Joi T. Arcand: ayâtaskisow

Joi T. Arcand investigates the history of imposed agricultural practices on Indigenous reserves and their impact on the land and relationships within families and communities.

ayâtaskisow in Plains Cree dialect, expresses when one is firmly planted or deeply rooted. Arcand contemplates her place in and connection to the Great Plains, specifically her family farm on the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation in Saskatchewan. Arcand reflects on the intersections between Indigenous history and her father’s experience as a farmer on the Muskeg Lake reservation. Arcand’s ambitious work is informed by her family’s experience with federally introduced agricultural policies in Saskatchewan—that set up First Nations people to assimilate into the settler population.

Drawing on personal testimonies collected over the past decade and on an examination of government policies designed to prevent First Nations people from succeeding in agriculture, this work explores Arcand’s father’s decision to pursue farming on reserve despite these systemic barriers.