Learning from Manoomin: restor(y)ing relationships between Indigenous Peoples, settlers, and more-than-human beings in the Great Lakes Basin.

Congratulations to Caitlin Paridy, recipient of the TR&D Achievement Award.

This thesis looks to learn from Indigenous methodologies and reconciliation research to document three initiatives restoring wild rice in ‘Ontario, ‘Minnesota’, and ‘Michigan’. From these initiatives lessons of sovereignty, co-management, and reciprocal relations are revealed through drawings, conversations, and personal reflections to understand how land management and restoration work might meaningfully uphold Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination.

The following drawings were created as a means of overlaying the various times, beings, and frameworks which shape the space around each of these initiatives, thereby defining the ‘Ethical Space’ through which these relationships are understood within the text.

Caitlin Paridy is a Masters of Architecture student currently living on the Smith Kirby Tract, a section of the Haldimand Tract located within 10km of the Grand River, whose waters sustain life for all beings throughout the region. This thesis seeks to serve as a humble threshold between the roles of a settler and those of a guest, as defined by Ruth Koleszar-Green