Graduate Theses & Dissertations

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Barriers and Facilitators to Indigenous Knowledge Incorporation in Policy Making
The inclusion and application of Indigenous Knowledge (IK) has become a central and often demanded element of policy making involving Indigenous peoples. However, there are very few examples that exist in the literature and elsewhere that show how IK can be effectively integrated into decisions, policies, and programs. In response to these challenges, this research explored what processes are used to incorporate IK into policy and their effectiveness through the development of a framework that sought to identify critical factors related to IK inclusion. The framework was then applied to evaluate IK incorporation opportunities in the Nunatsiavut case, focusing on the development of the Nunatsiavut Government's Environmental Protection Act. The case study analysis was used to test and provide adaptations to the initial framework. This research identifies the importance of governance structures and processes, community participation and engagement approaches, and IK research and support programming in enhancing opportunities for IK to be integrated and reflected in policy outcomes. The Nunatsiavut case largely supported, but in some cases challenged critical factors of IK incorporation identified in the framework. The findings of this study are valuable for policy and decision makers (both Indigenous and non-Indigenous) regarding approaches and programs that can assist and support IK inclusion into policy processes and decisions. Author Keywords: environmental assessment, Indigenous Knowledge, Inuit Knowledge, Nunatsiavut, policy, self-government
Exploring Indigenous Contributions to (Indigenization of) the City of Saskatoon's 2012-2022 Strategic Plan
The self-determining autonomy of urban Aboriginal communities in Canada's Prairie Provinces can be strengthened at the local scale through decolonized municipal governance frameworks. The City of Saskatoon's Strategic Plan 2012-2022 is highlighted to explore two interrelated questions: do Saskatoon's Aboriginal engagement strategies represent a co-produced or indigenized mainstream planning and policy-making process? Does the potential indigenization of municipal planning and policy-making represent a promising pathway to facilitate local decolonization through collaborative municipal-Aboriginal governance in Saskatoon? Results from qualitative interviews reveal that the City of Saskatoon's distinctive Aboriginal engagement strategies were not entirely meaningful for participants, though the planning process included elements that, if expanded upon, could deepen co-production. Indigenization through co-production necessitates a thorough integration of Aboriginal community input at every stage of a planning and policy-making process, shared control and decision-making mechanisms between municipal governments and Aboriginal communities, and ancillary considerations for increased Aboriginal representation and participation in the administrative and political functions of City Hall. Author Keywords: aboriginal governance, decolonization, indigenization, policy co-production, self-determination, strategic municipal planning
gi-mi-ni-go-wi-ni-nan o-gi-ma-wi-win zhigo o-gi-ma-win (The gifts of traditional leadership and governance)
ni' o-nah-ko-nah ah-di-so-kah-nahg zhigo di-bah-ji-mo-wi-nan g'dah mi-kwe-ni-mah-nahn obwandiacbun (nigig), tecumthabun (mizhibizhi), miinwaa shingwaukbun (ah-ji-jawk) (I ceremonially call upon the stories, the sacred and spiritual narratives and stories of personal experience... In the spirit of obwandiac, tecumtha and shingwauk) gi-mi-ni-go-wi-ni-nan o-gi-ma-wi-win zhigo o-gi-ma-win (The gifts of traditional leadership and traditional governance) explores anishinabe o-gi-ma-wi-win (traditional leadership and to be esteemed) from the point of view of obwandiac (nigig) in 1763, tecumtha (mizhibizhi) and shingwauk (ah-ji-hawk) in 1812 and 1850 respectively. It also examines the political and social significance of anishinabe o-gi-ma-win (traditional governance) and the n'swi-ish-ko-day-kawn anishinabeg o'dish-ko-day-kawn (Three Fires Confederacy) during the time of these esteemed leaders. The use of our ah-di-so-kah-nahg (sacred and spiritual stories), di-bah-ji-mo-wi-nan (stories of personal experience and reminiscences) and ah-way-chi-gay-wi-nan (moral stories) provides the opportunity to show how anishinabe people used different narratives to ah-way-chi-gay-win (teach by telling stories). In listening to these personal and intimate stories we have an opportunity to understand and explore these concepts of o-gi-ma-wi-win (traditional leadership and to be esteemed) and o-gi-ma-win (traditional governance). The first layer to this distinct way of knowing embodies anishinabe nah-nah-gah-dah-wayn-ji-gay-win (how we come to think this way about our reality and epistemology) and is expressed to us within our gah-wi-zi-maw-ji-say-muh-guhk (creation and stories of origin) and miskew ah-zha-way-chi-win (blood memory and the act of flowing). It states explicitly that we have always known where we came from, who we are, and how we fit into this world. anishinabe i-nah-di-zi-win (our way of being and way of life and ontology) lends voice to the second layer of anishinabe kayn-daw-so-win (traditional knowledge), which defines the responsibilities and expectations of anishinabe society, leadership and governance. Our ni-zhwa-sho gi-ki-nah-mah-gay-wi-nan (seven teachings), ni-zhwa-sho o-na-sho-way-wi-nan (seven sacred laws) and the relationship of the do-daim-mahg (clan system) are described within anishinabemowin, the language of our ceremonies and of the jeeskahn (shake tent). Harry Bone (2011)1, an elder from Keeseekoowenin First Nation suggests that ah-zhi-kay-ni-mo-nahd-a-di-sid bay-mah-di-sid (how we use our way of doing, thinking, ceremony and spirituality to find answers and methodology) represents a third layer that provides us with the ways and means to help us understand the essence of anishinabe nah-nah-gah-dah-wayn-ji-gay-win (how we come to think this way about our reality and epistemology and i-nah-di-zi-win (our way of being and way of life and ontology). This represents the literal and metaphoric o-dah-bah-ji-gahn (sacred bundle) and traditional approach that provides this narrative with the means to explore the ideas of leadership and governance from within a traditional construct. He adds that our spirituality and manitou kay-wi-nan (ceremonies) will be clearly defined and shared within this o-dah-bah-ji-ji-gahn (sacred bundle). It helps establish the spiritual core for this narrative. These anishinabe approaches to methodology (intimate conversations, family history and ceremony) are used to tell a story that mirrors the academic construct of interviews and document analysis. Therefore, the o-dah-bah-ji-gahn (sacred bundle) provides the nay-nahn-do-jee-kayn-chi-gayd (to dig around and research) tools to have this discussion exploring the traditional construct of anishinabe o-gi-ma-wi-win (traditional leadership and to be esteemed) and o-gi-ma-win (traditional governance). Lastly, it is important to understand that this traditional approach shows how these narratives are in-and-of-themselves powerful strategies in understanding anishinabe ah-yah-win (way of being and existence) and gah-gi-bi-i-zhi-say-mah-guhk (history). mii i'i-way anishinabe i-zhi-chi-gay-win (This is the anishinabe way) zhigo mii'iw eta-go o-way neen-gi-kayn-dahn zhigo ni-gi-noon-dah-wah (This is as much as I know and have heard) 1 Bone, Harry (Personal Communication) 2011. Author Keywords:
Sinaakssin (writing/picture)
Assimilative policies limit and disrupt the inclusion of Aboriginal values in most Aboriginal services today. This art-based, qualitative research study approaches that issue, and using symbolism and story a sample scenario was created to demonstrate the impact of assimilative policy on Aboriginal service delivery in a storyboard format. The storyboard was then presented to four traditional thinkers who contemplated the issues therein, and as they deconstructed, considered, and conferred they resolved the matter and produced four distinct models. Imagery is relied on as a traditional means of communication to capture and convey the research issue as a painted story. This research tested the viability of using imagery as a storyboard methodology for solving social issues. By using this approach this dissertation sought to answer the question, does Indigenous knowledge have the power to change the systemic structures that surround our services. For the analysis, did the three Indigenous knowledge paradigms effectively assist in determining the nature of the Indigenous knowledge applied? Author Keywords: collective community subjectivity, Indigenous methodology, paradigms, story, symbolic communication, symbolic representation
Maintaining Balance in Times of Change
Abstract Maintaining Balance in Times of Change: An Investigation into the Contemporary Self-Regulatory Dynamics that Operate in and around First Nations Traditional Healing Systems The evolution of health regulation processes in Canada has focused on the development of standards of practice premised upon the principle of `do no harm' and the approval of these by government regulatory agencies. This thesis examines three emerging communities of practice that bring traditional indigenous knowledge and indigenous healers forward into health care and their approaches to regulation. The results indicate that surrounding contexts of meaning influence understandings about self-regulation and that these understandings are dynamic because contemporary practices of First Nations traditional healing can occur in different contexts. The study cautions that unless we remain close to these `healer centred' contexts, there is no guarantee that the self-regulatory value systems stemming from modern Western medical communities of practice will not be applied by default or that the emerging `integrative' models of self-regulation developed between governments and First Nations will continue to reflect First Nations' understanding of self-regulation. Author Keywords: health and wellness, indigenous, self-determination, self-regulation, traditional healing
maskihkîyâtayôhkêwina; mashkikiiwaadizookewin
maskihkîyâtayôhkêwina- mashkikiiwaadizookewin: Cree and Anishnaabe Narrative Medicine in the Renewal of Ancestral Literature Jud Sojourn This work represents an experiment in developing Cree and Anishnaabe nation-specific approaches to understanding Cree and Anishnaabe texts. The binding premise that guides this work has to do with narrative medicine, the concept that narrative arts, whether ancestral storytelling or current poetry have medicine, or the ability to heal and empower individuals and communities. As âtayôhkêwin in Cree and aadizookewin in Anishnaabemowin refer to ancestral traditional narratives, and while maskihkiy in Cree, and mashkiki in Anishnaabemowin refer to medicine, maskihkîyâtayôhkêwina and mashkikiiwaadizookewin mean simply `narrative medicine' in Cree and Anishnaabemowin respectively. After establishing a formative sense for what narrative medicine is, this work continues by looking at the bilingual Ojibwa Texts (1917, 1919) transcribed by William Jones in 1903-1905 on the north shore of Lake Superior and in northern Minnesota Anishnaabe communities, those spoken by Anishnaabe community members Gaagigebinesiikwe, Gaagigebinesii, Midaasookanzh, Maajiigaaboo, and Waasaagooneshkang. Then focus then turns to the bilingual Plains Cree Texts (1934) transcribed by Leonard Bloomfield at the Sweet Grass Reserve in Saskatchewan and spoken by Cree community members nâhnamiskwêkâpaw, sâkêwêw, cicikwayaw, kâ-kîsikaw pîhtokêw , nakwêsis, mimikwâs, and kâ-wîhkaskosahk. The themes that emerge from looking at these texts when combined with an appreciation for the poetics of the Cree and Anishnaabe languages provide the foundation for looking at newer poetry including the work of Cree poet Skydancer Louise Bernice Halfe, centering on the contemporary epic prayer-poem The Crooked Good (2007) and the works of Anishnaabe poet Marie Annharte Baker, focusing on Exercises in Lip Pointing (2003). Each poet emerged as having an understanding her own role in her respective nation as renewing the narrative practices of previous generations. Understandings of the shape or signature of each of the four works' unique kind of narrative medicine come from looking at themes that run throughout. In each of the four works the maskihkîyâtayôhkêwina - mashkikiiwaadizookewin, the narrative medicine they express occurs through or results in mamaandaawiziwin in Anishnaabemowin or mamâhtâwisiwin, in Cree - the embodied experience of expansive relationality. Keywords: Cree, Anishnaabe, nêhiyawêwin, Anishnaabemowin, narrative medicine, traditional stories, poetics, poetry, literary criticism, literary nationalism, Indigenous, indigenist. Author Keywords: Anishnaabe, Anishnaabemowin, Cree, Indigenous, nêhiyawêwin, Poetics
Gaagnig Pane Chiyaayong: Forever, We Will Remain, Reflections and Memories
ABSTRACT Gaagnig Pane Chiyaayong: Forever, We Will Remain Reflections and Memories: `Resiliency' Concerning the Walpole Island Residential School Survivors Group Theresa Turmel From 1830 to 1996, Canada pursued a policy of removing Indigenous children from their families and educating them in residential schools. In coming to terms with the harsh and abusive treatment they endured, many survivors from residential schools have formed organizations to support each other and to make their experiences known. This project is a result of a participatory, community-based partnership with one such group in southwestern Ontario, the Walpole Island Residential School Survivors Group (WIRSSG), many of whom attended Shingwauk Indian Residential School. Like most of the survivors of the WIRSSG, I am Anishinaabe but did not attend residential school. The survivors invited me to deeply listen to their life experiences in order to learn about their resiliency. Guided by traditional Anishinaabe teachings and using an Anishinaabe methodology, I interviewed thirteen survivors and considered their life stories within the context of the traditional Anishinaabe life cycle. In their descriptions of resiliency, what became clear to me was that they were describing life force energy. This life force energy is innate and holistic, and can be found within each of us. It manifests within all of our relations: land, animals, plants, ancestors and other people. The life force energy cannot be extinguished but can be severely dampened as was evident in the attempt to assimilate residential school students. From their accounts, we learn that students found ways to nurture their life force energy through relationships and acts of resistance. As they have continued on their life path, they have reclaimed their spirit and today, they are telling their stories and keeping this history alive for the benefit of future generations. Key words: Anishinaabe; Anishinaabe Mino-bimaadiziwin; Residential Schools; Aboriginal Residential School survivors; Indian Residential Schools; Indian Residential School survivors; life force energy; resilience; resiliency; resiliency theory; Walpole Island Residential School Survivors Group; Shingwauk; Shingwauk Indian Residential School Author Keywords: life force energy, residential school survivors, resiliency
Energy Resilience in Northern Communities
This project examines the factors for success of alternative energy initiatives in remote northern Indigenous communities, and the link between northern community energy and resilience. The case study, in the Gwich’in village of Fort McPherson, Northwest Territories, focuses upon a biomass boiler district heating project that provides renewable heat fuelled by local wood chips, and the willow harvesting initiative that supports it. Data was collected by interviews and participant observation in Fort McPherson and Yellowknife, and by analysis of resilience, community energy, and biomass literature. Success factors identified include the importance of aligning energy systems with local cultural identity, traditional values and connection to landscape, values often under-represented in financially-driven energy decisions. Autonomy and self-reliance are shown to be critical factors in northern community energy decisions, related to well-being, pride in place and enhanced resilience. Community resilience is revealed as a key component of northern community energy success. Author Keywords: Energy, Indigenous, Northern, Renewable, Resilience, Sustainable
Hiya 'aa ma pichas 'ope ma hammako he ma pap'oyyisko (Let Us Understand Again our Grandmothers and our Grandfathers)
The Tamalko (Coast Miwok) North Central California Indigenous people have lived in their homelands since their beginnings. California Indigenous people have suffered violent and uncompromising colonial assaults since European contact began in the 16th century. However, many contemporary Indigenous Californians are thriving today as they reclaim their Native American sovereign rights, cultural renewal, and well-being. Culture Bearers are working diligently as advocates and teachers to re-cultivate Indigenous consciousness and knowledge systems. The Tamalko author offers Indigenous perspectives for hinak towis hennak (to make a good a life) through an ethno-autobiographical account based on narratives by Culture Bearers from four Indigenous North Central California Penutian-speaking communities and the author’s personal experiences. A Tamalko view of finding and speaking truth hinti wuskin ʼona (what the heart says) has been the foundational principle of the research method used to illuminate and illustrate Indigenous North Central California consciousness. Author Keywords: Consciousness, Culture Bearers, Indigenous, North Central California, Penutian, re-cultivation
Sacred Space, Ancestors, and Authority
The Middle Formative Period (1000 – 400 B.C.) has increasing become recognized as a critical locus in the development of Lowland Maya socio-political complexity. This period witnessed the founding of numerous ceremonial centers, substantial material cultural innovation, and the advent of mortuary practices indicating developing social differentiation. Recent excavations at the site of Ka’Kabish in Northern Belize have uncovered evidence significantly strengthening this view. Excavations underlying Plaza D-South at Ka’Kabish have revealed a series of bedrock-hewn pits containing offering caches of thousands of shell beads, forty-seven greenstone objects, and extensive ceramic evidence indicating communal ritual and feasting, which is argued by the author to represent a cosmographic diorama of the cave-riddled Underworld. Significantly, this elaborate cosmographic offering event appears to center on the secondary, bundled bedrock-cist burial of an important personage and/or ancestor who is accompanied by a number of finely crafted jade ornaments representing motifs and forms that have previously been interpreted as symbols of authority, rulership, and divine kingship. Comparable contemporary evidence from Northern Belize and beyond has been interpreted through models foregrounding site-founding, place-making, ancestor veneration, and aggrandizer driven social differentiation. By integrating and contrasting these existing models with new evidence from Ka’Kabish, this thesis argues that the mortuary, caching, and architectural practices evidenced at Middle Formative Ka’Kabish represent a glimpse into the incipience of the ideological complex, the socio-cultural processes, and the material manifestations propagating the development of subsequent Maya socio-political complexity, specifically the institution of divine kingship or ch’uhul ahau. Author Keywords: ancestor veneration, ancient Maya, greenstone cache, Ka’Kabish, Belize, Middle Formative, socio-political complexity
Environmental Health Management Practices in Indigenous Communities
Environmental factors play a critical role in the health and well-being of people worldwide and the distribution of the burden of disease associated with environmental causes is disproportionately high in marginalized populations, including First Nations. In this way, environmental health problems are as much social and political problems as environmental and must be addressed as such. In Canada, the division of responsibilities for environmental health, in combination with the jurisdictional complexities of health and environment regulation and service provision on-reserve creates a First Nations environmental health management system with significant gaps. This research set out to explore the question: What are the current strengths and challenges in First Nations environmental health policy and management? A qualitative exploratory design organized in two stages and employing key informant interviews, document review and a community case study was used to examine this topic. In the first stage a review of existing programs and policies applicable to Ontario First Nations and a series of interviews with key experts on the topic in the province were conducted. A conceptual framework of the core elements affecting environmental health management in First Nations communities was developed and then applied to a case study with Mississauga First Nation in Northern Ontario. The framework included five core elements: Environmental Health Jurisdiction and Responsibility; Participation in Environmental Health Decision-Making; Access to Environmental Health Resources, Communication of Environmental Health Information; and, Role and Influence of Leadership. The findings indicate that "internal" issues, like community-based decision-making and support for environmental health initiatives seem to be least affected by the "external" issues such as access to federal funding. The "internal" issues were also shown to be critically important factors having impacts on environmental health management practices and policies in Mississauga First Nation. While there are countless barriers associated with the "external" factors that have significant impacts on environmental health management practices and policies, this research suggest that the "internal" factors can potentially be the most important factors in creating positive change in this area and as a result warrant further study in order to improve the state of environmental health issues in First Nations. Author Keywords: Community, Environmental Health, First Nations, Framework, Policy
MSHKIKENH IKWE NIIN (I am Tutle Woman)
This dissertation offers the dibaajimowin (personal story) of my beading project, which I undertook to understand the enactment of Anishinaabe women’s knowledge in graduate research. Framed through the concept of a collective self, which is embedded within the Anishinaabe traditions of storytelling and beading, and drawing further from the aesthetics, processes, and teachings of these traditions so that I proceed in a good way, I am able to tell a story that is wholly Anishinaabe. Through the symbolic literacy present within the pieces of beadwork entitled:”Turtle Woman,” “Turtle Woman Meets Grandmother Moon,” “Turtle Woman Marries a Beaver,” and “Turtle Woman Slays the Big Fish,” which I present in the second half of this story, I explore the relationship among Anishinaabe women’s knowledges, self, identity, power relations, allyship, sovereignty and good governance in graduate research. I conclude that if graduate research is framed as an extension of an Anishinaabe space, an ethics of responsibility emerges, setting the stage for graduate research that is rooted in responsibility, contributing to efforts of Anishinaabe sovereignty and community wellness. Overall through my conclusion, as well as the process that I employ, I make contributions in the areas of Indigenous thought, Indigenous methodologies, Indigenous governance, feminism, critical theory, pedagogy, and ally theory. Author Keywords: Anishinaabe, beadwork, Indigenous knowledge, Indigenous methodology, Indigenous women, sovereignty

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Graduate student theses produced at Trent University. You may also browse theses and dissertations by year, program, or author.

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