Focusing on Beatrice Mosioniers fictional autobiography <i>In Search of April Raintree</i>, this thesis analyzes April and Cheryl Raintrees emotional and psychological responses to oppression and racism and to freedom and love. One of the main arguments is that the sisters suffer internalized oppression and self-hatred after being exposed to colonial control and oppression and suffer internalized racism, self-hatred, and self-alienation and are acculturated to white cultural standards after experiencing racism. The sisters oppression re-enforces white dominance, and racism fosters white cultural control. The second main argument is that April and Cheryl are freed from internalized oppression when they have personal freedom and experience self-acceptance and embrace their ancestry and Aboriginal culture when they enjoy accepting, prizing love that validates their Aboriginal ancestry. The sisters personal freedom destabilizes white dominance and their self-acceptance and disalienation subvert white cultural values. The arguments are guided by the psychological theories of Frantz Fanon, Carl Rogers, and Eduardo and Bonnie Duran. This thesis also examines the importance that cultural practice has in April and Cheryls healing, studies the love the Raintree family shared in spite of the colonial forces tearing the family apart, and examines April as the narrator, showing how she is, at times, unreliable.

This project paper discusses the Cree mythology present in Tomson Highways <i>Kiss of the Fur Queen</i>. I contend that Highways conflation of the two mythological characters, Weesageechak and Weetigo, in the figure of the Fur Queen allows the dramatization of the interaction and confrontation between the aboriginal culture and colonizing culture. Through careful attention to imagistic references to the Cree Weetigo tradition, I contend that the Fur Queen is a complex metaphorical representation of the complicated reality faced by Highways characters. Through the Fur Queen, Weesageechak, the trickster, acts as a positive figure overseeing the success of her Aboriginal charges, while the cannibal Weetigo aspects of the Fur Queen represent the negative impacts and dangers faced by her charges within and from the colonizing Euro-Canadian culture.

This project paper discusses the Cree mythology present in Tomson Highways <i>Kiss of the Fur Queen</i>. I contend that Highways conflation of the two mythological characters, Weesageechak and Weetigo, in the figure of the Fur Queen allows the dramatization of the interaction and confrontation between the aboriginal culture and colonizing culture. Through careful attention to imagistic references to the Cree Weetigo tradition, I contend that the Fur Queen is a complex metaphorical representation of the complicated reality faced by Highways characters. Through the Fur Queen, Weesageechak, the trickster, acts as a positive figure overseeing the success of her Aboriginal charges, while the cannibal Weetigo aspects of the Fur Queen represent the negative impacts and dangers faced by her charges within and from the colonizing Euro-Canadian culture.

Focusing on Beatrice Mosioniers fictional autobiography <i>In Search of April Raintree</i>, this thesis analyzes April and Cheryl Raintrees emotional and psychological responses to oppression and racism and to freedom and love. One of the main arguments is that the sisters suffer internalized oppression and self-hatred after being exposed to colonial control and oppression and suffer internalized racism, self-hatred, and self-alienation and are acculturated to white cultural standards after experiencing racism. The sisters oppression re-enforces white dominance, and racism fosters white cultural control. The second main argument is that April and Cheryl are freed from internalized oppression when they have personal freedom and experience self-acceptance and embrace their ancestry and Aboriginal culture when they enjoy accepting, prizing love that validates their Aboriginal ancestry. The sisters personal freedom destabilizes white dominance and their self-acceptance and disalienation subvert white cultural values. The arguments are guided by the psychological theories of Frantz Fanon, Carl Rogers, and Eduardo and Bonnie Duran. This thesis also examines the importance that cultural practice has in April and Cheryls healing, studies the love the Raintree family shared in spite of the colonial forces tearing the family apart, and examines April as the narrator, showing how she is, at times, unreliable.

Mudrooroo has been influenced both by Henry Louis Gates' notions of signifying, as well as by those of Roland Barthes. For Aboriginal Australians, the Dreaming Ancestors marked the world with signs that they could read. The central character in the novel, Jangamuttuk, receives the European as his "dreaming" and his totemic ancestor. He (and Mudrooroo) therefore understand and can use and combat the power of this Ghost.

The devastation wrought by the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Aboriginal communities is both physical and metaphorical, as the stigmas associated with the virus mediate the way it is both understood and experienced. This thesis examines the role of HIV in Canadian Aboriginal literature, with an eye to the specific ways that these narratives about HIV relate back to real-world understandings of the epidemic. The works of Tomson Highway, Jordan Wheeler, Beth Brandt, and Gregory Scofield demonstrate how HIV/AIDS is frequently tied to colonial histories and personal experiences of disconnect, alienation, and abuse. HIV operates at the boundaries of these texts, drawing connections between otherwise disparate narratives, highlighting stigmas within communities, and focussing on differently marginalized communities of Aboriginal people in Canada. These authors draw from traditional understandings of storytelling, using narrative to incite important discussions about HIV/AIDS, and to work towards greater acceptance and inclusion of HIV-positive people in Aboriginal communities.

This paper examines the use of the anecdote in critical scholarship as an ethical approach to studying Aboriginal literature. As many scholars are now becoming aware of the damage that has been done to texts by critiquing Aboriginal literature from the position of cultural outsiders, this paper suggests that anecdotal theory proposed by Jane Gallop is an ethical approach to Aboriginal literature. The use of story to generate theory explored by Aboriginal scholars of literature is compared to anecdotal theory, which implies that the use of anecdotes is an ethical approach suggested by Aboriginal culture. Anecdotal theory, the practice of recording a personal anecdote and then reading it to generate theory, offers non-Aboriginal scholars as well as Aboriginal scholars a way to connect to the text. Using anecdotal theory helps scholars remain more responsible to the texts they are critiquing; anecdotes make scholars more self-aware and ground them in real experience, due to the anecdotes embodied nature and use of humour. This paper focuses on Aboriginal texts and scholars from North America. Helen Hoys critical work How Should I Read These: Native Women Writers in Canada is analysed for her use of the personal anecdote to examine its effectiveness. While Jane Gallop coins the term anecdotal theory, this paper attempts to connect personal anecdote, scholar, and literature in a way that Gallop does not.

This paper examines the use of the anecdote in critical scholarship as an ethical approach to studying Aboriginal literature. As many scholars are now becoming aware of the damage that has been done to texts by critiquing Aboriginal literature from the position of cultural outsiders, this paper suggests that anecdotal theory proposed by Jane Gallop is an ethical approach to Aboriginal literature. The use of story to generate theory explored by Aboriginal scholars of literature is compared to anecdotal theory, which implies that the use of anecdotes is an ethical approach suggested by Aboriginal culture. Anecdotal theory, the practice of recording a personal anecdote and then reading it to generate theory, offers non-Aboriginal scholars as well as Aboriginal scholars a way to connect to the text. Using anecdotal theory helps scholars remain more responsible to the texts they are critiquing; anecdotes make scholars more self-aware and ground them in real experience, due to the anecdotes embodied nature and use of humour. This paper focuses on Aboriginal texts and scholars from North America. Helen Hoys critical work How Should I Read These: Native Women Writers in Canada is analysed for her use of the personal anecdote to examine its effectiveness. While Jane Gallop coins the term anecdotal theory, this paper attempts to connect personal anecdote, scholar, and literature in a way that Gallop does not.

This study aims to examine critiques of social injustices expressed through the medium of literature by Native peoples of Canada and Japanese Canadians. My objectives are to explore literary representations of their struggles and examine how these representations and the struggles intersect. My study uses the following: “Coyote and the Enemy Aliens” by Thomas King, My Name is Seepeetza by Shirley Sterling, Obasan by Joy Kogawa, The Kappa Child by Hiromi Goto, Burning Vision by Marie Clements, and “The Uranium Leaking from Port Radium and Rayrock Mines is Killing Us” by Richard Van Camp. The findings reveal Canada’s nation state still rooted in a White settler constructed society, and a legacy of imperialism in the form of globalization that destroys Native peoples’ lands. My thesis concludes with the im/possibilities of reconciliation, also considering my own role as a person of colour, a temporary settler from Japan.

This study aims to examine critiques of social injustices expressed through the medium of literature by Native peoples of Canada and Japanese Canadians. My objectives are to explore literary representations of their struggles and examine how these representations and the struggles intersect. My study uses the following: “Coyote and the Enemy Aliens” by Thomas King, My Name is Seepeetza by Shirley Sterling, Obasan by Joy Kogawa, The Kappa Child by Hiromi Goto, Burning Vision by Marie Clements, and “The Uranium Leaking from Port Radium and Rayrock Mines is Killing Us” by Richard Van Camp. The findings reveal Canada’s nation state still rooted in a White settler constructed society, and a legacy of imperialism in the form of globalization that destroys Native peoples’ lands. My thesis concludes with the im/possibilities of reconciliation, also considering my own role as a person of colour, a temporary settler from Japan.