Graduate Theses & Dissertations

Pages

Governance as If Our Lives Depended On It
This research explores how the value of sustaining the natural world could become foundational to senior level policy decisions in Canada and how Indigenous Knowledges and Peoples could play a key role in such a paradigm shift. It is a trans-disciplinary study that draws on scholarship in Indigenous Studies, Sustainability Studies and Public Policy and existing report recommendations and policy documents that highlight both historical and recent governance trends in the area of sustainability. These sources help to describe both the challenges and the art of the possible in achieving a policy paradigm shift in Canada. The focal point is a series of conversations with seventeen highly experienced Indigenous and non-indigenous policy leaders from across Canada and across traditional territories. The findings reveal that many participants strongly agreed that a paradigm shift should occur and that both Indigenous and western worldviews are needed to realize it, with none disagreeing. They also point to significant changes that are needed to move from paradigms where shorter-term economic development decisions take precedence over environmental concerns to understanding that a healthy economy and society are dependent upon the natural world. To this end, they provide recommendations such as embedding the Right to a Clean Environment in federal legislation and learning from consensus and culturally based governance models in the North West Territories, Nunavut and New Zealand. They suggest mandating education and awareness programs for civil servants and elected officials on Indigenous -Canada relations and sustaining the natural world upon which Canada is situated and upon which treaties are based. They emphasize that a culture shift requires more Indigenous Peoples in senior leadership roles and to be more meaningfully involved in policy processes. Overall, the conclusion finds that a paradigm shift requires positive relationships between parliamentary governments and Indigenous peoples that enable both Knowledge Systems to come together to put the natural world at the foundation of senior-level policy decisions. Qualities such as respect, listening, trust, reciprocity, responsibility and connectedness with the natural world are highlighted through real-world examples that show that, although it may take time, a paradigm shift is possible and may have already begun. Next steps suggest new approaches for building relationships into the policy cycle. Author Keywords: Governance, Policy, Sustainability, Indigenous Knowledges, Natural World
It Flows from the Heart
Indigenous Knowledges and intellectual tradition emanate from relationship with land, water, spirit, and the beings of Creation. Knowledge mobilization occurs intergenerationally and through these relationships. The Bodwewaadmii Anishinaabeg have lived in relationship with the Great Lakes since the formation of the lakes. Our stories and practices demonstrate our intimate ties to land, water, and the other than human beings. This dissertation shares some of these practices and stories. Settler colonialism in the Great Lakes has disrupted Bodwewaadmii Anishinaabe relationships and resulted in a diaspora. Following the Federal Indian Removal Act of 1830, individual Bodwewaadmiig and families moved north and inland from the southern shores of Lake Michigan, south to the southern plains of the United States and into Mexico, or seemingly stayed in place in southwestern Michigan. As a result, Bodwewaadmii Anishinaabeg now reside in three colonial nation states—Canada, United States, and Mexico. The disruption of Great Lakes basin-based relationships continues, impacting cultural practices, language, and Knowledges as well as knowledge mobilization. Multilayered settler colonial processes have covered women’s water Knowledges and practices. This dissertation shares narratives of Bodwewaadmii migration, removal and relocation through a lens of disruption and knowledge covering. Returning to ourselves, Biskaabiiyang, is revitalization of culture, language and Knowledges. In addition, Biskaabiiyang is a way of being and a research methodology. This dissertation shares the stories and motivations of over twenty-five Anishinaabe women, men and gender fluid humans working to uncover Knowledges and practices and reweave both into their daily lives, the lives of their grandchildren and their community members. This research builds on historical literature and on a body of literature about cultural practices, water Knowledges, and Indigenous peoples’ relationships with land, water, and the beings of the Great Lakes. It contributes to Indigenous research methodology, Bodwewaadmii Anishinaabe history, and revitalization of language, Knowledges and practices. It has been written in a narrative style and for the benefit of our families and communities. Author Keywords: Anishinaabe Studies, Biskaabiiyang, Indigenous Knowledges, Indigenous Research Methodology, Potawatomi, Water
Keeping Circle
In the 1980’s, Hollow Water First Nation citizens created a healing movement to address community issues from an Indigenous perspective resulting in the development of the Community Holistic Circle Healing (CHCH) in 1989. The CHCH organization developed a Community (Restorative) Justice process as an alternative to a Western-based Justice approach to address issues such as domestic violence and sexual abuse. The CHCH organization addresses justice from a healing perspective (rather than the Western approach’s punitive/surveillance model) and includes the offender and offender’s family, the victim and the victim’s family, as well as the community to identify issues, develop plans, implement healing activities, and evaluate the outcome so that the root systemic issues affecting community can be addressed holistically. Hollow Water First Nation is much more engaged in addressing the roots of why the offence occurred and looks for Anishinaabek approaches to resolve community-defined issues. Western society tends to implement a symptomatic approach to violence deterrence through punishment rather than address issues through a healing process. My research looks at the complex history of the healing movement, the operation of the CHCH organization and the personal values that emerged from the healing movement, and Hollow Water’s next iteration of organization from the children of the people that began the healing movement. These people are now aged around mid-40’s and have seen their parents engage in a community justice movement, saw their parents develop their own way to address community issues through the emergence and operation of the CHCH organization, and now, themselves, have developed highly critical and creative skills around the workings of community development. I use Berger and Luckmann’s seminal 1966 book The Social Construction of Reality, Hallowell’s perspectives on the Anishinaabek culture in his anthropological research conducted in Beren’s River, Manitoba during the 1930’s, Max Weber’s The Theory of Social and Economic Organization (1915), interviews with the original activists, and my experiences living in Hollow Water for 4+ years (from 1997 to 2001) to give an account of the history of the healing movement and its consequent personal transformation of the people engaged in examining their thoughts, values and behavioural processes. I use the Learning Organization Theory, developed by Peter Senge (a management professor from Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in his 1990 book The Fifth Discipline, interviews of CHCH staff and other community organization staff members, as well as, Indigenous authors, such as, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s Dancing on Our Turtle’s Back (2011) and Michael Hart’s Seeking Mino-Pimatisiwin (2002) to provide an understanding of Indigenous concepts as they apply to the process of CHCH’s healing/learning operations. From these sources and interviews, I provide an account of Hollow Water’s Healing Movement which includes the decline of the CHCH organization from late 1990s to 2020. Given the current hyperpolitical environment in Canada, Hollow Water’s next generation of community member activists are perhaps about to reclaim power and establish empowered relationships as the Indigenous Renaissance unfolds. Author Keywords: Community Healing Movement Process, Hollow Water First Nation, Indigenous Axiology and Praxis, Learning Organization, Restorative Justice, Systems-Thinking
Memorable Movie Watching
Memorable Movie Watching: Viewer Ruminations about Memory in Four Canadian Films and their IMDb User Reviews explores how four Canadian films released in the decade around the turn of the millennium tell stories of memory and remembering, and how User Reviewers writing on the IMDb.com engage with, respond to, and re–remember those narratives filtered through their own remembered personal experiences. It embraces a new form of audience research by analyzing films alongside voluntary viewer contributions in order to bring these viewers’ voices into the conversation about memory in film and specifically Canadian film.Lilies (John Greyson, 1996), The Hanging Garden (Thom Fitzgerald, 1997), Marion Bridge (Wiebke Von Carolsfeld, 2002), and My Winnipeg (Guy Maddin, 2007) are each fiction films that focus on the main character’s deeply personal childhood memories. A textual analysis of the four films reveals trends in how the filmmakers create memory explorations and memory works [works based on memory] in Canadian film. A further textual and thematic analysis of the IMDb’s 117 User Reviews for these four films reveals how viewers engage with what I term memory narratives and the personal memories these films spark. The four films respectively privilege, through narrative and filmic techniques, each protagonist’s telling of remembered childhood events. Yet when User Reviewers of the films comment on the protagonist’s remembered childhood events, they choose to contest them, citing the unreliability of the remembered and of memory itself. User Reviewers interrogate the film narratives against their own personal experience, all the while asserting that there is significance to be found in the process of remembering. For User Reviewers, this process of remembering involves engaging with the film and then writing about their memories of watching the film and its narrative through their own sparked memories. In this process, they dig for significant meaning even though Users rarely articulate that meaning or specify for whom it is meaningful. In their writing, Users do reveal their own thoughts and beliefs about Canadian film, as well as their knowledge of filmmakers, related texts, Canadian locations, and their own childhood and youth experiences. Key words Memory, Remembering, Canadian Film, User generated content, Audience, Viewer, Thom Fitzgerald, John Greyson, Guy Maddin, Wiebke von Carolsfeld Content Warning Please note: the memory stories depicted in these films, discussed in the User Reviews and in this dissertation are extremely disturbing and may be upsetting to the reader. Author Keywords: Audience, Canadian Film, Memory, Social Media, User Generated Content, Viewer
Anishinaabe Motherhood
The purpose of this qualitative study is to investigate Anishinaabe women’s Traditional Teachings and pedagogies in a contemporary context. Through this exploration, I have uncovered the tensions, challenges, and strengths that Anishinaabe gaashiyag (mothers) face when engaging with these Traditional Teachings and pedagogies. The research methodology I have used is a branch of grounded theory called the Anishinaabe Research Methodology, and it is integral to the Anishinaabe principles of living called the Seven Grandparent Teachings: Wisdom, Love, Respect, Bravery, Honesty, Humility, and Truth. I used a research method called the Nbwaachiwi (the art of visiting) method. I used the ‘Aunties kitchen table’ style of knowledge collection, where it is open-ended and one-on-one - like you would be at your auntie's kitchen table, sharing stories and having tea. By utilizing these principles, I conducted my research through the Anishinaabe-aadiziwin (culture and language – way of life) paradigm. I addressed multilayered Anishinaabe teachings and many connections to the land and spirituality. I have found that Anishinaabe gaashiyag feel pressure to adopt Western modes of raising their children. However, some young women are returning to the traditional Anishinaabe teachings by using traditional birthing techniques, tiknigaans (traditional baby carriers), and evolving our cultural practices to fit modern ways of living. The knowledge I present within this paper can inform mothers who want to learn Traditional Teachings and pedagogies, and thereby resist ongoing intergeneration trauma and colonization. New generations are identifying what the negative effects on raising Anishinaabe children and taking a stand to break ongoing trauma and abuse so that their children do not have to be subjected to it. These mothers are informed about cultural and Traditional Teachings with the hope that they can use this knowledge to assist them on their path to, and during, motherhood. Given the determination of these young mothers to raise their babies using Anishinaabe traditional methods, the future identities and lives of their children may be significantly better in a cultural sense than their predecessors. They will be the products of their mothers’ commitment to the resurgence of Anishinaabe maternal teachings and pedagogies. Author Keywords: Anishinaabe, Indigenous Motherhood, Motherhood, Parenting, Pedagogies, Teachings
Rural Older Adult Transitions in Care
Aligning health services with aging populations is the fundamental issue of modern Canadian health policy, yet rural older populations still experience compromised patient safety and poor-quality care as they transfer between care settings. As such, contemporary scholars acknowledge that more contextually sensitive studies are needed to better understand the unique health and care experiences of this vulnerable population across the care continuum. Informed by inquiry in critical gerontology, health services and human geography, my dissertation attends to this gap in research by revealing the interplay between older adult health construction and the influence of multidimensional contexts on rural older adult transitions in care. Using a community-based approach, I conduct a case study on Haliburton County that encompasses three phases (e.g., a rural community inventory, go-alongs and semi-structured interviews) and focuses on two types of transitions in care (when an older adult is transferred from a hospital to a long-term care home and when an older adult is transferred from a hospital to a home in the community). In total, 19 patients, 24 informal supports, 51 front-line staff and five administrators/managers participated in my dissertation, resulting in 99 total participants being included in 19 go-alongs and 85 semi-structured interviews. My results indicate that multi-leveled facets of the rural care context continually attend to and hinder rural older adult health during transitions in care. In particular, sectored divisions, urban centrism, biomedicine and ageism inhibit rural care providers from leveraging their strengths to attend to the heterogeneity of rural older adult health and the nuances of rural care contexts. I then argue the need for macro health systems reform to embrace the relationality of rural older adult transitions in care and to capitalize on the strengths inherent in rural communities. To foster knowledge mobilization of my findings, I provide a foundation of information and recommendations for the community partners (Haliburton Highlands Health Services and Seniors Care Network) as well as questions to inform research, policy and practice. Establishing the first study of rural older adult transitions in care where a researcher accompanies older adults and their informal supports across care settings, my dissertation will help prepare Canada for the impact of the aging population and transform transitional care provision to meet the needs of all Canadians in the 21st century. Author Keywords: Canada, Geriatric Care, Health Care, Older Adult Health, Rural Health Care, Transitions in care
Frequency-time and polarization considerations in spectral-focusing-based CARS microscopy
Spectral-focusing-based coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (SF-CARS) microscopy is a powerful imaging technique that involves temporally and spectrally stretching ultrashort laser pulses and controlling their frequency-time characteristics. However, a broader and more detailed understanding of the frequency-time characteristics of the laser pulses and signals involved, how they are related, and how they influence important aspects such as the spectral resolution is needed to understand the full potential of SF-CARS systems. In this work, I elucidate these relationships and discuss how they can be exploited to optimize SF-CARS microscopy setups. I present a theoretical analysis of the relationships between the spectral resolution, the degree of chirp-matching, and pulse bandwidth in SF-CARS. I find that, despite allowing better ultimate spectral resolution when chirp-matching is attained, the use of the broadest bandwidth pulses can significantly worsen the spectral resolution if the pulses are not chirp-matched. I demonstrate that the bandwidth of the detected anti-Stokes signal is minimized when the pump is twice as chirped as the Stokes, meaning that (perhaps counter-intuitively) a narrow anti-Stokes bandwidth does not imply good spectral resolution. I present approximate expressions that relate the bandwidths of the pump, Stokes, and anti-Stokes pulses to the degree of chirp-matching and outline how these could be used to estimate the amount of glass needed to attain chirp-matching. I develop a spectral-focusing-based polarization-resolved (SFP-CARS) setup, by modifying our existing system, to explore the merits of integrating polarization-dependent detection as an add-on to existing SF-CARS setups. By using the system to study polarization-dependent features in the CARS spectrum of benzonitrile, I assess its capabilities and demonstrate its ability to accurately determine Raman depolarization ratios. Ultimately, the detected anti-Stokes signals are more elliptically polarized than desired, hindering a complete suppression of the non-resonant background. Nevertheless, I find that the SFP-CARS setup is a useful tool for studying polarization-dependent features in the CARS spectra of various samples and is worthy of further investigation. This work clarifies several technical aspects of SF-CARS microscopy and provides researchers with valuable information to consider when working with SF-CARS microscopy systems. Author Keywords: coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering, nonlinear microscopy, polarization, spectral focusing, spectroscopy
Experiencing buhts’an qu’inal from sHachel jwohc’ a’tel through sna'el ya'beyel stuc te bin ay ma'yuc
This thesis shows and emphasizes the importance of Indigenous Knowledge (IK) in informing collaborative efforts that promote sustainable economic development in Indigenous communities. It tells the story of a participative research study undertaken with six Tseltal communities located in the Region Selva of Chiapas, Mexico, in the context of the Covid19 pandemic of 2020 and early 2021. In this study, the research participants reflect on their endeavours pursuing projects focused on the economic self-sufficiency of their communities. Their initiatives, which are deeply grounded in Tseltal practices while accompanied by the local non-profit organization IXIM AC, focus on developing economically self-sustaining enterprises in self-organized groups led by local Indigenous women. The findings offer a deep immersion into two aspects that emerge from Tseltal knowledge: The Nucleus of Tseltal community wellbeing and the Four Elements of Buhts’an qu’inal (Tseltal community wellbeing). The study’s results show that these two IK grounded aspects guide the participants’ endeavours in developing sHachel jwohc’ a’tel (Tseltal initiatives of entrepreneurship) while also enabling opportunities for gender transformative collaborative work and sustained engagement in local initiatives of sna'el ya'beyel stuc te bin ay ma'yuc (Tseltal economic development oriented to community wellbeing). Author Keywords: Community Wellbeing, Indigenous Entrepreneurship, Indigenous Knowledges, Indigenous Women, Participative Action Research, Sustainable Development
History and Legacy of the “Orillia Asylum for Idiots
The “Orillia Asylum for Idiots” (1861 - 2009), Canada’s oldest and largest facility for the care and protection of children and adults with disabilities, was once praised as a beacon of humanitarian progress and described as a “community within a community.” Yet, survivors who lived in the facility during the post Second World War period, a time described as the “golden age of children’s rights,” tell harrowing stories of abuse and neglect. Despite the nation’s promise to “put children first” and protect the universal rights of “Canada’s children,” children incarcerated within the Orillia Asylum were subjected to systemic neglect and cultural discrimination, daily humiliation and dehumanization, and physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. Far from being a place for child protection and care, this dissertation finds that the Orillia Asylum was a site of a multi-faceted and all-encompassing violence, a reality that stands in complete contrast to the grand narrative through which the facility has historically been understood. This dissertation considers how such violence against children could occur for so long in a facility maintained by the state, a state invested in protecting children. It finds that children who were admitted to the Orillia Asylum were not considered to be “Canada’s children” at all by virtue of being labelled as “mentally deficient,” “feeble-minded,” “not-quite-human,” and “not-quite-children.” Author Keywords: childhood, disability, Huronia Regional Centre, institutional child abuse, institutional violence, institutionalization
Extraction and Characterization of Hyaluronic Acid and Collagen from Eggshell Membrane Waste
Connecting academia to industry is one important way to advance towards meeting the United Nations (UN) Sustainability Goals (SDGs).1 Sustainability can be applied to all industrial sectors with the SDGs being implemented by 2030.2 This research contributes to the SDGs by investigating a way to remediate an industrial waste stream in the egg-breaking industry. If adopted, this would reduce the amount of eggshell membrane (ESM) waste placed in landfill where it does not decompose properly. The work described in this thesis specifically targets extraction of collagen and hyaluronic acid (HA), two components of the ESM that are of commercial value in the cosmetic, pharmaceutical, and biomedical industries3,4 . Deliverables from this research include economically viable extraction methods, developed based on green chemistry approaches, that can be transferred from lab bench to industrial scale. The extraction development process was guided by the 12 Principles of Green Chemistry5,6,7 and the 12 Principles of Green Engineering.8 HA was most successfully extracted using a sodium acetate solution on ground ESM. Filtrate was collected, exhaustively dialyzed and lyophilized. High molecular weight HA was recovered. Fourier transform infrared attenuated total reflectance (FTIR-ATR) spectroscopy and proton nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy compared extracted material to reference HA identifying successful extraction. Collagen was extracted using acetic acid or pepsin enzyme digestion. Hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) coupled with mass spectrometry (MS) compared amino acid composition of extracted materials to reference collagen material. FTIR-ATR spectra also supported successful extraction of collagen. This work identifies that HA and collagen can be conveniently extracted from ESM using an economical approach that can be implemented into egg-breaking facilities. This work highlights the benefits of connecting academia to industry to advance green chemical approaches while implementing sustainable practices into existing industry. Author Keywords: collagen, eggshell membrane waste, extraction, green chemistry, hyaluronic acid, sustainability
UV-Curable hybrid sol-gel materials
This thesis describes the synthesis, application and evaluation of a UV crosslinked 3-methacryloxypropyltrimethoxysilane-derived coating formulation. This is a two-component sol-gel system with 3-methacryloxypropyltrimethoxysilane (MaPTMS) and tetraethoxysilane (TEOS). Herein we show that if we change the co-solvent required for solubilizing MaPTMS from the more common methanol and ethanol to isopropanol we change the rate of hydrolysis from days or weeks to minutes. With the assistance of 2D 29Si-NMR we demonstrate that the system undergoes extensive condensation in twenty minutes. Using standard UV irradiation, the material can be extensively UV crosslinked with 70% of the methacryloxy functionality being consumed in 5 minutes upon irradiation in the presence of a photo-initiator. When this material is used to coat low carbon steel and immersed in an accelerated corrosion solution (dilute Harrison’s solution); this material affords low carbon steel 25 hours of protection when crosslinked and 17 hours of protection when uncrosslinked. The material was then used to encapsulate polyaniline (PANI), an intrinsic conductive polymer used in the corrosion protection of metal substrates. PANI has been encapsulated previously in sol-gel material, but due to the pH dependence of the solubility of PANI, it can not be encapsulated in more commonly chemically crosslinked sol-gel. As our system is UV crosslinked rather than chemically crosslinked, we were able to successfully demonstrate the inclusion of PANI into our coating system. Finally, this thesis includes a thorough computational investigation into the structure and band gap of PANI. Through the analysis of the band gap it was shown that the structure of the polymer commonly displayed in literature is not the correct structure of the polymer. Our results suggest that when PANI is made electrochemically, the oligomer contains two quinoid units next to one another instead of the more usually represented regularly alternating benzoid and quinoid units. The results also suggest that when PANI is made using the oxidant ammonium persulfate, the polymer most likely contains a Michael adduct structure somewhere in the polymer chain which dominates PANI’s electronic properties. Author Keywords: 3-Methacryloxypropyltrimethoxysilane, Computational Chemistry , Corrosion , Polyaniline, Tetraethoxysilane
“The Darkest Tapestry”
This doctoral research project is a part of the quest for an inclusive telling of Canada’s national identity and will focus on the creation of a memorialization Keeping Place model to commemorate the Indian Residential School system in Canada. My dissertation is interdisciplinary and contributes to the fields of cultural history, memory and post-colonial studies. In response to the TRC recommendation that calls on all Canadians to “develop and implement a national heritage plan and strategy for commemorating residential school sites, the history and legacy of residential schools, and the contributions of Indigenous peoples to Canada’s history”, this project aims to contribute a unique analysis and discourse to the existing literature as it will focus on developing a process of commemoration of the IRS system by uniting the architectural/geographical location not only as a place/space of colonizing “perpetrator architecture” but also as a Keeping Place and “site of memory/lieu de memoire” or conscience. This project will also engage the concepts of “Indigenous Métissage” and “Cultural Interface” to aid in the creation of an educational commemoration and reconciliation Keeping Place model for all Canadians. Author Keywords: canada, indian residential schools, keeping place , memory, saskatchewan, sites of memory

Pages

Search Our Digital Collections

Query

Enabled Filters

  • (-) ≠ Burness
  • (-) ≠ Cultural Studies
  • (-) = Doctor of Philosophy
  • (-) ≠ Environmental and Life Sciences

Filter Results

Date

2004 - 2024
(decades)
Specify date range: Show
Format: 2024/03/29