This thesis examines Dene engagement with the diamond mining economy in Canada’s Northwest Territories. While historic treaties, policy and regulation create situations of powerlessness, the space for the negotiation of a bilateral relationship between Treaty mining companies and communities exists, formalized as Impact and Benefit Agreements. An initial emphasis on socio-cultural impacts and vulnerability of the communities in relation to the mines illuminated variable outcomes. This led to a central focus on how outcomes are negotiated, with the outcomes strongly related to forms of community and cultural resilience. Surprisingly, the ability to bounce back, or be resilient (not vulnerable), as defined by the Tåîchô and Yellowknives Dene communities is central to community response and well being in this new economy. The possibility of self determination and the potential to be in relationships of reciprocity are found to be fundamental drivers of community health and thus resilience. Study of the Tåîchô Cosmology surfaces the centrality of reciprocity to cultural resilience wherein the quality and nature of the relationships as inscribed in past and present agreements themselves are of defining importance. New relationships with mining companies are entered with the expectation of reciprocity by communities, so that the exchanges are economic, social, cultural, spiritual and symbolic. This thesis outlines this process as it plays out in the mining economy and as it is manifest in spaces of negotiation, each of which invokes social capital and reciprocity. These include negotiations between: diamond mining companies and the communities; government and communities; diamond mining companies and the workers, and miners and their families and communities. Each of these negotiations is vital in creating the possibility of employment and business. However, relationships with the settler government and with Treaty mining companies are constrained. Many of the limitations identified relate to the assumption by settler society of the universality of their particular values, practices and culture. The thesis argues that Treaty mining companies can shift approaches, both in the orientation to relationship and in the implementation of agreements through the lifecycle of the mine.

In recent years nursing literature has featured a proliferation of discourse pertaining to many aspects of spirituality in nursing. However, there has been a dearth of research related to nurses' personal spirituality and whether or not it helps to shape their nursing practice. This qualitative study explored how spirituality shapes the practice of community health nurses who work in First Nations communities in British Columbia (B.C.). The twelve participants, purposefully sampled, all had at least 2 years experience working in community health in First Nations communities. Using an interpretive descriptive research design, participants were interviewed to explore their lived experiences of spirituality relative to their nursing practice. The analysis of the interview data identified that nurses' spirituality is essential to their practice in terms of "providing care spiritually" versus "providing spiritual care" interventions to their patients as typically depicted in the nursing literature. Moreover, their spirituality is discussed as a pervasive nursing ethic and motivation for patient care that manifests as respect, connectedness, love, acceptance, caring, hope, endurance and compassion towards patients. Furthermore, the findings of this study suggest the integration of community health nurses' spirituality into their nursing practice may contribute to the wider aim of health and healing within First Nations communities. Four major themes are presented as research findings: (a) spirituality influences nurses' ability to remain self aware, open-minded and accepting in relation to others; (b) spirituality as a reflexive approach to grounding one's own nursing practice; (c) spiritual awareness fosters appreciation of the need for community healing, and finally (d) self-reflection and providing care spiritually as a route to reciprocal interaction. Also, it was identified that nurses' spirituality nurtures their reflexivity and helps them to: (a) foster culturally safe relationships with patients, (b) realize how colonial issues influence health status in First Nations patients, (c) recognize that cumulative work stress and burn out can be reduced and prevented through relational spiritual practices, and (d) work through their own values, beliefs and prejudices in order to practice nursing based on a model of reciprocal interaction, and culturally safe approaches.

This thesis focuses on the development of a "Keeping House" near Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. Although there is an extensive artifact collection in Saskatchewan, many First Nations' artifacts are spread out throughout the province, Canada, and in other countries. These artifacts are living items, with a story, history and ceremony attached to them and they are in need of repatriation through a process which ensures their safety and preservation. This project will offer environments for the safe-keeping of Saskatchewan First Nations' artifacts, as well as areas for teaching and ceremonies. It will also build on the existing historical strengths of the land on which it sits.

There is little understanding of federal policies, programs and processes (PPP) that structure and influence water infrastructure construction and water service delivery in First Nations communities in Canada. That First Nations face drinking water challenges is not new; however there is an acute cause for concern as recent federal funding initiatives have made limited gains. This thesis investigates the apparent disconnect between high-level PPP and ground-level outcomes through the perspectives of Ontario First Nations technical staff. Pioneering a unique approach to policy research, the thesis bridges elements of engineering, qualitative research and decolonizing methodologies to identify challenges and provide solutions. Specifically, participant interviews indicate incompatibilities between the PPP paradigm and the First Nations technical paradigm; a lack of accommodation for First Nations diversity; and a large separation between technical symptoms and their root causes. Three graphical tools, developed from the success factors and ideal vision findings, structure proposed PPP renewal. / A qualitative research investigation within the engineering field, involving decolonizing methodologies and an engineering problem-solving approach to tool development. / NSERC; Canadian Water Network; Engineers Canada

States are the traditional focal point of democratic legitimation. In the standard model, the institution of the state is normatively privileged: it is the primary object of democratic legitimation, and the national political community is the primary subject. How, I ask, should the standard, state-centric model of democratic legitimation be transformed in light of the presence of substantive jurisdictional conflict and plural political identity? Substantive jurisdictional conflict describes a challenge to the state’s authority from non-state institutions that represent a territory which overlaps with a part of or extends beyond the state’s territory, make jurisdictional claims that are grounded independently from the state, and do not seek to form states themselves. Plural political identity describes the attachment of individuals to multiple political communities. Under these circumstances, I argue that non-state institutions can be important supplementary objects of democratic legitimation alongside states. The normative rationale for this transformation to the standard model is that adding non-state institutions as additional objects of democratic legitimation will enhance the ability of individuals and political communities to rule themselves. The basic shape of the model I develop is that the strength of competing jurisdictional claims can be assessed by comparing the primary roles of institutions. An account of an institution’s primary role describes its contribution to the production of democratic legitimation on behalf of a particular political community or political communities. The primary role of the state, for example, is to enable a project of democratic constitutionalism on behalf of the national political community. I then develop a criterion to guide state citizenries when considering how to respond to the claims of non-state institutions: they should distribute the jurisdiction necessary for non-state institutions to play their primary roles, subject to the qualification that their state’s primary role of enabling democratic constitutionalism is not negatively impacted. This approach pluralizes the meaning of democratic legitimation away from a strict association with the state towards multiple institutional locations.

No description available.

Self-rated health (SRH) is a commonly used measure in surveys. The associations of SRH in Canadian First Nations populations have not previously been fully studied. Univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analyses were conducted to determine how participants rated their health and what factors associated with SRH in a Manitoba First Nation. Respondents rated their health substantially worse than the general Canadian population. Men rated their health worse than women, and older adults rated their health worse than younger adults. In multivariate analyses, sex, hypertension, arthritis, the metabolic syndrome, number of chronic conditions, vision and mobility difficulties, perceived stress, perceived control over health and life, and community conditions were independently associated with SRH. These results suggest that asymptomatic conditions may be incorporated into the SRH of community members and suggest a complex interaction of health-related factors, stressors, and psychosocial factors that contribute to community members’ SRH.

The existence of workplace violence in remote and isolated nursing station settings has been an area of limited knowledge to date. This descriptive study explored the phenomena of workplace and occupational aggression (WPOA), an operational definition of workplace violence created to capture all exposures to verbal and physical aggression in the 21 First Nations and Inuit Health (FNIH) managed Nursing Stations in Manitoba. Using the Manitoba Region Occurrence Reports from 2008, it was found that nurses in nursing stations experience a range of WPOA exposures with verbal incidents being more commonly reported than physical incidents. Quantitative findings related to patterns of reported WPOA with respect to timing, type, perpetrators and concurrent substance use. Themes related to the impact of WPOA on nursing staff and responses of managers to reported incidents were generated from the qualitative analysis. Recommendations for policy, administration, education and future research were generated.

The purpose of this thesis is two-fold. First, to bring forth an understanding of the historical relationship between First Nations people and the formal Canadian education system. Second, to investigate how non-First Nations school social workers perceive their role in supporting First Nations youth within the education system. The first goal is accomplished through a literature review, outlining histories that have shaped how many First Nations youth experience education. Additionally, themes of cultural safety, the role of school social work, and whiteness, are explored. Thus, providing the framework for analysis. The second goal is accomplished through interviews with non-First Nations school social workers, working in Winnipeg school divisions. The interviews were qualitative, following a narrative style of inquiry. Three recommendations are made based on this research in the areas of education on colonial histories, self-reflexivity in social work, and understanding when First Nations students feel culturally safe.

This Master of Social Work thesis focused on the healing journeys of urban First Nations women who have overcome trauma. The purpose of this research study was to develop a deeper understanding of healing and trauma from an Indigenous perspective. This Master of Social Work thesis created space for Indigenous knowledges so that Indigenous perspectives on the aspects of healing and trauma could be brought forward. At the centre of this created space were the voices of urban First Nations women and their shared stories of healing. This qualitative research study applied Indigenous research methodology, which also included narrative research methodology. In this study, the stories of five First Nations women who reside in an urban centre in Manitoba and who were well into their journeys of healing from trauma were explored. Manitoba First Nations traditional values, practice and protocol guided this thesis project to ensure that this research was conducted ethically and respectfully. The Medicine Wheel was used as a conceptual framework to understand the journeys of healing as well as the trauma experiences of the five women within the context of the life stages of human development. The meta-narratives and life narratives of the women provided accounts of their healing journeys. The findings of this research identified the following three overarching themes: living colonized lives, relationships, and healing paths. Recommendations were outlined for future social work research, practice, and education.