Cheyanne Brown Armstrong (née Connell) (they/she) is an indigi-queer scholar and artist, 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.
Cheyanne Brown Armstrong (née Connell) (they/she) is an indigi-queer scholar and artist, 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.
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
PhD, Anthropology, University of British Columbia, exp. 2026
MA, Anthropology, Simon Fraser University, fin. 2021
BA, Honors with Distinction, Anthropology, Simon Fraser University, fin. 2019
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).
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)
Publications + Creative OutputsPeer-Reviewedforthcoming. "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 Resources2023. 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 Outputs2024. “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.
Invited Speaker, Discussant, and Invited PanelistInvited Speaker, Discussant, and Invited Panelist2023. 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.
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).
Dreaming of Dunne-Za (2021-present)
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.
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.
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)
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.
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.
Portfolio
© Cheyanne Brown Armstrong 2025