The custom-built platform features a bold, beautiful design to enhance UM storytelling. Faculties and units from across UM worked collaboratively to launch this large project.

We invite you to engage with the new site and learn more about the amazing people, research and teaching excellence at UM.

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With unique story formats and multi-media capabilities, the new UM Today platform offers an enriched experience for site visitors.

Stories range from in-depth features to shorter reads and photo-led stories, with enticing and distinct subheadings that give you a snapshot of what to expect. Reading-time indicators  help you decide how and when to engage.

Built around clear navigation and flexible storytelling formats, the new UM Today is designed to help you quickly find stories that matter to you. The menu is organized into intuitive categories, including Research, Teaching and Learning, Indigenous, Students and Community — with related stories from across faculties and departments giving you easy access to extensive, curated content.

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Content can also be discovered through interest-based topics and UM priorities such as health and wellness, science and technology, business, sustainability, human rights and more.

Whether you’re interested in the latest health advances, crop research, AI and technology developments, or inspiring student experiences, stories are now easier to find and follow. Readers can see how subjects intersect and inform one another. The platform will continue to evolve as new stories are published and shared.

Explore the new UM Today, become a regular visitor and discover the bold and exciting ways the University of Manitoba is shaping the future through knowledge, learning and impact across Manitoba and beyond.

This site will remain live until next week while content is being archived.

While his impeccable art of storytelling was both meaningful and impactful, his second ‘act,’ – a “talk-back” with his audience, was contextually revealing. Born and raised in Brazil, Rocha moved to Maine about 38 years ago to study mime and theatre. Only after settling in the very state where The Malaga was built did he learn of the ship’s role in forcefully transporting free Africans to enslavement in Brazil.

“I could not believe the coincidences between the ship and myself,” explained Rocha. “She was built in Maine and went to Brazil to bring to my home country part of my ancestry. I was born in Brazil and came to Maine, where I learned to be a storyteller… The more I read about The Malaga, the more I realized I was born to tell her story.”

That discovery sparked a profound realization, challenge, and change. As Rocha shared: “I verbally told myself I would never tell hard stories… But if the ancestors notice you avoiding your purpose, they will knock you down. And that’s what happened to me.”

Rocha suffered a debilitating panic attack in 2018, which he now understands as a moment of reckoning with ancestral trauma – a legacy he inherited from his father, who lived with untreated psychological wounds rooted in slavery’s aftermath.

With the support of healers, therapists, and a spiritual reawakening, Rocha emerged transformed. In 2020, he was introduced to the story of The Malaga through Maine-based Smithsonian artist and scholar Daniel Minter. “I went to Maine to learn storytelling,” Rocha noted. “But really, my story found me.” His story found him and instilled in him a profound sense of “ancestral duty.” It was a story that was waiting for centuries to be told, and it came alive on stage.

“This performance is unlike anything I’ve done before…,” said Rocha. “I transform into a vessel – into the ship herself -holding the pain and resilience of five million Africans forced into slavery.”

In embodying the Malaga Ship, Rocha used his training in mime to evoke crashing waves, creaking timbers, bloodied floors and sorrowful cries of human captives. Yet the performance is not only about tragedy. It is also about resilience and healing.

In reflecting on Antonio Rocha’s performance and the revival of the Winnipeg International Storytelling Festival (English), Dr. Stanley Amaladas, Director of the Arthur V. Mauro Institute for Peace and Justice, noted: “Such is the power of storytelling. In telling his story, Antonio’s ancestors offered him a gift to daringly claim his voice. I will remember Antonio Rocha’s story of The Malaga Ship and storytelling as a spiritual journey and a call to courageously remember, reflect, and heal. Indeed, it is a pathway to peace and justice. I believe that this is the fundamental purpose of the Winnipeg International Storytelling Festival.”

We recently sat down with Caroline Piotrowski and Peter Jaeger to discuss their experiences creating a healthy mind, body, and planet with their ongoing research.   

First, Caroline Piotrowski is a professor at the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences. Caroline demonstrates this theme of healthy mind, body, and planet through her work with Chronic illness in families.   

Daily, she witnesses first-hand the positives and negatives of these illnesses and how they affect families’ minds and bodies through the interviews she performs with families locally in Winnipeg. In hearing these stories, Caroline looks at the resilience side of these families with her research as she listens to stories, builds relationships with families, and looks to support them in any way she can to help them get through this tough challenge of their lives.   

In hearing and understanding stories, Caroline creates a healthy place for these families to heal their minds and bodies from these chronic illnesses by giving them a safe space to share their feelings and experiences. Throughout Caroline’s research, she witnessed stories from children and all demographics across Winnipeg.   

The second researcher working to create a healthy mind, body, and planet is Peter Jaeger. Recently named the Writer in Residence, Peter has created a workshop titled “Meditation, Mindfulness, and Writing.”   

This workshop, with the October Storytelling theme of healthy mind, body, and planet, aims to focus on the relationship between creative writing and meditative mindfulness practice. Writing and meditation both showcase mental and linguistic techniques of discipline, imagination, and attention, and these workshops aim to investigate the potential for mindfulness to transform creative practice.   

Learn more about Caroline Piotrowski and Peter Jaeger Research. 

On March 25, eager listeners gathered for the second of two sessions of Indigenous Storytelling: An Alternative Path to Understanding Truth and Reconciliation presented by the Access Program and sponsored by the Indigenous Initiatives Fund. The first was held on Feb. 13.

The March event featured three storytellers and elders: Fred Shore (Métis), Martha Peet (Inuit), and Wanbdi Wakita (Dakota).

Fred Shore, Métis storyteller, elder and professor of Native Studies at U of M

Stories to teach
“My stories come out of my teaching,” says Fred Shore, Métis storyteller, elder, and professor of Native Studies at U of M. “When I started teaching, I discovered history could be boring. So I started telling stories to make it interesting.”

But he doesn’t make it up. “I think stories have to be both interesting and verifiable. I draw from oral history I have collected for years, and read between the lines in history books, to tell an interesting story.”

For example, in one story, he explores how you hunt buffalo on horseback with a muzzleloader. And the process is not an easy one. Imagine riding a horse at 35 mph in a herd of buffalo, bouncing around, trying to get the ball and powder down the barrel to load your gun. Of course, Shore has not actually done this himself, but he collected the details to tell us how it’s done.

“In exploring the logistical organization of the buffalo hunt, my objective is to show people the Métis were highly organized and really knew how to do things. A lot of people assumed the Métis were an ignorant bunch of savages. But they went after buffalo to bring back pemmican and sell it to the Hudson’s Bay Company and the Northwest Company for cash. My purpose is to show the economic foundation of the Métis Nation.”

For Shore, storytelling is about putting the details of people’s experiences together and adding a little excitement to it, so “you can almost hear the horses pounding down the road.”

It’s important to talk about these things, Shore says. “A story is being used to teach about who the Métis are, where they come from, and why they are the way they are.

“I love telling stories. That’s my thing. Where did I learn to do that? There are many teachers in my family. I am also part Irish, so, of course, I have the gift of the gab.”

Martha Peet, Inuit elder and storyteller

Personal experiences
For Martha Peet, Inuit elder and storyteller from Taloyaok, Nunavut, telling stories is about sharing her own experiences and the traditional Inuit way of life.

Taloyaok was founded in 1948 when the HBC established a trading post. Five nomadic families moved in, including hers. Peet was born in 1950. “I was there from the beginning. I lived in an igloo in the winter and a tent in the summer. My job as a child was collecting cotton in the summer, for the wick on the seal oil (soapstone) lamp (fueled by blubber). I always had chores. I carried water twice a day from the lake. I made bannock and tea. We boiled our meat, seal and caribou,” she says.

A storyteller for over 30 years, Peet enjoys sharing stories about her life, where she is from, and the Inuit way of life of years ago including the importance of animals and traditions.

Martha Peet in her mother hubbard.

Martha Peet, with the coat her mother made for her.

The past
“I tell stories from my past. It is so important to keep the Inuit way of life strong, and keep it going. I never stop being homesick for being on the land, picking berries and plants, camping and fishing. It’s what we grew up with, what parents teach their children. I speak from my experiences. The ways the nomads in the areas, including my parents, went seal hunting, spring fishing, hunting caribou in the winter. They followed the animals year-round.”

When people hear her stories, Peet says, they are surprised but happy to learn how traditional her early life was, even as recently as the 1950s. “In the 1950s, we were living in igloos and eating traditional foods all the time. It is like yesterday to me.”

Of course, now the community is modern and home to 1,000 people. Many kids speak English, but many also still speak their own language with their parents, and parents continue to make caribou coats and mitts. Yet, eating habits have changed and there are more illnesses, she says.

“Storytelling is important because it’s the way people learn about our past, how I was born and raised, the environment, the hardships and pleasures of my experience up in the arctic. There are different plants and berries that don’t grow here. I long for those. When you get hungry out on the land, you eat plants and roots.”

Peet learned many of her grandmother’s stories through her sister, for she was very young when her grandmother died. “I remember the values taught to me. They were set into my life. I remember my dad hunting, my mom sewing. I always remember. Everything is so important. I was taught how to carry a rifle. The lessons stayed with me my whole life.”

She also retains fluency in her language, by continuing to speak with other Inuit people, doing translations, and keeping up-to-date. “I keep researching for new words for new concepts that did not exist before, like global warming. There are some things you can only teach on the land in your own language.”

Wanbdi Wakita, Dakota elder, storyteller, and Access Program Unkan (Grandfather)-in-residence

An important tradition
Wanbdi Wakita, Dakota elder, storyteller, and Access Program Unkan (Grandfather)-in-residence, notes the importance of the storytelling tradition and bringing it to campus. “I am pleased this community is starting to recognize Indigenous people still have a big contribution to make to this world, and there is an interest to listen to the stories.”

The Access Program at the University of Manitoba provides holistic support to Indigenous, newcomer, and other U of M students, empowering them on their path to success. 

The Access Program

“We used to have the storyteller come for supper. After the dishes were put away, they would tell their stories. It was only in the last 100 years they started writing them in syllabics but few could write them,” says Stella Neff, Cree elder and storyteller from Grand Rapids.

On Feb. 13, eager listeners gathered for the first of two sessions of Indigenous Storytelling: An Alternative Path to Understanding and Reconciliation presented by the Access Program and sponsored by the Indigenous Initiatives Fund.

The next session is set for March 25 in MPR Room 210 University Centre.

The February event featured three storytellers and elders: Stella Neff (Cree), Paul Guimond (Anishinaabe), and Nelliane Cromarty (Oji-Cree).

Storyteller Stella Neff

Sharing the stories
As the oldest daughter in a family of 13, Neff listened carefully to the stories of the elders and repeated them to her younger siblings. “I would tell the stories and sing the songs to them at bedtime.”

When she came back to her community after many years of teaching, she found a different place. “We lost our language, and much of our spirituality. The young people don’t have the elders we had to visit, come to our homes and talk with us.”

Indigenous stories include important information about the knowledge and beliefs people had about their own natural world, she says. “We had our own beliefs about the world. We didn’t wait for the stories to come to us. We had our own. There was a lot of wisdom in what the storytellers told to us.”

She notes that elders in many Indigenous communities know some of the same stories. For example, a story she shares called The Rolling Head was recorded by a missionary in 1810 because he felt it was important to be preserved. “When we hear a story, we add our own concepts. We see how each community has a different version. But we know the native communities shared stories. Shared stories show a great connection among the native people.”

“It’s so important to recover and share these stories.”

Feeling proud
Young people need to feel proud. Listening to elders talk about their traditional way of life helps them to feel good about themselves and to understand who they are, says Paul Guimond, Anishinaabe elder and storyteller from Sagkeeng First Nation.

“Colonization has affected every walk of life. A lot of cultures have lost their way and lost their language. When you hear about someone else’s culture, it gives you interest to go back to yours,” says Guimond.

As a spiritual advisor at Red River College and having worked with people battling addictions, Guimond says, “We are all in this together. When we listen and share, we realize we are all in the same boat. How do we heal? If we can share, we can find our place. We can heal together.”

He stresses the importance of storytelling.

Releasing pain
“I have spent a lot of time sharing the story of our ways. A lot of old people have told their story. By not telling your story, you are still carrying a lot of pain in your being. It took me a while to deal with that little child in me who saw abuse at home and at school. School was not about education. It was about something else. The shame, and the fear of talking your language, kids feel it. They carry that seed. If they don’t talk about it, it carries on. When kids see you express where they pain comes from, they understand and we can continue to break that cycle.”

Guimond talks about his history and how spirit names help people to understand their roles in life. The creator gave us spirit. Our spirit never dies.”

His spirit name is Okunace or Little Eagle Bone. “It represents leadership. For a long time, I didn’t know how to accept it. I walk with people so they can find their way. I find a bit of myself each time.”

He says, “To feel good about myself, I went back to the way of life. It gave me a pride about myself. We do have a place. We do have something to offer. It’s a beautiful feeling to have a purpose.”

In the past, the ancestors had to go underground to light their fire, but today people can light it with pride and without shame, he says. “We can sound our drum, tell the story, and say we are here.”

Wanbdi Wakita (left to right), Stella Neff, and Nelliane Cromarty

An important tradition
Wanbdi Wakita, Access Program Unkan (Grandfather)-in-residence, notes the importance of the storytelling tradition and bringing it to campus. “Our stories involve language, history, ceremony, song. There is humour, and knowledge all people can use. It’s important to introduce them here because some of our students may want to use them as a guide.”

Stella Neff adds, “We lost a lot but we didn’t lose everything. It’s important to talk about our history as it was done before.”

Register for March 25 event
Hear from three more Indigenous elders and storytellers on March 25. Sharing their stories will be Fred Shore (Métis), Martha Peet (Inuit) and the Access Program’s resident Unkan (Grandfather) Wanbdi Wakita (Dakota).

Register for this free event and lunch by emailing Access Program

The Access Program at the University of Manitoba provides holistic support to Indigenous, newcomer, and other U of M students, empowering them on their path to success. 

Learn more about the Access Program