Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toronto, 2007. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 2980.

Understood sociologically, denial is best conceptualized as a social practice. As a phenomenon, social denial refers to patterned behaviour where actors both know and do not-know about uncomfortable truths (Cohen, 2001). Put simply, social denial is a socially reproduced blindness in the face of traumatic events and processes. In opposition to social denial is a different social practice, bearing witness. Bearing witness is engaged when society’s actors give voice to those who would otherwise be silent. Drawing on theoretical frameworks from Stanley Cohen’s work States of Denial and Fujiko Kurasawa’s work Global Justice, this thesis aims to critically reflect and explore the registers and mechanisms of both social denial and bearing witness. The exploration of social denial is sociologically relevant, and generally important, as a means for understanding the role it plays in society, and to further understanding what social denial is and how it works. The better actors understand an issue the more capable they are of addressing it. This thesis conducts a media frame analysis of selected published articles from the National Post and the Globe and Mail that speak to the issue of MMIWG. This analysis reveals social denial through the frames “culpable victim”, “poster child”, and “the extra”; and bearing witness through the frame of the “honourable victim”. The analysis and research of this thesis reveal how social denial covers up the relevance of colonialism with respect to MMIWG. Furthermore, it suggests that social denial acts to both camouflage the gritty details underlying MMIWG and erase the identities of MMIWG.

Cervical cancer is a major public health problem in developing countries. In Guyana, factors associated with increasing cervical cancer cases among Indigenous Amerindian women (IAW), Afro- women (AGW), and Indo-Guyanese women (IGW) have not been fully examined. In this comparative cross-sectional study, 5,800 cervical cancer cases were selected from Guyanese women age 13 and above for ethnicity (Indigenous Amerindian, Afro- and Indo Guyanese women), geographical region, marital status, and year and stage at diagnosis. Secondary data from Guyana Cancer Registry for the 2000-2012 study periods were analyzed using chi-square test, multinomial logistic regression, poisson regression, and relative risk. Geographical region was a strong predictor of cervical cancer cases for all three ethnic groups (p < 0.05). The relative risk for cervical cancer for IAW in Regions 2 (RR = 1.2) and 6 (RR = 1.07) was greater than for IAW in Region 4, the reference group for the study period. Comparatively, the relative risk for cervical cancer for AGW in Region 4 was greater than AGW in all other regions except Region 3 (RR = 1.05). Additionally, the relative risk for cervical cancer for IGW in Region 3 (RR = 1.03) was greater than that of IGW in all other regions. Single IAW (1.05) have a higher risk of getting cervical cancer than their married counterparts as compared to AGW (0.96) and IGW (1.00). Implications for social change include development of tailored programs which utilize a socio-ecological model to address cervical cancer issues at the individual, interpersonal, cultural, and community levels. Future research should focus on understanding the epidemiology of cervical cancer and the social factors among the ethnic groups of women.

The primary purpose of this research was to collect data for First Nations educators and policy makers to use in making decisions surrounding issues of First Nations women and technology education. Nine First Nations women preservice teachers at the intern stage of their Indian Teacher Education Program at the University of Saskatchewan were engaged in in-depth interviews concerning their experiences and perceptions regarding technology. The study found that the participants defined technology first and foremost as computer-related. Some viewed technology from the cultural aspect, and thought technology used for financial gain would take away from the traditional family values. The participants thought that women needed technological training and that they needed to develop self-confidence and become role models in order for First Nations women to exercise leadership in the field of technology. The participants stated that their university experience was responsible for most of their learning about technology. They did not, however, feel prepared to face the technology they would encounter in schools. Intimidation, stereotypes, the lack of access and exposure to technology, the lack of a good self-image, lack of time, and lack of role models were perceived to be some of the biggest barriers to First Nations women learning about and using technology. Men in their use of intimidation and stories with negative images of women and technology were perceived as one of the strongest deterrents to First Nation women advancing in the area of technology. Findings from this study had significant implications. First Nations teacher preparation programs should include required credit computer courses and establish daycare centres. Band-controlled schools should update computers and make computer facilities available to the community members. Politicians should make provisions for technology education by providing funding for such courses. Further research such as a collection of stories embracing positive images of First Nations women involved in technological pursuits should be undertaken to help ameliorate the status of First Nations women in technology education.

Contemporary Indigenous women's literature illustrates how American Indian women facilitate adaptation from "traditional" communities to diverse urban communities. The objective of this study is to examine how Northern Athabascan women lead in communities which are not exclusive to these Indigenous peoples. The use of Athabascan values such as self-sufficiency, hard work, practice of traditions, caring, sharing, family relations, and respect for elders and others, can be seen as one example of how women lead in non-"traditional" communities. This thesis examines Athabascan women leaders who have worked at two seasonal Native-owned hotels in Alaska as a case study to examine how women lead. By analyzing the women of Doyon Tourism Inc. through the framework of Athabascan values, evidence of cultural continuity can be seen through the sustained use of "traditional" values.

abstract: "The Globalization of Indigenous Women's Movements and The United Nations System (1992-2012)" is a comprehensive study of the globalization of indigenous women's movements that materialized in the early 1990s. These movements flourished parallel to other transnational social movements, such as International Zapatismo, the World Social Forum, and Gender as Human Rights Movement, yet they are omitted and remain invisible within transnational and global social movement literature. This study is an inscription of these processes, through the construct of a textual space that exposes a global decolonial feminist imaginary grounded in the oral histories of thirty-one international indigenous women leaders. The primary site for this study is the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII), a venue where contact amongst indigenous women worldwide occurs annually at the United Nations (UN) Headquarters in New York City. This qualitative study uses decolonial and feminist methodology to examine in-depth semi-structured interviews, transcriptions of key speeches, plenaries and interventions made by indigenous women at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and other relevant international forums, and field notes compiled from my full-participant and participant-observation in international forums. My dissertation makes two claims. First, I argue that indigenous women have made formal gains within the UN System via an unprecedented process of simultaneously accepting, contesting and altering the structural opportunities and constraints present within the UN. These processes made it possible for UNPFII's actors and their key claims to be effectively integrated within the multiple agencies that make up the UN. I identify key Indigenous actors and trace their claims for social justice, which have transcended the domestic sphere to the global political arena. Second, I argue that, globalization has reconfigured transnational political spaces for indigenous women activists and that these UN advocates frame their claims for rights in a unique way, in a process that combines individual human rights as well as collective indigenous peoples rights. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Justice Studies 2012

Empowerment is a fundamental human right. The indigenous women in Guatemala, however, sufferfrom both gender and racial discrimination, which through history have un-empowered them. Usinga qualitative methodology, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 13 indigenous Guatemalanwomen to examine the conditions these women face in the process of empowering themselves. Inorder to aid the collection and analysis of the data, we developed a theoretical model of empowermentconsisting of the following empowering components: economic capacity, human capital, socialcapital, gender equality, political influence, self-esteem, and awareness. The empirical results showthat all components of the model, indeed, influence the empowerment of our respondents in the study.The challenges that these women face are related to gender inequalities, discrimination, corruption,economic scarcity, and dependency on others. To facilitate their empowerment, the women currentlyuse formal networks to start businesses and achieve greater awareness about their life situation andtheir rights as women. We conclude that reduction in gender discrimination, access to healthcare,possibilities to education, and economic independency are necessary in combination with supportfrom the government and NGOs in order to empower the indigenous women in Guatemala.

Since the earliest published American narratives, writers and subsequent Western clinicians alike have often mislabeled Indigenous behaviors, especially the behaviors of Indigenous women, as insanity. And yet, as Pemina Yellow Bird (Three Affiliated Tribes) explains, "Native peoples generally do not have a notion of "insane" or "mentally ill." (4). Instead, Indigenous peoples often discuss mental health in their communities through storytelling. As but one example of the ways that cultural narratives work to reclaim Indigenous understandings of mental health, this paper analyzes how the writings of Chickasaw author Linda Hogan challenge non-Indigenous understandings of mental health as a gendered phenomenon within tribal communities. Hogan does this in ways that destigmatize behaviors including hallucinations or prophetic dreams that Western medicine considers abnormal, and reintroduces community-specific understandings of these behaviors as either a supernatural phenomenon or a gift of foreknowledge. Hogan's novel Solar Storms (1995), in particular, reframes stereotypical images of tribal women as insane with images of Indigenous women as cultural, political, and spiritual leaders in their communities. While she addresses community-specific understandings of actual mental illness, Hogan also characterizes what many might mistake for mental illness as the essential foresight of Indigenous women and thereby offers a healing corrective to the prevailing narrative of Indigenous women's presumed insanity. A central discussion in this paper is how Hogan defines knowledge-making and Indigenous women's rights and responsibilities in Solar Storms. The term "rights and responsibilities" refers to a sense of stewardship Indigenous women in the novel experience to protect land and community: this charge may include giving life through childbirth, communicating with animals and the dead, dreaming of medicinal plants, intuitively remembering traditional song and dance, "seeing" creatures without one's eyesight, and healing abilities, among others. Female knowledge-making, then, refers to insights about oneself, community, and the material and immaterial world in enacting these behaviors. By expressing the possibilities of Indigenous women's relationship with the natural and supernatural world instead of either exoticizing or dismissing them, Solar Storms works to legitimize Indigenous modes of female knowledge-making in the face of ongoing colonial assumptions about Indigenous insanity.

No description available.

Resilience and post trauma responses often coexist, however, for the past decades, the trauma paradigm has served as the dominant explanatory framework for human suffering in post-conflict environments, while the resilience of individuals and communities affected by mass violence has not been given equal prominence. Consequently, mental health interventions in post-conflict zones often fail to respond to local realities and are ill equipped to foster local strengths. Drawing primarily from trauma, feminist and structural violence theories, this study strengthens understanding of adult resilience to traumatic exposure by examining the resilience of Quechua women in the aftermath of the political violence in Peru (1980-2000), and their endurance of racially and gender-targeted violence. The study uses a cross sectional survey to examine the resilience and posttraumatic responses of 151 Quechua women. Participants were recruited from an urban setting and three rural villages in Ayacucho, Peru. The study examines the associations between resilience, past exposure to violence, current life stress and post-trauma related symptoms as well as the individual and community factors associated with the resilience of Quechua women. In doing so, this study makes a unique contribution by simultaneously examining posttraumatic responses and resilience in a post-conflict society, an area with a dearth of research. Results indicate that resilience was not associated with overall posttraumatic stress related symptoms, but instead higher resilience was associated with lower level of avoidance symptoms and therefore with lesser likelihood of chronic symptoms. Findings also demonstrate that enhanced resilience was associated with women’s participation in civic associations, as well as being a returnee of mass displacement. Lower resilience was instead associated with lower levels of education, absence of income generated from a formal employment and the experience of sexual violence during the conflict. These results were triangulated with qualitative findings, which show that work, family, religion, and social participation are enhancing factors of resilience. The study highlights the courage and resilience of Quechua women despite persistent experiences of everyday violence. The importance to situate trauma and resilience within historical processes of oppression and social transformation as well as other implications for social work practice and research are discussed.