Indigenous planning continues to emerge globally, with increasing emphasis being placed on Indigenous autonomy and planning practices. By discussing an urban example of Indigenous planning – specifically the values and characteristics of the Neeginan project or vision for the North Main area of Downtown Winnipeg – this thesis aims to shed some light on urban Indigenous planning, as well as how it may differ from, and overlap with, other forms of planning and other types of spaces and built environments within the city. In doing so, it offers not only an assessment of Indigenous planning as it has been undertaken in a particular urban context. It also offers an assessment of how planning in general can continue to decolonize its practices as it learns to better support and relate to Indigenous priorities and planning approaches.

Community sport organizations (CSO) are the most predominant type of nonprofit and voluntary organization in Canada (Gumulka, Barr, Lasby, & Brown-lee, 2005), and, it is vital that researchers recognize the critical, and often contradictory, social roles that these organizations are expected to perform. Community sport is both lauded as a progressive force of individual and community development (Sport for Development and Peace, International Working Group [SDP IWG], 2006) and criticized for reproducing race and class-based stereotypes that marginalize Aboriginal peoples (Canadian Heritage, 2005). Added to these challenges is the fact that sport leaders are expected to negotiate conflicting interests and unequal power relations (see Forester, 1989) while relying on a very limited body of research in which to guide their work in designing, delivering and facilitating culturally relevant sport programs for Aboriginal youth (see Forsyth, Heine & Halas, 2007; Maskawachees Declaration, 2000). Positioned within a transdisciplinary theoretical framework and guided by principles of indigenous research (Schnarch, 2004; Wilson, 2008), I conducted a multi-layered community-based study with sport leaders and youth participants at the Winnipeg Aboriginal Sport Achievement Center (WASAC), a successful urban Aboriginal sport organization in Manitoba, Canada. Building on similar research in the area of culturally relevant physical activity and education (e.g., Carpenter, 2009; Forsyth et al., 2007), the purpose of my research was to examine the politics and praxis of culturally relevant sport education (CRSE) – specifically, program planning and leadership practices - as an alternative to deficit-based and culturally inappropriate sport programs for urban Aboriginal youth. Findings reveal that WASAC leaders utilize a complex set of explicit and tacit cultural teachings rooted within a context- and relationship-based approach to program planning and facilitation. Findings also indicate that culturally relevant sport leadership practices are strongly related to the personal, experiential and cultural background and knowledge of sport leaders. The study concludes by suggesting that sport leaders who understand the cultural landscape of urban Aboriginal youth and utilize critical self-reflexive practices are more likely to recognize and build upon the resilience of urban Aboriginal youth while proactively responding to the complex challenges that shape the lives of youth.

This thesis presents the results of a qualitative research study that examined the resilience development with six Anishinabe (Ojibway) women. This study examined from the women’s perspectives, “What meaning(s) do First Nation graduates of secondary or post-secondary education make about risk and/or protective factors that may have affected their success in completing their degree/diploma requirements?” In this research, I closely examined the historical accounts and progressive educational changes of six successful Anishinabe women who attended either the residential, provincial or band operated schools. The narrative/storywork voiced by the women was gathered by one in-depth interview and were analyzed in two parts. First, the Western idea of resilience (Benard, 2004) was examined. Second, the development of resilience utilizing Indigenous narrative/storywork (Archibald, 2008; Thomas, 2008; Wilson, 2008) and the cultural framework of the Medicine Wheel teachings (Bopp, Bopp, Brown, & Lane, 1988; Medicine Wheel Evaluation Framework, 2012) was explored. The findings from this thesis revealed that through protective factors and/or supports of their community, environment, school, and family and restored Indigenous philosophy, maintained culture, language, spirituality and traditional worldviews, a process of resilience emerged and/or was developed and overpowered risk factors, challenges and/or adversities. The amalgamation of findings supports what research suggests that Aboriginal people exist in two worlds, their world and mainstream world (Fitznor, 2005). Co-existance, acceptance, and a balance of both worlds are supports and fundamental keys to resiliency and educational success.

This research focuses on working with fifteen local youths, one elder, and two teachers in the town of Churchill, Manitoba to document intergenerational knowledge transfer. According to Tsuji (1996) there has been a significant loss of traditional ecological knowledge in First Nation communities between generations for both males and females. Traditional knowledge is important because it relies on an individual’s own knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes towards certain issues that he or she has experienced in the past. Through conducting interviews with Elders, youths, and teachers along with observation and participant observation, this research shows knowledge from the Indigenous elder is being transferred to the younger generation through stories, presentations, and education. There is a moderate level of intergenerational knowledge transfer from youth to elders and elders to youth, as well as a high level of interest in incorporating traditional and local knowledge in education.

This thesis investigates the contexts, rationales, and practices of collaborative governance between Wayúu indigenous chiefs and Parks (national parks authority) in Makuira National Park, northeast Colombia. The study looks into the Wayúu institutions for territorial governance; policies for conservation, participation and indigenous rights; and key aspects of cross-cultural park governance. The field research was based on an in-depth qualitative case study. I used an ethnographic approach with document review, semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and use of existing qualitative data. The Wayúu people have a system of customary territorial governance that comprises institutions regarding ownership, access, use, and control of territory and its resources. Wayúu sacred places in Makuira Mountains follow spiritual institutions for proper behaviour and respectful relations with supernatural beings. However, Wayúu territorial governance and autonomy is affected by broader contexts of social-political and economic processes. “Parks with People” policy seeks to enhance governance in protected areas by addressing conflicts, recognizing indigenous territories, authority, and mutual collaboration. Co-government is approached as a “signature of agreements” by Parks in Bogotá, as an “ongoing process” by Makuira National Park staff and as an “alliance” by indigenous peoples. While formal co-government process is mostly led by Parks, Wayúu institutions influence informal day-to-day practice. Most Wayúu rights are recognised however, self-determination is not fully recognised. Wayúu park staff helps facilitate cross-cultural respect and achieve more horizontal relations. These research findings highlight the importance of collaborative approaches for conservation that address historically informed national and local contexts and conflicts that at the same time recognise territorial and self-government rights. Supporting and building upon local institutions and customary management practices are important components of a more inclusive and rights-based practice of conservation. These findings provide for a more nuanced understanding of Indigenous and Community Conserved Areas (ICCAs). While indigenous territories do have protected features; they are combined with other territorial practices that can be regarded as “incompatible” with conservation by other actors. This limits ICCAs ability to leverage for full recognition of indigenous rights. This study demonstrates that such rights recognition should happen at the constitutional level and not be attached to conservation objectives.

Neither currently prevalent justifications of punishment, nor a modified, contractarian version of a justification that I develop here, can be used to justify actual state punishment, even if some forms of punishment may remain legitimate. I argue in this thesis that alternative punitive practices such as developed by some Canadian aboriginal communities are more likely to conform to the criteria of punitive justice developed by standard justifications, as well as being more likely to conform to criteria developed in feminist ethics.

This master's thesis is written by an indigenous person who sees education as a healing process. In the tradition of narrative inquiry (Clandinin and Connelly, 2000) I interweave autobiographical texts with reflections on colonialism, indigeneity and multiculturalism. I am Amazigh (Kabyle) from the country now called Algeria, where my people have lived for some 5,000 years. I was raised in France, where I experienced a racism which I became conscious of when I arrived in Canada. I draw on the Medicine Wheel teachings given by First Nations Elders in Canada as the philosophical framework of my text, a framework based on the balance of spiritual/emotional/physical and mental dimensions of experience. I provide the context for my story, explain my methodology, and offer narratives that I then reflect on as part of my life-journey through societies, cultures, belief systems and educational contexts.

In Sweden, the indigenous Sami have exclusive rights to reindeer husbandry, which continues to provide for a minority of Sami in economically and culturally significant ways. However, the Sami have faced longstanding challenges including marginalization within Swedish society, competing interests from multiple industries, a diminishing land base and environmental changes impacting the herds. Meanwhile, gender relations within Sami communities have changed since the mid-19th century as a result of Swedish policies and other factors. These ecological and social changes have impacted the capacity of Sami communities to adapt to dynamic environmental conditions. While researchers have focused attention on the contribution of “adaptive capacity” (AC) to the resilience of local communities, there is relatively little attention given to Sami populations in Scandinavia. Furthermore, studies regarding AC at the community level generally consider communities as homogenous entities, with little attention paid to how gender relations affect the AC of communities. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to address this gap and to inform gender-sensitive policy and practice in resource-based communities. My study developed a framework for AC that is sensitive to the lifestyle of reindeer herders in Sweden. Data were collected from 81 questionnaires, 9 interviews and other relevant documents, for each of the 51 reindeer herding districts in Sweden. From these sources, I traced contributions of Sami women and men while also exploring changes in AC over time. The results of the study show that the contribution of cultural and economic capitals to AC is strong among the Sami while the contribution of institutional and natural capitals is weaker. |Both men and women have contributed to their AC and the transformation of their communities, each making unique contributions. The results suggest that herders are proactive in directing the transformation of their society towards one that embraces contemporary technology and opportunities, while maintaining values that support a longstanding cultural tradition. These findings suggest that isolating gendered inputs to adaptation may help create more specific targets for increasing capacity while augmenting their overall effectiveness and efficiency.

Biofouling pests, including non-indigenous species, can have significant impacts on anthropogenic activities. This is particularly true for aquaculture industries, where biofouling communities grow on crop species and infrastructure, potentially reducing revenue and increasing processing and production costs. It is of interest to marine farmers and scientists to gain a better understanding of the processes facilitating the regional proliferation and spread of biofouling pests. The structure of biofouling communities associated with marine farms in New Zealand’s main mussel growing region, Pelorus Sound, are characterised in this thesis. The patterns of connectivity and gene flow among biofouling populations are also investigated. Images and video footage of biofouling on mussel farms (Perna canaliculus) indicate strong spatial variation in the structure of biofouling communities, with a dominance of known problematic taxa and high wave energy tolerant species, such as the brown alga Undaria pinnatifida and the calcareous tubeworm Pomatoceros sp., near the entrance of Pelorus Sound. Genetic analyses and simple GIS-based modelling of a case study biofouling organism, Didemnum vexillum, revealed genetic differentiation among populations with extreme outcrossing and low levels of connectivity. Genetic analyses also suggest that anthropogenic-assisted dispersal may be vital for connecting certain D. vexillum populations compared to natural spread. The present study illustrates how multidisciplinary research approaches can be used to identify geographical areas that are less prone to biofouling and to inform the management of biofouling pests and invasive species in aquaculture environments.

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