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At the turn of the 21st century, truth commissions arose as a new possibility to address the violence and trauma of removing Indigenous children from their families and nations in what is now known as North America. The creation of two truth and reconciliation commissions in Canada and Maine marked an important step in addressing Indigenous demands for justice and the end of harm, alongside Indigenous calls for truth-telling. Holding Indigenous conceptions of justice at its core, this dissertation offers a comparative tracing of the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (2009-2015) and the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2013-2015) as they investigated state practices of removing Indigenous children from their homes and nations. More specifically, this dissertation examines the ways these truth commissions have intersected with Indigenous stories and how Indigenous stories can inform how we understand the work of truth and reconciliation commissions as they move to provide a form of justice for our communities. Within both commission processes, stories of Indigenous experiences in residential schools and the child welfare system were drawn from the perceived margins of settler colonial society in an effort to move towards truth, healing, reconciliation and justice. Despite this attempted inclusion of stories of Indigenous life experiences, I argue that deeply listening to Indigenous stories ¬¬in their various forms—life/ experiential stories, and traditional stories—illuminates the ways that the practice of reconciliation has become disconnected from Indigenous understandings of justice. As such, I argue that listening to Indigenous stories, not just hearing the words but instead taking them to heart, engaging with them and allowing them to guide us, moves toward more informed understandings of what justice looks like for Indigenous communities. / Graduate / 2022-09-12

The ongoing Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) crisis has affected thousands of families throughout the United States and Canada, resulting in probable trauma to children in the families and communities for generations. Although awareness of the crisis has been growing in recent years through avenues such as social media (#MMIW, etc.), little action has been taken to stem the crisis and its effects. The effects of the crisis on the children left behind is a compelling question that is not often addressed in the media, however. A systematic review of the scientific literature from the United States and Canada was conducted with the addition of gray literature due to limited results found in the scientific literature. The gray literature examined included relevant websites of relevant organizations and news articles. Results of the study demonstrated a dearth of data related to children and MMIW, with no research studies found. The articles analyzed were primarily focused on recommendations and did not specifically address the effects of MMIW on children. Gray literature findings included mention of some policy actions on state and national levels, including many calls to action that have not yet been addressed or implemented. The lack of data regarding the support needs of children affected by MMIW may be one of the reasons actions have been largely absent. One of the possible courses of action may be to better support Native/Indigenous scholars who have insider status. The MMIW crises is deeply personal and perhaps overwhelming to research, indicating support needs for Native/Indigenous scholars in addition to funding.

There has been growing recognition in recent environmental discourse that environmental justice, which is normally understood to mean the disproportionate effect of climate change on minority groups, also takes the form of epistemic injustice. In the Canadian context, this means the exclusion of Indigenous philosophies, values, and perspectives from discourse about environmental ethics, as well as the spheres of policy and governance as they pertain to the environment. At the same time, there has been increasing concern with creating just outcomes for future people. Given that future generations have made no contribution to the pollution that causes climate change, but will feel its worst effects, many environmental and political philosophers have recently pointed to the need for a strong theory of intergenerational justice, especially as it pertains to the environment. In this thesis, I argue that an essential part of achieving intergenerational environmental justice in Canada is working toward the rectification of both material and epistemic harms toward Indigenous peoples which are perpetuated by the “rationalistic” conception of nature which sees nature as an instrumentally valuable resource to be exploited for human gain. I explore the historical construction of this conception of nature and its pervasiveness in recent work on environmental ethics in order to show how Indigenous perspectives have historically been suppressed through colonialism, and more recently been subjected to epistemic oppression within Western environmental ethics. I then focus specifically on intergenerational environmental justice as a field in which Indigenous philosophies have faced the greatest exclusion, and may also have the most to teach us. I conclude by providing a brief overview of recent Indigenous environmental activism as an expression of Indigenous values, and look to treaties as understood by Indigenous philosophies as a potential framework for moving together toward a just future for all.

The relationship between Indigenous peoples and Canadians is fraught with political and cultural divides. While Idle No More garnered some momentum to raise awareness of the need for political change, there has yet to be an approach that has popularly engaged and compelled response from Canadians. This thesis project navigates the political potential of artists, who can both accumulate cross-cultural audiences through entertainment and incite change through their vocalizations in performance. Offering a case-study approach to the Indigenous music group, A Tribe Called Red, this project considers their compelling Indigenous space-making work through their performance and celebrity. Drawing from this work, this project offers a navigation between the need for respectful cross-cultural dialogue between Indigenous peoples and Canadians and the actionable change that can occur through popular entertainment and its intimate connections. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA) / The relationship between Indigenous peoples and Canadians is fraught with political and cultural divides. While Idle No More garnered some momentum to raise awareness of the need for political change, there has yet to be an approach that has popularly engaged and compelled response from Canadians. This thesis project navigates the political potential of artists, who can both accumulate cross-cultural audiences through entertainment and incite change through their vocalizations in performance. Offering a case-study approach to the Indigenous music group, A Tribe Called Red, this project considers their compelling Indigenous space-making work through their performance and celebrity. Drawing from this work, this project offers a navigation between the need for respectful cross-cultural dialogue between Indigenous peoples and Canadians and the actionable change that can occur through popular entertainment and its intimate connections.

As a result of advances in treatment over the past 30 years, the number of older people living with HIV is growing. This is of particular concern for Indigenous populations in Canada given continuing over representation in HIV diagnoses. While there has been an increase in research on aging with HIV within the general population, little is known about the experiences of older positive Indigenous peoples. Research was conducted in partnership with the Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network (CAAN) at CAAN's Wise Practices V conference. Participants were conference delegates, representing a sample of First Nations, Inuit and Métis people living with HIV and/or service providers from across Canada. Participants ranged in age from 32 to 63 and had been positive for 5 to 29 years. Data was collected through four sharing circles (two with women, one with men and one with service providers) and four interviews (n=34). An open analytic approach was used to explore the content of the transcripts and codes were collaboratively developed by the research team through an inductive and iterative process. From our analysis we were able to develop an Indigenous model of successful aging (SA). This proposed Indigenous model of SA represents a holistic and subjective model that is far more achievable than traditional models of SA. Within this model five dimensions of health and wellness emerged as facilitators of SA: physical, emotional, spiritual, mental and social health. Additionally, resilience, age and culture were found to be protective factors to SA. The goal of this project was to identify facilitators and individual strategies which enable SA within this population, in order to develop culturally mediated responses. Ideally, this knowledge can be used to help structure community and primary health services to promote SA with HIV in ways which are congruent with Indigenous culturally-defined notions of health. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

[pt] Esta tese realiza um estudo de caso das diplomacias de mulheres indígenas no contexto da Primeira Marcha das Mulheres Indígenas (Brasil, 2019). O trabalho iniciou indagando de que formas essas diplomacias de diferenciam da concepção estadocêntrica de diplomacia e quais foram as estratégias utilizadas pelas mulheres presentes na Marcha para fazer avançar as suas demandas específicas enquanto mulheres indígenas. Para responder a essas perguntas, foi realizada uma pesquisa de campo com o método da observação participante, além de revisão de literatura, levantamento e análise de documentos, e entrevistas realizadas de forma remota utilizando questionários semiestruturados. Ao longo da pesquisa, percebeu-se que, na verdade, a Primeira Marcha foi em si uma estratégia política para adensar as alianças diplomáticas entre mulheres indígenas de diversos povos. Já quanto à segunda pergunta, devido à multiplicidade de relações diplomáticas que essas mulheres estabeleceram, focou-se em três delas: as diplomacias panindígenas frente ao Brasil enquanto Estado colono e à Marcha das Margaridas, e a diplomacia entre mulheres dos diversos povos indígenas. Quanto às relações diplomáticas com o Estado colono, devido à pouca disposição do Estado em mediar seus estranhamentos com essas mulheres, a diplomacia panindígena durante a Marcha foi, no geral, uma diplomacia de enfrentamentos políticos. Já as relações diplomáticas panindígenas dessas mulheres com a Marcha das Margaridas envolveram tensões cosmológicas com potencial pedagógico para mulheres não indígenas em relação às possibilidades de alianças políticas dentro dessas diferenças cosmológicas. Já quanto às diplomacias entre mulheres de diversos povos, percebeu-se que elas tiveram um caráter pedagógico tanto para educar os homens indígenas a respeitá-las quanto também para formar novas lideranças entre as mulheres indígenas. Finalmente, identificou-se que as alianças diplomáticas entre mulheres indígenas são marcadas por relações de amizade entre elas, o que traz um caráter afetivo dessas alianças. Conclui-se que as diplomacias das mulheres indígenas no contexto brasileiro se diferenciam das diplomacias interestatais principalmente por seu caráter pedagógico e sua dimensão afetiva. / [en] This dissertation conducts a case study of indigenous women s diplomacies the context of the First indigenous Women s March (Brazil, 2019). It began inquiring about the ways in which those diplomacies differ from state centric conceptions of diplomacy, and also about which were the strategies used by the indigenous women on the March to advance their specific demands as indigenous women. In order to answer those questions, fieldwork with the method of participatory observation was conducted, along with literature review, survey and analysis of documents and interviews using semi-structured questionnaires. Throughout the research, it was realized that, actually, the First March was itself a strategy to deepen political alliances between indigenous women from diverse peoples. As for the second question, due to the multiplicity of diplomatic relations those women stablished during the March, focus was put in three of them: pan indigenous diplomacies of those women both with Brazil as a settler State and with Margarida s March, and the diplomatic relations between women from various peoples. As to the diplomatic relations with the settler State, due to little will from the State to mediate its estrangements with indigenous women, the pan indigenous diplomacy during the March was, in general, a diplomacy of political confrontation. On the other hand, the relations between indigenous women and the Margarida s March involved cosmologic tensions, with pedagogic potentials to non-indigenous women as for the possibilities of political alliances within those cosmological differences. Concerning diplomacies between women from diverse peoples, it was realized that they had a pedagogical character both to educate indigenous men to respect them and to prepare indigenous women to be leaderships. Finally, it was identified that the diplomatic alliances between indigenous women are marked by friendship relations between them, what brings an effective character to those alliances. As to the conclusions achieved, indigenous women s diplomacies in the Brazilian context seem different to interstate diplomacies mainly due to its pedagogical character and its affective dimension.

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A co-creation framework was developed for non-Indigenous scientists and engineers aiming to conduct research with Indigenous communities. Developed from pre-existing CBPR and co-creation theories, this guide incorporated the personal experiences of two master's students working on this project. As Indigenous communities and individuals are not monoliths, the first draft of this framework was devised to be expanded for use with various other groups allowing researchers to apply relevant concepts specific to their projects. The co-creation framework was developed and executed by conducting an initial water quality analysis of drinking water from SN. Initiated by Duignan’s 2019 SN health survey feedback, preliminary water parameters were analyzed for select households across the community. Community services and members were instrumental in co-creating this style of data collection and knowledge translation with GWF researchers. Collections methods were primarily adapted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in which researchers were led initially by community liaisons and taken to households to collect drinking water samples. Instead, homeowners were supported in collecting their own drinking water samples and providing them to community educators from SNHS. Concurrently, further development and application of the framework were established through an interactive video podcast, Ohneganos Let’s Talk Water, employed to conduct, disseminate, and translate relevant community research. The community-centred methodology met the target audience where they were, on social media, rather than expecting them to decipher conventional WS science dissemination methods such as academic conferences or peer-reviewed papers. International and transdisciplinary collaboration was explored between Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth, students, experts, artists and community members. This multifaceted, award-winning show was the first to combine these various elements. A mixed methods approach via digital story was produced to illustrate the impact of LTW. While an extensive variety of guests and topics were discussed in the four seasons of the podcast, the digital story highlights those most closely aligned with the work of this thesis, decolonizing western science research and dissemination. / Thesis / Master of Environmental Studies (MES) / Guided by ten significant themes, knowledge sources including community feedback via social media, extensive literature review, conversations with elders and relevant graduate courses were applied to develop a co-creation framework to inform best practices for western scientists and engineers collaborating with Indigenous partners. Two case studies, community-led water testing “Preliminary Water Quality Assessment” and a community-led video podcast “Ohneganos – Let’s Talk Water,” were carried out to implement and supplement the iterative development of the framework to harmonize Indigenous Knowledge and Western Science.