Daniel Dumas, MA

Daniel Dumas obtained his MA in geography from the University of Ottawa in 2017. His thesis, entitled "Negotiating Life Within the City: Social Geographies and Lived Experiences of Urban Metis Peoples in Ottawa," was a study in modern urban Indigeneity, influenced by social and urban geography, and Indigenous studies. As a research assistant at the Institute of Indigenous Research and Studies, Daniel contributed to the Digital Archives Database Project that digitized historical Metis records from across Western Canada. Afterward, Daniel worked as a Special Projects Intern for the Alberta Ministry of Indigenous Relations in Edmonton, Canada.

Daniel joined the Doctoral Program Environment and Society in October 2018. His dissertation explores past and present representations of Indigeneity and the environment within the Canadian context, including stamps, media coverage of the tar sands debate, urban murals, and beadwork.

Daniel joined the Urban Environments Initiative in 2020.

Dissertation Project: (Re)Making the Nation(s): Cultural Representations of Indigeneity and the Environment

Publications: 

• "Problematic Postage: Canada's Claim to the North through a Stamp." Environment & Society Portal, Arcadia. Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society. Forthcoming 2020. https://doi.org/10.5282/rcc/9064. 

Written Contributions:

• Seeing the Woods. "Spaces of Transformation—In Times of Uncertainty." Conference Reports. Last modified July 3, 2020. 
• Seeing the Woods. "A Whale of a Time." Research Roundup. Last modified December 11, 2019.
• Seeing the Woods. "Changing Landscapes of Indigeneity: CHE Place-Based Workshop." Conference Reports. Last modified July 9, 2019.
• Seeing the Woods. "'Fridays for Future' and the Fight for Climate Justice." Snapshot. Last modified April 5, 2019.

Conference/Workshop Presentations:

• “Beaded Dreams: Indigenous Representations of Identity, Environment, and Resistance on Present-day Turtle Island.” Amerika-Kolloquium, Munich, Germany. January 30, 2020.
• "Problematic Postage: Canada's Claim to the North through a Stamp." Inuit Studies Conference. Montréal, QC. October 2019.
• "Leaving the Tar Sands? Indigenous Journeys of Risk, Reward, and Displacement in Northwest Turtle Island." Mapping Mountains and Seas: Journeys, Cartographies, Effects Workshop, Munich, Germany. June 2019.
• "Ottawa: Metis City or Meeting Place?" Louis Riel Day Panel. Ottawa, ON. November 2016
• "Stragglers of the Plains: Colonial Categorization and Cultural Resilience of Metis Peoples in Late Nineteenth-Century Western Canada." Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) Annual General Meeting. Honolulu, HI. May 2016.
• "Indigenous Representations of the City." Graduate Students Association Interdisciplinary Conference. Ottawa, ON. February 2016.