The Limxhl Hlgu Wo'omhlxw (Song of the Newborn) project is situated on Lax Yipxwhl Gitxsan (Gitxsan Territory) and embraces a decolonizing and Indigenist (Wilson, 2007) methodology. The project is a collaboration between Catherine Dworak (me), the graduate student, and Dr. M.J. Smith, educator and Gitxsan storyteller. We partnered with three Gitxsan Elders to learn about the language of pregnancy, childbirth, and life with a newborn. In agreeing to work with us, the Elders honoured us by sharing some of their knowledge and life experiences with us. The thesis begins with three chapters that provide background information regarding the Gitxsan language and territory, how I came to be involved in the project, and the traditional seasonal round and laws related to women in transitional periods. The thesis then details the research process that emerged from the project. The following two chapters include information that has not been previously documented. Chapter 5 presents language related to pregnancy, birth, and life with a newborn and corresponding linguistic analysis with suggestions for how someone without a background in linguistics could use the information presented in the chapter. Chapter 6 presents a local history focused on the confluence between Gitxsan and Eurocanadian health and medical care, with a focus on obstetric care from Gitxsan perspectives. The thesis concludes with a reflection on what working from within a Gitxsan research methodology means for a project that focuses on the sensitive and personal topic of pregnancy, childbirth, and life with a newborn. Traditionally, Gitxsan are researchers (Smith, 2004), so it is my hope that the Limxhl Hlgu Wo'omhlxw project has made a contribution to Gitxsan epistemological knowledge. / Graduate

Background: Long QT syndrome (LQTS) is a cardiac condition which predisposes individuals to syncope, seizures, and sudden cardiac death. There is a high prevalence of congenital LQTS in a First Nations community in Northern British Columbia due to the founder variant p.V205M in the KCNQ1 gene. Additionally, two other variants of interest are present in this population: the KCNQ1 p.L353L variant, previously noted to modify the phenotype of LQTS in adults, and the CPT1A p.P479L variant, a metabolic variant common in Northern Indigenous populations associated with hypoglycemia and sudden unexpected infant death. Methods: We performed a mixed methods study to better understand the impact of LQTS in children and youth in this First Nations community. To learn about the clinical impact of LQTS, and better understand the effects of the KCNQ1 and CPT1A variants in children, we used statistical analysis to compare the cardiac phenotypes of 211 First Nations children with and without the p.V205M, p.L353L and p.P479L variants, alone and in combination. Ordinary Least Squares linear regression was used to compare the highest peak corrected QT interval (QTc). The peak QTc is an electrocardiogram measurement used in risk stratification of LQTS patients. Logistic regression was used to compare the rates of syncope and seizures experienced in childhood. Additionally, to learn about the lived-experience of LQTS, we interviewed one young First Nations adult about her experiences growing up with LQTS as a teenager. From this interview, we conducted a qualitative case study analysis using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. All research was done in partnership with the First Nations community using community-based participatory methods. Results: We found that the p.V205M variant conferred a 22.4ms increase in peak QTc (p<0.001). No other variants or variant interaction effects were observed to have a significant impact on peak QTc. No association between the p.V205M variant and loss of consciousness (LOC) events (syncope and seizures) was observed (OR(95%CI)=1.3(0.6-2.8); p=0.531). However, children homozygous for p.P479L were found to experience 3.3 times more LOC events compared to non-carriers (OR=3.3(1.3-8.3); p=0.011). With regard to the qualitative portion of the thesis, four superordinate (main) themes emerged from the case study: Daily life with Long QT Syndrome, Interactions with Medical Professionals, Finding Reassurance, and The In-Between Age. We found that even though our participant was asymptomatic and felt that she was not impacted by LQTS in her daily life, she considered certain elements of the condition to be stressful, such as taking a daily beta-blocker. Conclusion: These results suggest that while the KCNQ1 p.V205M variant is observed to significantly prolong the peak QTc, the CPT1A p.P479L variant is more strongly associated with LOC events in children from this community. More research is needed to further determine the effect of these variants; however, our preliminary findings suggest management strategies, such as whether beta-blockers are indicated for p.V205M carriers, may need to be reassessed. The importance of developing a holistic, well-balanced approach to medical care, taking into consideration the personal perspectives and unique medical circumstances of each child is exemplified in this study. / Graduate

This dissertation was undertaken in collaboration with the Nisga’a First Nation of northwestern British Columbia to document their traditional plant knowledge. This information was gathered through collaborative audio recorded open-ended discussion with 21 Nisga’a elders, supplemented with material from the published literature and archival sources. Background information with respect to the Nisga’a culture, language, geography, plant classification and resource management is documented in the past and as exercised today. Nisga’a names or uses of 110 plant species are described. Of these, 72 species were documented as having been used for food, 52 for medicinal purposes; 12 for spiritual purposes and 70 for technological purposes. The role of plants in traditional Nisga’a culture is further explored through comparisons of plant distribution, plant names and pre-contact trade between the Nisga’a and their immediate neighbours, the Gitxsan, Tsimshian, Haida, Tahltan and Tlingit First Nations. Maps are presented which highlight the distribution of seven plant species traditionally important in these cultures: Shepherdia canadensis (soapberry), Vaccinium membranaceum (black huckleberry), Oplopanax horridus (devil’s club), Corylus cornuta (beaked hazelnut), Malus fusca (Pacific crabapple), Veratrum viride (false hellebore), and Taxus brevifolia (western yew). Currently, one of the plants most important to the Nisga’a is wa’ums or devil’s club (Oplopanax horridus). Devil’s club stems were measured in clearcuts of different ages to examine how quickly this important spiritual and medicinal species recovers after logging. Results suggest that although devil’s club does persist after clearcut logging, stems of a suitable size are rarely found in cutblocks less than 10 years old and that time since logging only partially accounts for the persistence or recovery of this species. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of historical Nisga’a plant knowledge. The gender of those who have held and transmitted traditional knowledge and the gender of present knowledge holders is tabulated and discussed. Results suggest that although both men and women hold and pass on traditional knowledge, women were and still are more commonly involved in its transmission to the next generation. Current plant uses are highlighted and prospects for the sustainable use of plants for personal and commercial purposes are discussed. / Graduate

This thesis has two central goals. The first is to theorize the confrontation of Indigenous societies and European settler society as, among other things, a conflict between two opposing conceptions of the human relationship with nature — human ecology. The Western/settler view is that nature is external to humans and instrumental to their development. John Locke’s philosophy provides an excellent example of this type of thinking. In contrast, the world-view of many Indigenous societies is characterized by a sense of ontological continuity between humans and the ecology. The second aim of this thesis is to contribute to ecological political theory by exploring the contrast between these two divergent views of human ecology. It is suggested that this contrast provides a theoretically fertile site for an ecological politics suitable for a post-modern, post-capitalist future. These theoretical observations are grounded in a concrete case study: the Delgamuukw legal episode. / Graduate

What does it mean to be lawful in a secular age? Reincarnating Law in the Cosmos orbits around such a humanistic inquiry, offering a local contribution to a global jurisprudence by theorizing contemporary Indigenous and state laws in Canada in reciprocal relation to secular modernity. In this context, the study marks the first substantive engagement with Val Napoleon’s Ayook: Gitksan Legal Order, Law, and Legal Theory (2009). The study interprets Napoleon’s reification thesis on Gitxsan law and society as part of a historical disembedding process and evaluates it with reference to a 2016 pipeline agreement signed between a segment of Gitxsan hereditary leaders and the province of British Columbia. Translating Charles Taylor’s concept of excarnation for the legal sphere, it then expands upon Napoleon’s thesis by postulating the steady disembodying and disenchanting reduction of Gitxsan lawful life. To address this dilemma, the study supplements the active and reasoned sense of Gitxsan citizenship posited in Ayook by recasting it in phenomenological terms as a distinctly embodied form of legal agency. To clarify this aspect of agency, the study applies critical race feminist Preeti Dhaliwal’s legal research and playwriting method known as jurisprudential theatre. Dhaliwal’s method shapes the study in two significant ways. First, her impetus for developing the method draws from her own witnessing and overcoming of excarnation in the Canadian law school and immigration system, demonstrating it to be a larger problem traversing multi-juridical borders. To address this problem, the method, in turn, enables the innovation of a new Gitxsan concept of legal agency – the ‘wii bil’ust (giant star) – and an original drama that reveals the real-world struggle and heroism of reincarnating the Gitxsan legal order across generations over the past century. To encourage the broader reincarnation of law, and building on Jeremy Webber’s critique of the functionalist account of customary law, the study points towards a shared grammar of incarnational law. That is, a grammar deepened by embodied modes of relationality, reimagined cosmologies attuned to our earthly predicaments, and creative fluency in multiple languages and traditions, among other habitable zones. / Graduate / 2023-07-15