forum where Métis thinkers can share their work, uplift existing contributions, and build relationships across generations and institutions. Through this digital infrastructure, we aim to strengthen Métis scholars’ connection to academic life and reinforce their role in shaping the emerging canon of Métis Studies.
Our History
The Métis Thinkers Network’s past experiences and existing relationships will contribute to the realization of the network’s collective vision.
Li Rooñ por kaa-natonikeechik (The Circle for Those Who Research), began to meet on Zoom to share ideas, discuss research, and build an academic community for Métis scholars in 2021 with one of the foci of the collective being the lack of inclusion of Métis-specific research and low Métis acceptance rates within non-Indigenous conferences (Forsythe & Delgado, 2024).
A growing body of scholarship explores the lack of Métis-specific research and programming (Binn et al., 2021; Delgado & Forsythe, 2025; Forsythe, 2022, 2023; Forsythe & Lawton, 2024; Kumar et al., 2012; Logan, 2008).
Through visiting in Li Rooñ por kaa-natonikeechik meetings, we collectively decided to create our own academic Métis space. Thirty-two Métis thinkers volunteered to create a Métis-centric conference in response, called Mawachihitotaak. The conference was successfully held virtually in 2022, took place in Winnipeg in 2024, and is scheduled to be offered in Calgary in 2026.
Over the past three years, we have conducted surveys at a series of community-engaged events—including Mawachihitotaak 2022, and Métis Methodologies 2024 — which have generated consistent and compelling data affirming the need for targeted support of Métis scholars, knowledge holders, and collaborators. Both academic and community participants have voiced a clear and repeatedly called for infrastructure that nurtures Métis-led research, mentorship, and knowledge exchange.
These findings underscore a shared desire not only to share knowledge but to have meaningful reasons and platforms for producing it, such as through grassroots initiatives like Mawachihitotaak (conference), Pawaatamihk: Journal for Métis Thinkers (journal), and Li Rooñ por kaa-natonikeechik (circle), which exemplify community-rooted scholarship in action.
As we sit at the virtual kitchen table with Métis thinkers, we walk forward with relationship and momentum.
Stemming from these successes, which include community members, graduate students, and the creation of relationships and a sense of belonging, a Métis collective of seventy-four scholars from across Canada came together. Establishing seven committees and meeting over the next twelve months, the Métis Thinkers Network was founded from grassroots. Various projects, such as the collection of resources for the knowledge hub, writing retreats and mentorship workshops on publishing began in April 2025.
The Métis Thinkers Network became a Federal Non-profit in October 2025 and launched June 2026 to the public.
Aasaamb Alaantoor La Tab – Together Around The Table
“The Métis Thinkers Network Design is wholistic, collaborative and relational and rooted in Indigenous methodologies and knowledges.”
Our Methodology
This is grounded in a Métis virtual kitchen table methodology, a relational, consensus-driven approach to decision-making rooted in Métis cultural practices of gathering, dialogue, and collective reflection (Flaminio et al., 2020; Gaudet, 2018, Racette, 2022; Stevenson & Troupe, 2020). The kitchen table, both literal and symbolic, has long served as a site of intergenerational exchange, ethical discussions, and community governance within Métis families and communities (Allard, 2023).
By adapting this practice into a virtual format, we create a space where Métis scholars, knowledge holders, artists, and community members can come together to co-develop (Macdonald & Paul, 2021). Resulting in every aspect of the Métis thinkers’ network and Métis studies as a canon from its guiding principles to its operational decisions.
This methodology foregrounds relational accountability, respect, and reciprocity. It resists hierarchical or extractive models of research and instead centers shared responsibility and mutual recognition. Every decision is made through dialogue, with attention to diverse perspectives, lived experiences, and community priorities. In doing so, this research not only reflects Métis ways of knowing and being but also affirms the legitimacy of Métis governance protocols within academic and digital infrastructures. Thus far, we have informally embedded this methodology into the design and implementation of the Métis Thinkers Network and will ensure that the platform is not only technically functional but also ethically grounded and culturally resonant. It becomes a space where consensus is a relational practice, one that affirms Métis intellectual sovereignty and collective agency.
The foundational activities of this Network are aligned with advancing holistic wellness, strengthening community capacity, and affirming Métis knowledge sovereignty. Each component from mentorship and writing retreats to the creation of a digital knowledge hub has been designed in response to community-identified needs and reflects relational accountability to Métis scholars, students, artists, and knowledge holders.
Advancing Holistic Wellness
Belonging and Self-Worth: By creating spaces where Métis scholars can see themselves reflected, valued, and connected, this research nurtures emotional, intellectual, and cultural wellness. The platform affirms Métis identities and supports scholars in navigating academic spaces without compromising who they are.
Relational Connection: The website and network address the isolation many Métis scholars experience by fostering meaningful relationships across generations and institutions. This sense of connection is essential to holistic wellness, particularly in academic environments that have historically marginalized Métis voices.
Creative and Intellectual Expression: Writing retreats and collaborative gatherings offer opportunities for reflection, storytelling, and knowledge production activities that support mental, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing.
Building Community Capacity
Mentorship Infrastructure: The mentorship program strengthens intergenerational ties and builds leadership capacity among emerging scholars, drawing upon the wisdom of more established Métis scholars, thereby ensuring that knowledge and support are passed on in culturally grounded ways.
Knowledge Hub: The website functions as a living archive and resource center, making Métis scholarship accessible and visible. This increases the capacity of communities to engage with, contribute to, and benefit from academic and creative work.
Collaborative Projects: Initiatives such as supporting the creation of proposals for Mawachihitotaak, creating pieces for Pawaatamihk, visioning special editions for various journals and writing retreats foster collective learning and action, equipping communities with tools to produce, share, and mobilize knowledge.
Our Brand
We collaborated with the queer, Indigenous and intersectional feminist-led and Métis-owned design agency, Bloom + Brilliance, to create our brand and website.
The brand vision for the Métis Thinkers Network is expansive, generational, and collective Métis knowledge. Centering cultural icons and concepts such as kitchen table methodology, floral beadwork, and the traditional colours of the Métis sash, the Métis Thinkers Network brand represents the inclusive, intergenerational, and interconnected spirit of knowledge sharing.
Traditional Métis florals and the four sacred medicines (tobacco, sweetgrass, sage, and cedar) are gathered around the kitchen table, with a teapot at the centre. Some are visiting, some are rocking, some are working, some are playing, some are holding space for the magic that is unfolding. Their shapes and colours come together in a joyful and vibrant way. Each one’s distinctive beauty is enriched by the presence and connection of the others.
Evoking an overall sense of home, kinship, and belonging, these diverse plant kin represent how, through the generations, our unique roles and gifts collectively contribute to not only our survival, but to our flourishing.
From the design elements to the typography to the colour palette, the brand balances an overall contemporary style with a nod to the historial golden age of the Métis. The beaded florals of our Grandmother pieces, our sacred medicines, and the kitchen table are depicted in a contemporary “flat” illustration style.
The brand palette is warm, bold and rich—expanding on the traditional colours of the ceinture fléchée of red, blue, green, yellow, and white with a cedar green, and deep plum. Finally, the typography calls to mind the inky type of transformative documents created not only by the celebrated leaders of our past, but by the modern Métis thinkers who lead our resurgence.
