Community development (CD) is viewed as a way to improve the social, physical, organizational and economic outcomes of a community. The purpose of this study was to explore the role of a strength training facility on CD and provide an insight into its impact on the community. Qualitative research was conducted by two data collection exercises. The first was a 12-week period, while the second was one week long. A segmented thematic analysis was used to explore the data provided by three target groups and participants’ observations. The findings provided insight into the facility’s contribution to CD in particular, noting that a strength training facility can influence personal, economic, social, environmental and organizational outcomes within a community. The research contributes to the existing literature in leisure by providing evidence of CD from a remote First Nations community. The research reveals how arrangements for physical activities can improve the welfare of a community.

In contrast with mainstream Canadian youth, First Nations youth experience many health disparities. Researchers recommended that interventions designed to promote First Nations youth development use a strengths-based lens that recognizes contextual challenges. Furthermore, leadership programming for First Nations youth has begun to show promising outcomes. The overall purpose of this research was to examine the Youth Leadership Program (YLP) program to gain an understanding of program implementation and perceived outcomes related to both individual and community development. Two studies were conducted to fulfil the research purpose. The first study applied a qualitative approach that examined contextual dynamics, implementation issues (Article 1) and perceived impacts (Article 2). Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis. Overall, 12 program staff (5 females), one Elder (male) and 10 youth (8 females) participated in semi-structured interviews. In addition, 11 youth (7 females) participated in two focus groups. The data from the youth and staff were included in the first study. The focus group data was included in the second study. In Article 1, findings were categorized into strategies for success and challenges. The following six themes were identified within the strategies for success: (a) designing youth engagement strategies, (b) being creative and adaptable, (c) being a positive presence, (d) applying experiential learning techniques, (e) balancing the integration of culture with youth voice and (f) identifying partnerships and developing relationships with the community. The three themes relating to challenges were (a) community diversity, (b) social issues and (c) staff burn-out. In Article 2, data analysis resulted in three themes that describe the perceived program effects at the participant, staff and community levels. The three major themes include: a) progressive leadership development, b) enhanced relationships and c) increased community participation. Within the second study (Article 3), methods were based on youth participatory evaluation and Photovoice and the design included capacity building, stakeholder analysis, photo exploration and utilization-focused activities. Using a thematic analysis, five themes were identified: (a) fun and fulfilling to engage the children, (b) positive outcomes for youth leaders, (c) community impacts, (d) challenges and (e) opportunities for improvement. Findings for each study are discussed in relation to current theory and practice, and recommendations are provided for future research and programming. This research makes contributions to applied positive youth development programming, community-based research with First Nations youth, youth-led participatory research and developmental systems theory.

The history of contact with Europeans for Native Americans and the Tlingit people in particular has been well documented as one of extreme pain, suffering, and injustice. It was "survival time" for the Tlingit and very difficult choices had to be made. The life of one Tlingit man, Rudolph Walton, born in Sitka, Alaska in 1867, illuminates this critical time in the history of the Tlingit people. This dissertation is ah exploration of the interplay between competing cultures and interests and it is a quest to understand who Rudolph Walton was and how his life and the choices he made are connected to the larger historic themes and cross-cultural issues in Alaska Native education and religious life. In addition to providing a look at history and at cultural change through an individual's life, choices and experiences, this dissertation is also about the connection between my ancestors' choices and the impact those choices had on the survival of a people. It is at once a macro view and a micro view of the impact of history on Indian people. After the purchase of Alaska by the United States traditional Tlingit life changed forever. The Tlingit were forced on a daily basis to balance demands and pressures made by various Christian religious groups and the U. S. government. They also had to contend with the prejudice of the average American citizen. Most Native American history has been limited to the use of records written by Europeans and Americans. Our understanding of that history is limited because the voice of the Native American is rarely heard. This dissertation fills a gap in the history of Southeast Alaska through an examination of the life of Rudolph Walton. The life of Mr. Walton is important because he left us with a unique set of documents which help us to understand the difficulties he had to face as a Tlingit man during a critical time in the history of Southeast Alaska. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

Since the arrival of settlers in the 16th century, the Canadian Government has dispossessed First Nations people of their land and culture through a history of colonialism. This has led to over a century of contentious relationships between First Nations and the Canadian Government in which First Nations have often struggled with the revitalization and reclamation of their culture and land due to oppressive systemic structures. Cartography has been one approach, among many, adopted by First Nations to facilitate self-determination in recent decades. However, the role of cartography has been one focused on western technocratic approaches of drawing territorial boundaries as part of the land claims process. Such approaches may assist First Nations in documenting land use and negotiating territorial rights and as such move them towards self-determination. Conventional western cartography is inherently incapable of representing the rich spatial nature of First Nations’ sense of cultural place. More recently, cybercartography has emerged due to technological advances in software and web-based publishing that has the potential to encapsulate First Nations’ oral history and culture by providing digital multimedia elements (i.e. audio, imagery, and video) within a digital spatial context. The use of cybercartography in this manner is quickly increasing over time, but research is lacking in understanding how new representations of First Nations history and culture through cybercartographic frameworks explicitly facilitate, or prohibit, First Nations ability to attain self-determination. To address this gap, this study evaluates the ways in which contemporary cybercartographic technologies may facilitate the process of self-determination through an application development and interview process with a local First Nation on Vancouver island, BC. The research process throughout the project are evaluated using the Indigenous principles of Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession (OCAP) and uses this as a framework to understand how the experiences of the Nation relate to the broader narrative of self-determination. The results of this study suggest that using a community-engaged approach to cybercartography facilitates community-specific requirements of self-determination, mainly because community engagement can lead to the development of tools that match community objectives and needs. Furthermore, this study demonstrated that the OCAP principles have the potential to be used in future studies for evaluating the efficacy of technologies that are intended to facilitate self-determination in First Nation communities. / Graduate / 2021-04-16

Students who speak local varieties (i.e., dialects) of English that differ from the codified variety promoted in school are at a disadvantage. Research illustrates that differences in sound systems, grammar, vocabulary, and usage can negatively affect literacy development and achievement in math and science, and lead to misunderstandings and changes in teacher attitudes toward students. Moreover, the use of inappropriate assessment tools may result in unnecessary pathologization and inappropriate pedagogical approaches. Since many Indigenous children may speak local varieties, it is reasonable to assume that the same issues that hinder school success for speakers of other varieties affect many Indigenous students in Canada in similar ways. However, to date, research concerning Indigenous Englishes in Canada is scant. Similarly, virtually no empirical evidence has been gathered on use in Canadian schools. By extension, the trajectory of use of features as children progress through grades remains unknown. The goal of this research was to begin to address the crucial necessity of learning more about Indigenous English varieties, in order that appropriate language assessment and pedagogical practices can be implemented. The research, conducted in a remote community in Northern British Columbia, Canada, concentrates on differences in grammar used by a group of First Nations school-aged children. I analyzed oral narrative language samples of Kindergarteners, and oral and written narrative language samples of students in Kindergarten to Grade 5, over a three-year period. Results reveal the presence of at least 23 distinct grammatical features, many of which may have been influenced by the structure of the ancestral language. At school entry, students used grammatical features at high rates, regardless of whether or not they later required speech-language pathology or special education services. As children progressed through the grades, the rate at which they produced features appeared to follow a curvilinear trajectory, declining until grades 3 and 4 and then gradually rising again in middle school. A preference for using shorter sentences with less use of subordination and embedding of clauses also appears to be a feature of this variety. Most of the features the children used in their speech, they also used in their writing. Children had the most difficulty switching to standard English forms of verb tense, and so verb tense may require more direct instruction. While my results may not be directly generalizable to other First Nations communities, it is anticipated that educators will use them as a guide in their practice and instruction, so they can cease confusing features of a local variety with errors requiring “correction”, avoid unnecessary pathologization, and adjust expectations regarding the rate at which children can be expected to acquire the codified standard language model. It is also hoped that this study will contribute to the preservation and celebration of the unique ways of speaking English that have evolved in northern communities. / Graduate / 2021-09-16

This thesis looks at the process of reunification for Indigenous children following a time in the care of the child welfare system. To understand what has been studied in the area of reunification of Indigenous children back to their families, a scoping review process is undertaken to gathering and mapping the available research. The initial search produced a total of 1823 abstracts. After applying an inclusion and exclusion reviewing process, the scoping review resulted in a total of 44 literature sources for this study. This study uses Cindy Blackstock’s Breath of Life Theory as the theoretical framework to understand and reimagine the process of reunification from the perspective of the child, the family, the worker, and substitute caregiver. The review found support for the idea that research and programs relating to reunification for Indigenous children needs to use Indigenous methods and ways of thinking. Five themes emerged from this review, the use of Indigenous ways of knowing, this theme is central throughout the literature and informs the other four themes: structural vs. individual assessment/intervention, trauma/reconciliation, connections/relationships, and Indigenous research. / Thesis / Master of Social Work (MSW)

I collaborate with Elders of the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory – mainly former vice-principals and principals – to share their stories about elementary school administration of the community’s day schools of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, and of the larger consolidated schools thereafter. By engaging in storywork with them, their stories reveal that as Indigenous organizations like the National Indian Brotherhood/Assembly of First Nations (NIB/AFN) warned First Nations about mistaking administrative control, or delegated authority as it framed it, as real, local control over their children’s education, vice-principals and principals in Six Nations reframed it as inherent acts of self-determination and sovereignty over education. Drawing on Audra Simpson’s nested sovereignty, and Glen Sean Coulthard’s self-recognition to produce a more accurate representation of administrative control in the community, the author argues that vice-principals and principals in Six Nations did not mistake their practice as delegated authority but instead – as inherently sovereign actors – went through a process of negotiating self-determination and sovereignty within the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development Canada’s (DIAND) educational framework to upset its status quo of First Nations only managing educational programs and services. If sovereignty is understood to be a process, rather than a destination as Robert Allen Warrior suggests, then vice-principals and principals exercising administrative control on a daily basis in their schools should be recognized as inherently self-determining and sovereign. By sharing their stories, they reveal that they possess the authority to determine the definition and character of administrative control at the local level. The argument’s implication being that there are alternative ways of knowing and understanding administrative control in First Nations schools, rather than the national discourse that evolved in the decades following the NIB’s Indian Control of Indian Education. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA) / I collaborate with Elders of the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory – mainly former vice-principals and principals – to share their stories about elementary school administration of the community’s day schools of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, and of the larger consolidated schools of the 1990s and early 2000s. By engaging in storywork with the Elders, their stories reveal that as Indigenous organizations like the National Indian Brotherhood/Assembly of First Nations (NIB/AFN) warned First Nations communities about mistaking administrative control, or delegated authority as it framed it, as real, local control over their children’s education, vice-principals and principals in Six Nations reframed it as inherent acts of self-determination and sovereignty over education. Their stories provide an alternative way of knowing and understanding administrative control in First Nations schools.

No description available.

<p>Introduction: Palliative care in Canada is an under-funded service for all Canadians, but for Aboriginal people in Canada, the level of access to such care is significantly lower. This study examined the system of palliative care delivery at Six Nations of the Grand River. The overall aim of the project was to identify ways on how the system of care could be improved.</p> <p>Methods: A qualitative case study approach was used. Interviews were held with Elders and family caregivers to identify the priorities in care delivery from their perspective. Focus groups were held with representatives from palliative care service provider agencies in an effort to identify the strengths and challenges within the system and to determine how palliative care services provided to the members of Six Nations could be improved.</p> <p>Findings: Themes identified in the interviews included: personable, caring care; culturally-competent care; open two-way communication; support for family caregivers; palliative home care should be available; meeting comfort needs of the person; and the need for a hospice in the community. The main theme identified in the focus groups with care providers included: relationship/rapport issues between provider organizations; within-program strengths and challenges; cultural considerations in care; and broader system factors that influence care.</p> <p>Discussion: Relationship/rapport issues were identified as a challenge, and it appeared that the focus groups provided an opportunity for communication between the organizations to improve. Identification of within-program challenges – and ways to address these challenges - may provide opportunities for each organization to improve how palliative care services are delivered at Six Nations. Identification of broader system factors that influence care may also benefit patients in need of palliative care.</p> / Master of Science (MSc)

This study asks how the media perpetuates the cycle of racism, colonialism and stereotyping of Indigenous youth in Thunder Bay, and how Indigenous news sources participate in giving voice to Indigenous peoples. The research methodology is a discourse analysis examining both mainstream and Indigenous newspaper articles on the subject of the First Nations youth deaths in Thunder Bay. The methodology is also influenced by critical and decolonizing theories. Findings show that Indigenous newspaper articles are overall more inclusive of Indigenous voice, therefore providing an Indigenous perspective on the issue of First Nations youth dying in Thunder Bay and leaving out racist portrayals. On the other hand, non-Indigenous newspaper articles include less Indigenous voice and use the opinion of individuals in powerful positions. They also tend to portray Indigenous people in a negative light when compared to Indigenous newspapers. Outcomes from this research include implications for social workers such as: developing an understanding of how the media perpetuates racism, colonialism and stereotyping against Indigenous youth, advocating for and empowering Indigenous youth so they can come together and fight for change in First Nations education, and improving education within schools of social work regarding advocacy in the media. / Thesis / Master of Social Work (MSW)