The inadvertent ingestion of contaminated soil is the dominant exposure route of non-volatile and semi-volatile contaminants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Quantitative mass balance soil ingestion studies have been used to determine soil ingestion rates for use in human health risk assessments (HHRA) that can be used to predict the likelihood of adverse effects in individuals exposed to hazardous contaminants such as PAHs in contaminated soil. The Cold Lake region of Alberta is one of the three major oil sands regions of Alberta, and PAH concentrations in this oil sand region may be elevated in the atmosphere and the soil, resulting in increased exposures to PAHs. The area is home to Cold Lake First Nation who practice traditional activities and lifestyles that may put them in greater contact with soil than previous soil ingestion studies suggest. The primary objective of this research was to assess the soil ingestion rate in a group of First Nations subjects inhabiting the Cold lake region, and assess the carcinogenic risk posed by exposures to PAHs in air and soil. The study employed a quantitative mass balance tracer approach to estimate soil ingestion rates, and followed 9 subjects over a 13 day period. Soil and air samples were simultaneously collected to assess PAH contamination. The mean soil ingestion rate using Al and Si elemental tracers was 52 mg d-1, with a 90th percentile of 220 mg d-1, and a median soil ingestion rate of 37 mg d-1. These values are greater than the soil ingestion rates for HHRA recommended by Health Canada. The mean increase in excess lifetime cancer risk posed by inadvertent ingestion of soil to a First Nations’ individuals following traditional activities was 0.02 cases per 100,000 people with a 95% risk level of 0.067 cases per 100,000 people. Exposure to PAHs through inhalation posed a maximum lifetime cancer risk below 0.1 cases per 100,000, people. Thus, this study found no appreciable increase in excess lifetime associated with PAH exposure of First Nations’ people in the Cold Lake region.

Through this Peace and Conflict Studies autoethnography, I relate my stories in relationship to the First Nations lands and peoples of Northern Manitoba within the context of Child and Family Services. The stories identify relationships between social work interventions and peace-building interventions with examples of my contributions to the structural violence of colonization through assimilation, and my interventions that are consistent with peace-building to reverse the assimilation of colonization. The theories of structural violence, colonization, assimilation and genocide provide the framework to tell the anecdotal stories to identify the complex relationships. My stories describe my emotions of inner conflict and turmoil as I identify the day-to-day challenges ingrained within the system to build peace by reversing the tide of removing children from their families, communities, cultures and identities. The stories also identify some successes of peace-building by strengthening and unifying families and communities in response to experiences of colonization.

Objective: To explore the association of insulin resistance (IR) with direct measures of physical activity (PA). Research methods and procedures: A school-based, cross-sectional study was conducted in two remote British Columbia coastal First Nations villages. 74 healthy boys and girls (mean = 11.8yrs ± 2.2; range = 8.8-18.5yrs) volunteered to participate. PA was measured with the ActiGraph accelerometer. IR was determined using the homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR). Body mass index standardized for age and sex (zBMI) and waist circumference were used to assess total and central adiposity. Results: From the 39 participants with complete data sets, moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity (MVPA) was inversely related to HOMA-IR (r = -.45, p<0.01) while total and central adiposity were directly related (r= .44, p<.01 and r=.35, p<.05, respectively). Discussion: These data provide evidence of the important role of PA, particularly MVPA, in improving IR and potentially preventing type 2 diabetes in First Nations youth.

In my thesis, I argue that art is one way Indigenous peoples keep our laws alive in the world. The purpose of my thesis is to show the underlying connections between the role of the artist and the practice of art and the laws by which we seek to live. I draw on contemporary Indigenous art to illustrate some of those roles and responsibilities. As we share our art, our knowledge between Indigenous peoples, we are strengthening our peoples to resist the powerful effects of colonialism. At the same time we are communicating powerful law by building opportunities for future generations to live together in peace, friendship and respect.

This thesis examines conflict between Tsawwassen First Nation, the Host community and Delta Council representing the Settler community. The methodology is textual research and analysis of the historic and current relationship and the impact on the conflict of Delta filing a lawsuit to prevent the first Urban Treaty in British Columbia. It is a structural analysis of probable root causes of the conflict including political, economic and social linguistic barriers to understanding. The work begins with a political and policy analysis of First Nations challenges including the competing interests, fears and the public record of the Settler community. Differing worldviews, assumptions, language, core beliefs and values contribute to the walls which prevent Settlers from seeing the Host community clearly. Reconciliation or transformation of the relationship is the goal; achievable through recognizing and honouring difference. Cross Cultural Competence between the two communities is preferred to the limitations of Interest Based Negotiations.

The purpose of this thesis is to determine the key explanatory factors that explain why some First Nations reach an agreement through the British Columbia Treaty Process, while others do not. To do this, analytical frameworks from Gabrielle Slowey and Christopher Alcantara are empirically applied to three First Nations who are (or were) negotiating agreements in the province. The findings conclude that negotiations in the Treaty Process produce different results for the same reasons that Alcantara and Slowey identify for Aboriginal groups throughout Canada. They depend on the particular circumstances of each First Nation within the current institutional structure. This structure defines the relationship between Aboriginal and state actors and provides a set of options from which the former may choose to navigate their futures. However, in addition to the determining factors that Alcantara and Slowey identify, this thesis finds that it is also imperative to take into account the desire of a First Nation to use the Treaty Process as a means to progress along its own path of self-determination.

This dissertation presents a comparative case-study of how two groups of culturally diverse elementary school students engage with particular forms of narrative practice shared by cultural educators through First Nations cultural education programs. The project develops the argument that different cultures afford different symbolic resources useful in “structuring” and “organizing” experience for individuals and that one important way in which these “possible worlds” are shared in a community is through storytelling. To develop this argument the project was structured around two main research questions: 1) what are the forms and functions of narrative practices that children experience during the First Nations cultural education programs? And 2) how do children “echo” and “transform” these narrative practices through their participation in the narrative activities organized around the programs? Participants in the project were two First Nations cultural educators conducting cultural education programs in public schools who participated as research partners, as well as 16 students from a grade 1 classroom (Class A) who participated in the first educator’s program and 15 students from a grade 4 classroom (Class B) who participated in the second educator’s program. Data for this project came from a multiple sources and analysis focused especially on stories told from the cultural educators during their programs as well as retellings of these stories from students in the two classrooms. Additional data was included from interviews and discussions with the cultural educators and student participants, field notes on the cultural education programs, and the classroom communities, as well as discussions with classroom teachers. This additional data was integrated into the project at various points to support interpretations. An ethnopoetic or verse analysis (Hymes, 1981, 1996, 2003) of stories told by the cultural educators revealed recurring patterns in the stories that both educators employed for particular rhetorical effects. In addition, these patterns revealed a number of “cultural features” of the storytelling performances that the educators used to emphasize specific points, to make parts of the stories especially memorable for the audience and to share lessons with the audience. Verse analyses of students’ story-retellings revealed a number of ways in which these students echoed and transformed these cultural features and made use of them to share the meaning or lesson of the stories. Finally, comparative analyses of story-retellings from the differently aged students in the two classrooms through a number of analytical frameworks showed that the retellings from grade 4 students were more complex in a number of ways, but also that students in both classrooms skillfully employed these different forms of narrative resources. The results reported in this study suggest that students were making use of the space provided in the cultural education programs to explore particular forms of narrative practice shared by the cultural educators and that they were making use of these narrative resources in meaningful ways. / Graduate / 0620 / jwallen@uvic.ca, james_w_allen@hotmail.com

In 1938 the Canadian government approved a plan to train fishermen as naval reservists in British Columbia. The fishermen were recruited as whole crews and trained to shoot accurately, form fours, navigate, signal properly and drop depth charges – all aboard their own converted fishing vessels. On paper, and to the general public, the specialized reserve known as the Fishermen’s Reserve or “Gumboot Navy”, was a patriotic group of fishermen doing their bit and better preparing for emergencies. However, in reality, the Canadian government instituted the Fishermen’s Reserve in 1938 for a very specific reason – to round up and remove Japanese Canadians and their boats from the coast prior to the outbreak of war between Canada and Japan. This thesis explores various aspects of the Fishermen’s Reserve from 1938 to 1941 in order to better understand the Canadian Government’s wartime policies. As there are almost no secondary sources on the subject, this paper uses extensive primary sources to uncover and analyze the Royal Canadian Navy’s recruitment policy, unconventional regulations and racist underpinnings in instituting the Fishermen’s Reserve. / Graduate / 0334 / 0750 / 0740 / gregory.kier@gmail.com

First Nations peoples experience many benefits from eating locally-harvested wild foods, but these benefits must be considered along with the potential risks associated with exposure to environmental contaminants. Unlike store-bought foods, wild foods are an important traditional resource and a significant source of dietary protein, essential minerals and polyunsaturated fatty acids, believed to help in the prevention and treatment of obesity and obesity-related diseases such as type-2 diabetes mellitus. Wild foods continue to be an important and healthy food choice for First Nations peoples; however, they are also a primary source of dietary mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and other persistent organic pollutants (POPs). To assess the effects of wild food consumption on dietary markers and contaminant accumulation, we grouped individuals from two remote Oji-Cree First Nations communities of north-western Ontario (n=71) according to their level of wild food consumption. In this study, I observed significantly higher organic contaminants in blood and higher mercury concentrations in hair for individuals consuming greater amounts of wild food. Age-adjusted contaminant concentrations were on average 3.5-times higher among high-frequency wild food consumers, with many exceeding federal and international health guidelines for mercury and PCB exposures. Contaminants in these populations approach, and in some cases exceed, threshold levels for adverse effects with potential consequences especially for prenatal development. Here, I also investigated the potential for stable isotope ratios of carbon and nitrogen (δ13C and δ15N) to serve as dietary markers and found strong positive correlations between stable isotopes and frequency of wild food and fish consumption. Frequency of fish consumption and δ15N was also shown to be positively correlated with mercury concentrations in hair and PCB concentrations in plasma. The results of this thesis demonstrate that known differences in dietary behaviour are clearly reflected in stable isotope ratios and contaminant concentrations. The data also show that contaminant exposures to those consuming wild foods in remote Boreal ecosystems is comparable to those associated with serious health effects in industrialized areas, and the problem of contaminants in wild foods is more widespread than the available literature would have led us to believe. These results affect our appreciation of contaminant exposures to First Nations peoples and will have implications for dietary choices, particularly if individuals are encouraged to consume greater amounts of wild foods for their proposed health benefits. We recommend further attention be given to the risks of contaminants in locally-harvested wild foods when promoting the benefits of their consumption to First Nations people as the problem of contaminants in remote communities practicing traditional lifestyles is often underreported and underplayed.

In Canada, almost everybody is familiar with stereotypes about ‘Native social dysfunction’. Canada’s present-day “Imaginary Indian” (Francis) is indeed associated with substance and welfare dependence as well as family violence and neglect. However, the mainstream tends not to wonder about the actual social suffering behind the image and about the causes of these supposed patterns. In Daughters Are Forever, the Sto:lo / Squamish writer and activist Lee Maracle deconstructs these racist clichés by emphasizing the impact of the colonial process on real-life Native populations. Through a Sto:lo social worker’s attempts to understand how colonial policies have affected Aboriginal motherhood, Maracle demonstrates the roots of Indigenous social ills in collective traumas inflicted over several centuries and transmitted intergenerationally. The conclusion of the protagonist, Marilyn, that “[c]olonization is such a personal process” (216) summarizes the ways in which collective trauma and cultural genocide largely condition individual traumas and grief. Her parallel journeys to help an Anishnaabe woman patient, prevent the abductions of Native Canadian children by mainstream welfare services, and mend her own toxic relationship with her daughters further demonstrate the interrelatedness of Indian policy, patriarchal institutions, and personal and familial spiritual illnesses. They also enable Maracle to show the dangerous ethnocentrism of mainstream psychology and the need to create cross-cultural methodologies and therapies appropriate to the diverse Native North American cultures. By depicting the “unresolved human dilemmas” (Preface 11) of Aboriginal characters, she strives to create social change by drawing her readers into her stories to shock them into awareness.