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Kinship Table : la taab di li vwaazayn Adams, Robyn

Abstract

In representations of Métis architecture across Turtle Island, the discourse is often reduced to a handful of iconic symbols: the Red River framed home specifically with dovetail joinery, the Métis sash, and the Red River cart. All incredibly thoughtful and intricate bodies of work and knowledge, however, this thesis is built within the context of contributing to that growing body of architectural thought by offering another seat at the table, one rooted in kinship, story, and worldbuilding. Divided into four sections, this work builds an architecture of kinship, where form, craft, and story pass across geographies, time and generations. The chapter Grandfather Stories highlights historical Red River construction built between the 1860s and 1940s, featuring three variations of joinery techniques that operate as utilitarian forms, but also as fantastical expressions of the Michif everyday. Grandmother Stories features grandmother pieces, historic Red River beadwork, that highlight land-based knowledge, maps teachings, kinship, memory, and land, presenting a beadwork map as both record and a design tool. The Children Stories chapter engages with Michif folklore beings and teachings from mermaids to monsters that occupy both the real and mythological cultural landscape of the Michif. The final chapter, Kinship Table, la taab di li vwaazayn, begins to worldbuild from this research and folklore stories, inviting them to shape space through a fantasy VR video game that positions worldbuilding as a method of Indigenous Architecture. Rather than an escape, fantasy becomes a return; an immersive way to design with land, story, spirit, and kin. This work does not aim to define Indigenous architecture, but rather to offer the Kinship Table to its abundance.

Item Metadata

Title
Kinship Table : la taab di li vwaazayn
Alternate Title
La taab di li vwaazayn
Creator
Adams, Robyn
Date Issued
2025-05
Description
In representations of Métis architecture across Turtle Island, the discourse is often reduced to a handful of iconic symbols: the Red River framed home specifically with dovetail joinery, the Métis sash, and the Red River cart. All incredibly thoughtful and intricate bodies of work and knowledge, however, this thesis is built within the context of contributing to that growing body of architectural thought by offering another seat at the table, one rooted in kinship, story, and worldbuilding. Divided into four sections, this work builds an architecture of kinship, where form, craft, and story pass across geographies, time and generations. The chapter Grandfather Stories highlights historical Red River construction built between the 1860s and 1940s, featuring three variations of joinery techniques that operate as utilitarian forms, but also as fantastical expressions of the Michif everyday. Grandmother Stories features grandmother pieces, historic Red River beadwork, that highlight land-based knowledge, maps teachings, kinship, memory, and land, presenting a beadwork map as both record and a design tool. The Children Stories chapter engages with Michif folklore beings and teachings from mermaids to monsters that occupy both the real and mythological cultural landscape of the Michif. The final chapter, Kinship Table, la taab di li vwaazayn, begins to worldbuild from this research and folklore stories, inviting them to shape space through a fantasy VR video game that positions worldbuilding as a method of Indigenous Architecture. Rather than an escape, fantasy becomes a return; an immersive way to design with land, story, spirit, and kin. This work does not aim to define Indigenous architecture, but rather to offer the Kinship Table to its abundance.
Subject
Indigenous Architecture; Worldbuilding; Joy; Fantasy; Métis Architecture; Métis Studies; Michif Folklore; Métis Research Methodologies; Indigenous Pedagogy; Indigenous Landscape Architecture; Video Game Design
Genre
Graduating Project
Type
Text
Language
eng
Series
University of British Columbia. ARCH_V 549
Date Available
2025-05-23
Provider
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
DOI
10.14288/1.0448938
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/2429/91177
Affiliation
Applied Science, Faculty of; Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School of
Campus
UBCV
Peer Review Status
Unreviewed
Scholarly Level
Graduate
Rights URI
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Aggregated Source Repository
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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International