Jah-kah-nah-jay // Tan-si // Hello
Cheyanne Brown Armstrong (née Connell) (they/she) is an indigi-queer scholar and artist + maker, with Indigenous lineage and membership with West Moberly First Nations (Dunne-Za Cree). Currently, they divide their time between their Doctoral program and research in Socio-Cultural and Indigenous Anthropology at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and creating art.
1. About
1.a. Titles + Educations
1.b. Research Profile
1.c. Funding + Awards (selective) 2. CV
2.a. Publications + Creative...
2.b. Invited Speaker, Discussant...
2.c. Teaching Experience
3. Projects + Collaborations3.a. Dreaming of Dunne-Za (2021-)
3.b. Asian Indigenous Relations (2024-)
3.c. Transnationally Indigenous (2018-)
3.d. Ainu Identity-Making... (2019-2021)
3.e. Decolonizing Urban Indig... (2019)
4. Art + Making4.a. Portfolio
CHEYANNE BROWN ARMSTRONG (nee CONNELL)
ANTHROPOLOGIST + ARTIST // MAKER


1. About

 Cheyanne Brown Armstrong (née Connell) (they/she) is an indigi-queer scholar and registered member of West Moberly First Nations (Dunne-Za Cree). They are a Doctoral Candidate in Socio-Cultural and Indigenous Anthropology at the University of British Columbia (UBC), UBC Public Scholar, and Canada Graduate Scholarship recipient. Currently, they are 'in the field' working on their PhD research project, which aims to explore how traditional language values are embedded within Dunne-Za and Cree identities, with a special focus on ancestral culture and spirit inheritance and gender. Their PhD research is inspired by their MA project, which focused on urban and diasporic Indigenous Ainu identity-making in transnational digital spaces, like Instagram and TikTok. They are a frequent collaborator on and advocate for Indigenous-Asian relations related projects and initiatives, along with decolonization efforts in academia. They are also an artist + maker and their practice is largely informed by their research interests, which works to contribute to the increasing realm of contemporary Indigenous expression in digital and global spaces.​​
1.a. Titles + Education
(current) Doctoral Candidate, Department of Anthropology, UBC, Vancouver, BC
Teaching Assistant, Department of Anthropology and Department of History, UBC, Vancouver, BC
Administrative Assistant, Klinse-Za Cultural Society, Amisk Farm, Moberly, BC

(previous)Historical Researcher, West Moberly Historical Society, West Moberly First Nation, Moberly, BC

PhD, (Cultural // Socio-Cultural) Anthropology, University of British Columbia, exp. 2026
MA, (Cultural // Socio-Cultural) Anthropology, Simon Fraser University, fin. 2021
BA, Honors with Distinction, Anthropology, Simon Fraser University​, fin. 2019
1.b. Research Profile
Since 2019, Ms. Armstrong has worked with and hosted urban Indigenous folk from North America and Japan in support of their joint quest to understand how dominant expectations of being Indigenous impact processes of identity-making and belonging. They have volunteered to moderate presentations by Indigenous scholars and presented several talks on Indigenous research approaches and Indigenous histories in Canada. Most recently, they were part of formal events and dialogues aimed at 1) discussing the challenges and opportunities of decolonizing universities and 2) helping Ismaili immigrants learn about Indigenous peoples in Canada. They also created Indigenous Language children's books for a local Indigenous community and co-authored an article on the invisible labour and gender inequities women faced in academia during COVID-19 (published in American Ethnologist).

For research, Ms. Armstrong is interested in Indigenous Language and culture; Indigenous feminism; Indigenous identity-making; urban Indigenous studies; and global Indigenous world-making. They are principal investigator for Dreaming of Dunne-Za (2021—), an ethnographic and collaborative project that focuses on the histories, practices, and meaning of traditional Language within their home community of West Moberly First Nations. They ask: how are traditional language values embedded within Dunne-Za and Cree identities, and how is ancestral culture and spirit inheritance and gender represented? As part of this project, Ms. Armstrong, who is also a freelance artist, will be creating visual art vignettes, depicting select community member experiences with Language reclamation. Mainly, this project seeks to explore the different ways Dunne-Za language has been used, celebrated, maintained, and displaced, and its role in Dunne-Za ‘thoughtworld’ (i.e., worldview, spirituality, values), and importantly, contribute to growing representation of what it means to be Indigenous in the twenty-first century.
​
Ms. Armstrong's efforts to privilege the voices of young Indigenous peoples, whose diverse experiences of Indigenous identity-making are often overlooked in public and academia, extends to all their projects. For their MA project (2019-2021), Ms. Armstrong explored Indigenous Ainu identity-making in North America and through digital spaces. Based on in-depth interviews, online observations, and data collection and analysis, they argued that whereas Ainu identity-making of those who grew up in Japan is primarily rooted in Ainu in Japan experience, American Ainu identity-making is largely informed by and rooted in North American Indigenous experience. With this comes uniquely North American-based experiences and anxieties of culture appropriation, identity gatekeeping, and Indigenous authenticity—a reality that acknowledges the precarity that comes with being of 'undocumented' Indigenous ancestry in a digitally-mediated world of colonial Indigenous criteria and community-driven high stakes legitimacy. For their BA, Hons. (2019), they explored and critiqued the use of the diaspora model in framing urban Indigenous peoples, experiences, and livelihoods. They argued the need for a more inclusive framework with respect to some urban Indigenous peoples, given that many of them, especially in Canada, are: 1) geographically not displaced; 2) have rooted cultural experiences and practices in urban environments; and 3) have fostered a sense of belonging to an urban homeland. This research spoke to the need to recognize and meaningfully engage with urban Indigenous experience and livelihoods as being authentically Indigenous and not in terms of a cultural, traditional, and land deficit.

Through their research, writing, and teaching, and as a Queer Indigenous scholar, Ms. Armstrong strives to advocate for better and more accessible public and scholarly representations of Indigenous identity and narratives that speaks to and uplifts the diverse realities of being Indigenous and part of an ever-changing global, digital world. This means that first and foremost, Ms. Armstrong's research and efforts are aimed at being conducted for and with communities, and easily accessible (i.e., easy to find, easy to navigate, and easy to comprehend).

 1.c. Funding + Awards (selective)
2023-2026, SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship, Doctoral
2022-2026, UBC Aboriginal (Indigenous) Graduate Fellowship
2016-2026, West Moberly First Nations Education Fund
2022-2024, UBC Public Scholar Initiative
2021-2022, Irving K. Barber BC Indigenous Student Award, Doctoral
2022, UBC Wilson Duff Memorial Scholarship
2021, UBC Institute of Asian Research Fellowship, Japan
2020-2021, IndSpire - Allan & Gill Gray Foundation Awards
2020, The Japan Foundation, Tanaka Fund Travel Program (declined due to COVID-19 travel restrictions)
2. CV
2.a. Publications + Creative Outputs
Peer-Reviewed
forthcoming. "Little Bit Don't Know Something: Reflections on Indigenous-Indigenous Research." 

2022. “Gendered disruptions in academic publishing during COVID-19: Uncovering invisible labor at an anthropology journal.” American Ethnologist 49.4 (November): 595-609. Jelena Golubović, Kathleen Inglis, and Cheyanne Connell.*

*2023 AAA GAD Prize for Exemplary Cross-Field Scholarship (Honorable Mention)

Culture and Language Resources
2023. Indigenous Language Resources. First Voices, First Peoples Cultural Council.  Created 23 Digital artworks for Indigenous language learning resources for Indigenous communities and collaborators.

2022. Kʼé̱né̱hchʼeh. Children’s Indigenous Language Book. Doig River First Nation. Created short language learning book and resource for community.

2022. Dane. Children’s Indigenous Language Book. Doig River First Nation. Created short language learning book and resource for community.

Creative Outputs
2024. “Holy! Fungi.” Group exhibition, curated by Morgaine Lee. Do I know you, Mushroom? Mushroom Art Extravaganza. Art Exhibit. Showcased three visual art pieces.

2020. “Colour Me Fungi: A Film by Morgaine Lee”. Directed and produced by Morgaine Lee. Featuring art by Lola Brown, Cheyanne Connell, Kennedy Lindsay, Rachel Sault, Mackenzie Watson. Film, 3.5 minutes.

2017. “Fat.” Pearls 36: An Anthology of Work by Douglas College Creative Writing Students. 11. 

2.b. Invited Speaker, Discussant, and Invited Panelist
Invited Speaker, Discussant, and Invited Panelist
2023. UBC Roundtable on Decolonization. Roundtable with panelists (in speaking order) Sharon Stein, Cheyanne Connell, Gage Averill, Amy Perreault, Rima Wilkes, and Danielle Ignace. Organized and moderated by Charles Menzies. Green College and Department of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada. In-person.

2021. Truth Before Reconciliation. Conversation on Truth Before Reconciliation between speakers Tsnomot, Brad Baker (Squamish Nation), Raiyana Alibhai, Nadia Walji and Cheyanne Connell. The Ismaili Centre Vancouver and the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Online.

2024. Indigeneity Beyond the State: Thinking and Moving across the Pacific Rim. Organizer Dr. Michael Hathaway and Chair Dr. Pasang Sherp. Discussants Cheyanne Connell and Drs. Huatse Gyai, Aynur Kadir, and Jolan Hsieh. Association for Asian Studies Conference 2024. Seattle, WA, United States. In-Person
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2021. Korean Diasporic Citizenship: Two Tales of Political Incorporation in Japan and the United States. Presented by Dr. Erin Aeran Chung. Discussant Dr. Hyung-Gu Lynn with comments and questions by IAR Fellows: Brandon Hillier, Cheyanne Connell, and Christina Song. The Centre for Korean Research and School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Online.

2021. What does it mean to be Ainu in the twenty-first century? Ainu Authenticity. Presented by Dr. Kanako Uzawa with comments by Dr. Scott Harrison and Cheyanne Connell. David Lam Centre  at Simon Fraser University and the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Online. 

 open // download full CV2.c. Teaching Experience
As an Indigenous lecturer and teaching assistant, I am deeply interested and committed to the meaningful education of Indigenous and marginalized groups’ histories, culture, and livelihoods. I pride myself on fostering an inviting and inclusive classroom and course curriculum that allows for all students to learn and engage with both Indigenous (and BIPOC) and anthropological topics and stories in a way that is respectful, collaborative, and reflective. In creating this environment, I have recieved overwhelmingly positive feedback from professors and students alike. I thoroughly enjoy teaching, faciliting learning and skill-building, and providing students with the nesecarry space and tools to develop their own ideas, writing, and career paths forward.

To date, I have Guest Lectured for 5 undergraduate courses at UBC and lead and or assisted in the Course Curricul Development of 4 undergraduate courses and 1 graduate course at UBC. From September 2019 until the academic year 2025/26, I will have held a total of 20 Teaching Assistant appointments across the following departments: Department of Anthropology (UBC), Department of History (UBC), Institute of Critical Indigenous Studies (UBC), and Department of Sociology and Anthropology (Simon Fraser University).
3. Projects + Collaborations
3.a. Dreaming of Dunne-Za (2021-present)


Lead Investigator (PhD Ethnographic Research Project)

This research project seeks to investigate and examine the past and present processes of traditional language reclamation among the Mountain Dunne-Za peoples—also called Dane-Zaa, tsattine, or Beaver Indians—of West Moberly First Nations in Moberly Lake, BC. I aim to explore the different ways Dunne-Za language has been used, celebrated, maintained, and displaced, and its role in Dunne-Za ‘thoughtworld’ (i.e., worldview, spirituality, values. I ask: how are traditional language values embedded within Dunne-Za and Cree identities, and how is ancestral culture and spirit inheritance and gender represented?
     Working closely and collaboratively with my home community of WMFN, this ethnographic research project primarily focuses on the experiences, stories, and archival accounts of Indigenous women with membership in and direct ancestral ties to WMFN. Too often Indigenous women have been written out of historical accounts of Indigenous land, culture, and legacies. My community of WMFN, like many others, has shared this burden of gender erasure, in which women are seldom central to the story being told (see Brody and Ridington). Nearly all literature about our culture and community—the few and rather brief mentions that exist in archival documents and books—are first-authored by men (e.g., Post Journals by men employed by Hudson’s Bay Company and scholars like Hugh Brody and Robin Ridington) or privilege the stories of men (see Brody 1992 and Ridington and Ridington 2012). Focusing on the experiences, stories, and archival accounts of Indigenous women with membership and direct ancestral ties to WMFN, my research offers an opportunity to document, assert and invite vital broader Indigenous representation in scholarship and community, ensuring young women and past and present matriarchs stories and identities are better represented culturally and linguistically in WMFN, Canada, and beyond.

3.b. Asian Indigenous Relations (2024-present)

Collaborator

From AIR website:  “Our Vision:  As a non-hierarchically governed, BIPOC-led research team and registered society, our core vision is to direct far more attention to the rich, countless ways in which Asian-Indigenous relations have shaped (and been shaped by) Turtle Island.
   Our Mission:  The digital spaces our research team occupies, including the website you are reading this on, cannot be separated from the offline world. All aspects of our operations are grounded on the unceded, traditional, and stolen territories of the səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) and  kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem) Nations. Core to our overall mission is to continue to fight for the decolonization and restitution of these colonial places, both offline and online.” Click here to learn more about this project.

3.c. Transnationally Indigenous (2019-present)

Contributor

From the project website: "This project explores the hidden legacies of transnational Indigeneity and Indigenous diplomacy by examining two pivotal trips during which a group of Ainu delegates from Japan and a group of First Nations delegates from British Columbia traveled to China in the mid-1970s. They were impressed with what they saw in terms of education and Indigenous language promotion, and began to envision new kinds of activism in their home countries. Our Indigenous-majority team of Investigators, Collaborators and students will work collectively to carry out four key objectives: 1) engage with scholarship in Transnational Studies to provide alternatives to state-centered accounts, 2) show how Indigenous transnational diplomacy expands Indigenous Studies beyond domestic studies and offer non-oppositional frameworks that expands understanding of Indigenous agency; and 3) contribute to Asian Studies by analyzing transpacific connections, not just comparisons." Click here to learn more about this project.
(Artwork by Saki Murotani)
3.d. Ainu Identity-Making in North America and Online (2019-2021)

Lead Investigator (MA Ethnographic Research Project)

This project was conducted through digitally-mediated fieldwork from 2020 to 2021, as part of the requirement for my MA degree at SFU. It's main goal was to seek to understand how Ainu in North America experience Indigenous identity-making. Working with eight young adults of self-identified Ainu ancestry, at various stages of their Ainu journeys, but all started within the last few years, I ask how Ainu and Ainuness is learned and understood through their primary connection and access to Ainu community and culture: digital spaces. 
    My findings suggested that the Ainu identity-making of those who grew up and live in Japan is primarily shaped by Japanese Ainu experience, whereas for some American-Ainu, their identity-making is largely shaped by North American Indigenous experience. I argued that this in turn made American-Ainu uniquely subject to North American-based experiences and anxieties of culture appropriation, identity gatekeeping, and Indigenous authenticity, and what I call precarious indigeneity. The aim of this project was to expand public and academic narratives of Ainu identity-making that speaks to the diverse realities of learning what it means to be Ainu and Indigenous in present day and as multiethnic and digitally connected individuals and communities. As part of this project, I created a series of illustrations (see below) to demonstrate media representation of Ainu and North American Indigenous peoples, and various findings and ideas in my research. ​

 3.e. Decolonizing Urban Indigeneity and Diaspora (2019)

Lead Researcher (BA, Honours Project)

This project was part of my undergraduate degree, and resulted in the successful complete of my BA Honours thesis, titled “Decolonizing Urban Indigenous Studies: Defining and Redefining Indigeneity." It is a literary exploration and critique of the use of the diaspora model in framing urban Indigenous peoples, experiences and livelihoods. In it, I argue the need for a more inclusive framework that speaks to the diversity of urban Indigenous peoples, given that many of them, especially in Canada: 1) still reside on (urban) ancestral land and are therefore not displaced; 2) have little to no connection to a non-urban traditional homeland and as a result, may feel little to no cultural loss; and 3) live in places where recognized traditional territories are often either only a fraction of or not at all one’s ancestral lands, thus, showing that homeland-making can and does occur outside of ancestral lands. 
    From this, I suggest the need to recognize and meaningfully engage with urban Indigenous experience and livelihoods as being authentically Indigenous and not of an inherent cultural, traditional, and land deficit. Growing up off-reserve and in densely populated cities, this project was what inspired my thirst for knowledge and passion in interrogating public and academic assumptions, generalizations, and expectations of Indigenous peoples, that are often rooted in colonialism, nation-state governance, and Christianity.​​
4. Art + Making
I think of my art and making as an expression of the affects and facets of indigeneity, colonialism, and surrounding environments. Due to my anthropology background, even when creating art, I often find myself identifying and (over)analyzing various aspects of my identity, life experiences, and environments. Mainly, I end up worrying a lot about Indigenous representation and its affects. What Indigenous tropes are being reproduced in this?  How might this shaped one's identity-making process? Why is traditional performativity often privileged over multicultural, contemporary realities? And how can I make more space for identities and experiences like mine, an urban, mixed native? While I am currently working on answering many of those questions through my own academic research and scholarship, I also want to prioritize more personal and creative efforts (ones that don't require several dozen citations) that speak to my own Indigenous reality.  Through all my art and making, I aim to contribute to the expansion and diversifying of contemporary Indigenous representation in public worlds.
4.a. Portfolio 



© Cheyanne Brown Armstrong 2025