Complex Identities, Relationality, and the Art of Listening: A Journey to Understand My Positionality as a Métis Scholar

This article traces a personal and professional journey toward understanding Métis identity and positionality as an evaluator, academic, and community member. Grounded in lived experience as a white-presenting Métis woman, reflections are provided on the complexities of identity, the tensions of belonging, and the responsibilities of engaging in research and evaluation by and with Indigenous peoples. Stories of learning, vulnerability, and resistance are woven together to highlight how intersecting identities shape both insider and outsider roles requiring accountability, reciprocity, and respect. The art of listening is emphasized, not as a neutral practice of collecting data, but as an act of relationality that can disrupt colonial hierarchies of knowledge. Ultimately, the article argues that embracing positionality, rather than obscuring it under the guise of objectivity, offers evaluators a pathway to ethical, authentic, and relationally grounded work.