Indigenous economic development is not only about building processes for yielding financial assets. Rather, economic development that advances Indigenous prosperity is about respect for Indigenous legal orders, tradition, culture, distinct history, language, local geographical considerations, and how these are all connected to the attachment to place (land) and traditional territories. In a series of published articles, this portfolio seeks to address critical issues around how to build a more inclusive Canadian economy that advances Indigenous prosperity. The articles critically analyse theoretical perspectives on law and economics; Indigenous economic perspectives; legal decisions and legislation that impact Indigenous peoples legal and economic interests; and asset governance structures in which Indigenous peoples engage. The articles contribute to the legal scholarship involving Indigenous peoples by advancing ways to understand the legal, economic and lived experiences of Indigenous peoples in Canada involved in economic development and working toward reclaiming self-determination. The articles address three key themes that emerged from the research: 1) Eurocentric laws had and continue to have a devastating impact on Indigenous peoples’ legal rights and constrain their economies; 2) Indigenous peoples’ positionality and perspectives must be respected if a pathway is to be built for Indigenous laws to be purposefully included in economic development initiatives that contribute to Indigenous prosperity; and 3) Indigenous ways of knowing exist as living sources of knowledge. The articles are grounded in the Mi’kmaq principle of Etuaptmumk, Two-Eyed Seeing—concerned with engaging multiple perspectives. Two-Eyed Seeing may assist in removing legal constraints by first providing a framework for seeing and understanding some of those constraints imposed by a dominant worldview that does not contemplate various perspectives. Two-Eyed Seeing provides ways to engage with Indigenous legal, sovereign and economic perspectives such that building a more inclusive Canadian economy that advances Indigenous prosperity is possible. Engaging in multiple perspectives will only enrich Canadian society and foster economic reconciliation that benefits all.

Isolate and Assimilate: Settler Colonialism in the Canadian ArcticPrevious generations of Canadian historians have focused on welfare when examining the twenty-first century colonization of the territory of Nunavut. Patrick Wolfe’s theory of settler colonialism, on the other hand, presents a form of colonialism that allows for examination through a more cultural-centric lens, while still recognizing the exploitation of economics for purposes of assimilation. Using government reports, Truth and Reconciliation Committee findings, and first-hand accounts from local Inuit, this paper takes Wolfe’s theory and analyzes how his idea of “logics of elimination” were exemplified in the Canadian government’s actions after the 1930s. The “going away” focus of settler colonialism appeared in both the physical and cultural sense within methods used by the government and the RCMP. Physical logics of elimination occurred in projects such as the various High Arctic Relocations and the building of settlements, used for the purposes of showing sovereignty and effective occupation in the north. Cultural logics of elimination took the form of actions like wildlife and game management laws, the slaughter of sled dogs, residential schools, disc numbers, Project Surname, and healthcare removal. All the above elements are examined within the paper to showcase how the theory of settler colonialism can and should be used to examine the history of the Canadian Arctic. Arctic Dislocation: Racialization and Assimilation of Inupiat and Yup’ik Students at Carlisle Indian Industrial SchoolOpened in 1879 by Richard Henry Pratt, the Carlisle Indian Industrial School was the blueprint for the system of government-run off-reservation residential schools in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Over ten-thousand children would attend the school by the time it closed. Among them were seventeen students, taken from thousands of miles away in Alaska, intended by Pratt to act as examples of how effective Carlisle’s assimilation project could be. In the process of assimilation, their tribal identities were erased, and the students were instead recorded as “Eskimo;” no mention of them being Inupiat and Yup’ik exists in the archives for Carlisle. Although Carlisle has generated an extensive historiography, scholars have neglected these students and their unique circumstances, and no one had bothered to attempt to discover where they came from. This paper rectifies this, examining these students and their lives through their student files, newspaper articles, letters, and other primary sources from their time at Carlisle. This paper analyzes assimilation, renaming, before-and-after photography, and the cemetery at Carlisle to showcase how these students were racialized, not just as “Indian” but also as “Eskimo” and “Alaskan.”

Thesis (LL. M)--University of Toronto, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 77-82).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--George Mason University, 2008. / Vita: p. 305. Thesis director: Agnieszka Paczynska. Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Conflict Analysis and Resolution. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Mar. 9, 2009). Includes bibliographical references (p. 287-304). Also issued in print.

Thesis (M. A.)--University of Canterbury, 2007. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 122-130). Also available via the World Wide Web.

This research explores the implications of the distinction between transactional and relational understandings of the Numbered Treaties, negotiated by Indigenous peoples and the Dominion of Canada from 1871-1921. It deconstructs representations of the Numbered Treaties as “land transactions” and challenges the associated forms of oppression that emerge from this interpretation. Drawing on oral histories of the Numbered Treaties, it argues instead that they established a framework for relationship that expressly affirmed the continuity of Indigenous legal and political orders. Further, this dissertation positions treaties as a longstanding Indigenous political institution, arguing for the resurgence of a treaty-based ethic of relationality that has multiple applications in the contemporary context. It demonstrates how a relational understanding of treaties can function as a powerful strategy of refusal to incorporation within the nation state; arguing that if treaties are understood as structures of co-existence rather than land transactions, settler colonial assertions of hegemonic authority over Indigenous peoples and lands remain illegitimate. Furthermore, it examines how a relational orientation to treaties might inspire alternatives to violent, asymmetrical, and hierarchical forms of co-existence between humans and with other living beings. To this end, it takes up the potential for treaties to inform legal and political strategies that are reflective of Indigenous philosophies of relationality, providing applied examples at the individual, intrasocietal, and intersocietal levels. / Graduate / 2018-12-18

No description available.

Settler colonialism has detrimental effects on the health and wellbeing of Indigenous peoples, as seen, for example, in the disproportionately high rates of chronic diseases experienced among Indigenous peoples. Indigenous peoples in Canada experience higher levels of ill health related to obesity, diabetes, and other chronic conditions than non-Indigenous people. Indigenous women experience greater incidents of chronic disease than men and are thus particularly vulnerable to ill health. Current research has focussed on documenting the health disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. While insightful, health disparity research reproduces settler colonial discourses of erasure and provides no meaningful or lasting solutions for addressing these disparities, thus demonstrating the need for Indigenous-led thinking regarding potential solutions. Therefore, the guiding research question for my dissertation was, “Can physical activity that encompasses a decolonization approach be a catalyst for regenerative wellbeing for Anishinaabeg women?” Using Indigenous feminist theory that is informed by Anishinaabeg gikendaasowin, I looked to the dibaajimowinan of Anishinaabeg women, Elders, and urban Indigenous women, which occurred in three stages of research and culminated in five publishable papers. In the first stage of research, I interviewed seven Anishinaabekweg who are exemplars of decolonized physical activity. In the second stage of research, I held a sharing circle with eight Elders from Naicatchewenin in Treaty #3 territory. In the last stage of research, I implemented Wiisokotaatiwin with 12 urban Indigenous women with the Odawa Native Friendship Centre, my community partner. The results of my research revealed that wellbeing for Indigenous women can be improved through decolonized physical activity, remembering Anishinaabeg stories, and building community in urban spaces. More specifically, these activities are important resistance tools that can lead to meaningful ways of addressing embodied settler colonialism and can also make strong contributions to Indigenous health research. Overall, my research showcased how Anishinaabeg gikendaasowin can be used as a foundation to improve Indigenous women’s health and wellbeing.

A thesis submitted to the Department of Information Studies for the award of a degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Library and Information Studies, Faculty of Arts, at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2012. / Knowledge management (KM) is increasingly popularized in various societies, organizations and governments because of its confirmed importance in fostering knowledge creation, codification and transfer, and development of knowledge capital capability. Indigenous knowledge (IK), which forms part of KM, is also generally thought to have crucial functions and importance in the knowledge management process (creation or production, storage, processing or codification, transfer and utilization) and should therefore receive significant attention. The aim and objectives of the study was to map and audit the current IK environment and practices in Kenya and South Africa with specific attention to identifying the IK policies and legislation in place, exploring and analyzing the IK governance structures, examining the IK centres and systems in terms of their roles, identifying what IK programmes and activities are in existence and when are they held, determining the status, trends and types of IK research. The study used the survey method. The study was conducted in two countries, i.e. Kenya and South Africa, but was not defined geographically. It was restricted to the capital cities of Nairobi in Kenya and Pretoria in South Africa, which house the administrative governments of the two countries. Since the population of this study consisted of organizations, institutions, databases and activities, and because it was impractical to collect data from them all, the population was narrowed down to a representation or sample of the population. Non-probability sampling techniques were used to create a sampling frame through cluster and multi-stage sampling. Purposive sampling technique was applied to select centres and activities from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Gender in Kenya and South Africa that deal with IK. Both snowball sampling and purposive sampling were applied to select the key informants who headed the various IK Departments of Science and Technology in South Africa and the Department of Culture in Kenya. This resulted in a fair representation of the cultural diversity of the two countries and the various levels of knowledge, management and development of the personnel. A sample size of twenty organizations, 13 from Kenya and 7 from South Africa, was selected for this study. The sample size was different for the two countries because of the different management systems and the use of the snowball sampling technique to select xiv informants. The key informants (senior management positions within organizations) in many cases consisted of more than one person per organization. Research instruments consisted of field visits, interview guides, observation, and a document review/ critical literature review. The study used detailed interview guides with both structured and unstructured questions as the main research instrument. This was used to obtain both quantitative and qualitative data. A pilot study was carried out to test and verify the research instruments. This was done through the Department of Culture in Kenya. The study found that both Kenya and South Africa have active IK policies and management in place to ensure its sustainability. A defined institutional framework is vital for the effective management of IK. A case in point is the existence of the South African National Indigenous Knowledge Systems Office (NIKSO) under the Department of Science and Technology (DST). The functions and rationale for NIKSO are stipulated in South Africa‘s IK Policy. However, such a mechanism does not seem to exist in Kenya, especially because of the nomadic nature of the Department of Culture. Ministries that housed the department include the Ministries of Culture and Social Services, Women and Youth, Home Affairs, and National Heritage, among others. The presence of the various IK-related policy initiatives by different institutions within the same government points to lack of coordination, especially in Kenya. Examples of such duplicated initiatives include the National Policy on Culture of the Republic of Kenya, Ministry of Gender, Sports, Culture and Social Services, and the development of laws for the protection of traditional knowledge, genetic resources and folklore by the Office of the Attorney General. The importance of IK cannot be stressed enough. According to WHO, countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America use traditional medicine to help meet some of their primary healthcare needs. In Africa, up to 80 % of the population uses traditional medicine for primary healthcare. This clearly indicates that unless measures for the protection of IK are beefed up, then the Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS) of indigenous knowledge may never be realized. Based on the study‘s findings, this study recommends an IK awareness program or campaign that targets those charged with the management of IK as well as the citizenry of the two countries. There should be heightened efforts to create an independent department in a vibrant ministry that deals with IK to ensure that indigenous knowledge is put to the best possible use. Further research should be done in order to find ways in which indigenous knowledge can blend with modern technology to solve current problems. Academic institutions need to play a more proactive role in promoting IK in Kenya. IK programmes and activities should also focus on all features and aspects of IK rather than capitalize on culture only. / University of Nairobi

Research in Indigenous contexts is strongly associated with colonialism (Smith, 1999). In response to this, Indigenous scholars have, in the last two decades, recentred research on Indigenous ways of knowing and doing (Kovach, 2009; Wilson, 2008). This change marks the advent of an "Indigenous research paradigm" based on "an ontology, epistemology, methodology, and axiology that is Indigenous" (Wilson, 2008, p. 38). In recent years, this approach has gained momentum in Canada, making it a "fifth paradigm" and a sought-after research approach across disciplines (Chilisa, 2020, p. 19). This thesis seeks to better understand the evolution of Canadian Indigenous research across disciplines in the last two decades (1997–2020). Using a mixed-methods approach (western and Indigenous), I adopted Arksey and O'Malley's (2005) scoping review methodology for the initial five steps and Kovach's (2010) Indigenous conversational method for the final consultation step. Based on the in-depth analysis of 46 Indigenous research studies, my findings indicate a notable increase in the number of collaborations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous partners, especially in the last five years. This may signal the beginning of an era of reconciliation in research; however, my conversations with Indigenous scholars revealed that, in many cases, collaborations are tainted by tokenism and present many risks for Indigenous researchers. Indigenous research is principle-based, and its key principles are relationality, reciprocity, respect, and accountability. Indigenous scholars emphasized that the key to successful collaborations and to "good" Indigenous research is taking the time to build genuine relationships based on these principles. My research thus demonstrates that healthy and productive collaborative Indigenous research is possible, but only when there is relational accountability on the part of non-Indigenous partners. In sum, using a scoping review analysis and the Indigenous conversational method, this research has established that the marker of robust and valuable Indigenous research is congruency: the clear and explicit alignment between researchers' positionalities, their epistemic frameworks, and the methodologies used to conduct the research.