We are inviting you to submit reflections about your participation in the Lake Nipissing Beading Project. Sharing is entirely voluntary, and you can determine what stories or thoughts you intend to share with us. You can be as creative as you’d like and use whatever format you prefer. For example, you might consider sending us: a written reflection or story, poem, photograph, drawing, or even a short video or audio clip about your experience. Feel free to use any language that best describes your piece.

If it helps, we have created some guiding questions to consider, although they are certainly not necessary to use:

-Why did you decide to participate in this project?

-Was the piece (in terms of the location) that you beaded significant to you?

-How do you relate to Lake Nipissing?

-What has participation in this project meant to you?

-What was your personal relationship to beading when you started? Was this your first time beading or do you come from a family of beaders?

We have several outputs in mind that would help expand the creativity and reach of this project, and we would like to highlight the stories and reflections of participants as much as possible. These proposed outputs include: a catalogue for upcoming traveling exhibition (opening in North Bay in Fall 2022), Instagram, an interactive map, the Lake Nipissing Beading Project newsletter, and scholarly outputs such as presentations and research publications.

By sharing your story or reflections about participating in the Lake Nipissing Beading Project, you will help animate and expand the impact of the Lake Nipissing Beading Project. You will also contribute to the revitalization of knowledge in across Indigenous territories involved in this project and help bring histories of Turtle Island, as well as beading and other creative practices, to a wider audience now and in the future.

Since participation is entirely voluntary and you decide exactly how and what you share, the chance of risk from participation is minimal. However, if you do find that sharing raises difficult issues for you, we will help you connect with the support of your choice, including elder support or other counselling services. Please see the following for a variety of supports- https://ontario.cmha.ca/provincial-mental-health-supports/

There are privacy risks associated with sharing stories on social media, including the potential for harmful responses from the online world. We will not identify your square or story with your name without your consent. Our social media pages are monitored by members of the research team. In the event that harmful commentary or violation of your privacy occurs on our platforms we will remove the post as soon as possible, notify you of the event, and connect you with the supports you require, including elder and familial support, community-based mental health supports, or help lines, including https://ontario.cmha.ca/provincial-mental-health-supports/

If you have any questions or concerns about the project, please feel free to contact Carrie Allison (artistic director, lakenipissingbeadingproject@gmail.com), and/or Katrina Srigley (Professor, Nipissing University, katrinas@nipissingu.ca), and/or Kirsten Greer (Associate Professor, Nipissing University, kirsteng@nipissingu.ca).