The Indigenous past is largely absent from settler representations of the history of the city of Toronto, Canada. Nineteenth and twentieth century historical chroniclers often downplayed the historic presence of the Mississaugas and their Indigenous predecessors by drawing on doctrines of terra nullius, ignoring the significance of the Toronto Purchase, and changing the city’s foundational story from the establishment of York in 1793 to the incorporation of the City of Toronto in 1834. These chroniclers usually assumed that “real Indians” and urban life were inimical. Often their representations implied that local Indigenous peoples had no significant history and thus the region had little or no history before the arrival of Europeans. Alternatively, narratives of ethical settler indigenization positioned the Indigenous past as the uncivilized starting point in a monological European theory of historical development. In many civic discourses, the city stood in for the nation as a symbol of its future, and national history stood in for the region’s local history. The national replaced ‘the Indigenous’ in an ideological process that peaked between the 1880s and the 1930s. Concurrently, the loyalist Six Nations were often represented as the only Indigenous people with ties to Torontonians, while the specific historical identity of the Mississaugas was erased. The role of both the government and local settlers in crowding the Mississaugas out of their lands on the Credit River was rationalized as a natural process, while Indigenous land claims, historical interpretations, and mnemonic forms were rarely accorded legitimacy by non-Indigenous city residents. After World War II, with new influxes of both Indigenous peoples and multicultural immigrants into the city, colonial narratives of Toronto history were increasingly challenged and replaced by multiple stories or narrative fragments. Indigenous residents created their own representations of Toronto as an Indigenous place with an Indigenous history; emphasizing continuous occupation and spiritual connections between place and ancestors. Today, contention among Indigenous groups over the fairness of the Mississauga land claim, epistemic differences between western and Indigenous conceptions of history, and ongoing settler disavowal of the impact of colonialism have precluded any simple or consensual narrative of Toronto’s past.

The Indigenous past is largely absent from settler representations of the history of the city of Toronto, Canada. Nineteenth and twentieth century historical chroniclers often downplayed the historic presence of the Mississaugas and their Indigenous predecessors by drawing on doctrines of terra nullius, ignoring the significance of the Toronto Purchase, and changing the city’s foundational story from the establishment of York in 1793 to the incorporation of the City of Toronto in 1834. These chroniclers usually assumed that “real Indians” and urban life were inimical. Often their representations implied that local Indigenous peoples had no significant history and thus the region had little or no history before the arrival of Europeans. Alternatively, narratives of ethical settler indigenization positioned the Indigenous past as the uncivilized starting point in a monological European theory of historical development. In many civic discourses, the city stood in for the nation as a symbol of its future, and national history stood in for the region’s local history. The national replaced ‘the Indigenous’ in an ideological process that peaked between the 1880s and the 1930s. Concurrently, the loyalist Six Nations were often represented as the only Indigenous people with ties to Torontonians, while the specific historical identity of the Mississaugas was erased. The role of both the government and local settlers in crowding the Mississaugas out of their lands on the Credit River was rationalized as a natural process, while Indigenous land claims, historical interpretations, and mnemonic forms were rarely accorded legitimacy by non-Indigenous city residents. After World War II, with new influxes of both Indigenous peoples and multicultural immigrants into the city, colonial narratives of Toronto history were increasingly challenged and replaced by multiple stories or narrative fragments. Indigenous residents created their own representations of Toronto as an Indigenous place with an Indigenous history; emphasizing continuous occupation and spiritual connections between place and ancestors. Today, contention among Indigenous groups over the fairness of the Mississauga land claim, epistemic differences between western and Indigenous conceptions of history, and ongoing settler disavowal of the impact of colonialism have precluded any simple or consensual narrative of Toronto’s past.

Supervisors: Luis Urrieta and Noah De Lissovoy This qualitative and sociohistorical study examines the lives and experiences of Chicana/o educators in Texas and the ideological and political discourses of equity and social justice that they draw from to shape their practice in three educational sites: the Llano Grande Center (LGC), Red Salmon Arts/Resistencia Bookstore (RSA), and the Advanced Seminar in Chicana/o Research (ASCR). I document their work based on the oral narratives of fifteen educators, site document analysis, and ethnographic work I conducted as observant participant associated with these organizations. This project extends recent scholarship that links critical pedagogy, social and cultural theories of identity formation and new social movement scholarship to understand the multiple cultural, social and political dimensions of activist education. My principal findings indicate new senses of individual and collective identity practice, reframed critical and culturally relevant pedagogies, and a reconceptualization of indigenous discourse and practice. These findings have important implications for activists, educators and researchers by rearticulating scholar activist work in new more emancipatory ways that considers place-based models of critical and cultural relevant teaching and learning and more radically democratic research practices. / text

This essay is based on a study of the relocation of the G//ana and G/wi San from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana. The purpose of the study is to assess the conflicts that have arisen as a result of the relocation-programs, in order to highlight the situation of the San. Addressing issues of nature conservation, eco-tourism and indigeneity, the essay discuss how conservation policies, development programs and eco-tourism projects have been implemented in the Central Kalahari, and the consequences these policies have had for the people who first inhabited the area.

No description available.

Sangpuy Katatepan Mavaliyw is a Taiwanese Aboriginal pop artist of the Pinuyumayan ethnic group. His albums have been acclaimed by Aboriginal listeners and Han-Taiwanese mainstream music critics for capturing the traditional Aboriginal sound and evoking the presence of the ancestors. In this thesis, I explore why Sangpuy's songs are understood to evoke ancestral spirit imaginary using a semiotic approach. I compare his music to traditional Pinuyumayan music such as pa'ira'iraw and shamanic songs to demonstrate how he uses similar musical gestures to evoke the sense of ancestral spirits. Other sonic elements such as the inclusion of the soundscape of a Pinuyumayan village provides a direct link to the lived experiences of the Pinuyumayan. I also position Sangpuy's music in the broader context of nationalism in Taiwan and how Sangpuy uses his music to negotiate Aboriginal issues such as land rights and environmentalism. Through this analysis, I demonstrate how Taiwanese Aborigines are incorporating their Indigenous ideology into popular music to carve out a space for themselves in Taiwanese society and garner more support for Indigenous rights in Taiwan.

[pt] Esta dissertação busca discutir a reemergência do povo Charrúa na região adjacente ao Rio da Prata. Especificamente, pretendo avaliar meios a partir dos quais uma das organizações Charrúa mais proeminentes, o Consejo de la Nación Charrúa, vocaliza suas reivindicações: participando em espaços internacionais, especialmente no Fondo Indígena para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indígenas de América Latina y el Caribe (FILAC) em fóruns das Nações Unidas. Busco mostrar alguns dos esforços avançados pelos Charrúa para contestar o argumento comumente sustentado a respeito da sua extinção como grupo étnico, o qual acaba por ser intimamente coincidente com as formações nacionais na região. Assim sendo, a dissertação será estruturada em três capítulos. No primeiro, discutirei como os encontros coloniais formaram muito sobre os entendimentos modernos a respeito da soberania e das Relações Internacionais. Posteriormente, expando para analisar como o regime internacional de Direitos Humanos constitui e vem sendo constituído por uma reestruturação global coordenada da categoria indígena. No segundo capítulo, avalio as dinâmicas regionais do Rio da Prata envolvendo relações coloniais interétnicas e a formação nacional do Uruguai, que sustenta a qualidade de país sem índios por mais de um século. Terceiramente, depois de brevemente expor a história da reemergência Charrúa, investigo discursos, reivindicações e dinâmicas de pertencimento étnico derivadas da atividade transnacional do CONACHA. Trazendo argumentos construídos nos três anteriores, sustento que a reemergência Charrúa pode desafiar espaços políticos estabelecidos no Uruguai, posto que abala as construções ambíguas e complicadas da formação naciona na região. Ademais, defendo que o fenômeno das reemergências étnicas seja considerado não somente como de interesse das Relações Internacionais, mas também como um lócus privilegiado para avaliar seus limites constitutivos e possíveis rupturas. / [en] This dissertation aims to discuss the reemergence of Charrúa people in the region adjacent to the Río de la Plata. Specifically, I will evaluate some of the means through which one of the most prominent Charrúa representations in Uruguay, the Consejo de la Nación Charrúa (CONACHA) vocalizes its claims: by participating in UN forums and in Fondo Indígena para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indígenas de América Latina y el Caribe (FILAC). This endeavor intends to show some of the efforts Charrúa people are undertaking in order to contest the commonly-sustained argument of their extinction as an ethnic group, which happens to be intimately coincident with national formations in the region. The dissertation is structured in three chapters. In the first one, I discuss how colonial encounters have shaped much of modern understandings of sovereignty and international relations. Further, I expand to analyze how the international regime of Human Rights is shaping and being shaped by a coordinated global refashioning of the category indigenous. On the second chapter, I evaluate Río de la Plata s regional dynamics involving colonial interethnic relations, and the national formation of Uruguay, which sustains the quality of an Indianless country for more than a century. Thirdly, after briefly exposing the history of Charrúa reemergence, I discuss analyzed speeches, claims and collective dynamics of belonging deriving from Consejo de la Nación Charrúa (CONACHA) transnational activity. By bringing together arguments made in the three chapters, I sustain that Charrúa reemergence in Uruguay may challenge political limits by unsettling the ambiguous and complicated constructions of national formation and sovereign authority in the region. Moreover, I advocate for considering the phenomena of indigenous reemergence or ethnogenesis not only as a subject of concern for International Relations, but also as a privileged locus for one to evaluate its constitutive limits, and potential fractures. / [es] Esta tésis busca discutir la reemergencia del pueblo Charrúa en la región adyacente al Río de la Plata. Específicamente, evaluaré algunos de los medios por los cuales una de las representaciones más prominentes de los Charrúas en Uruguay, el Consejo de la Nación Charúa (CONACHA), vocea sus reclamos: participando de espacios internacionales como foros de las Naciones Unidas y el Fondo Indígena para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indígenas de América Latina y el Caribe (FILAC). Este esfuerzo intenta evidenciar algunos de los empeños que el pueblo Charrúa emprende para contestar el argumento común con respecto a su extinción como grupo étnico, lo cual es íntimamente coincidente con los relatos nacionales de la región. La tésis está estructurada en tres capítulos. En el primero, discuto como los encuentros coloniales han mayormente dado forma a los entendimientos modernos de la soberanía y las relaciones internacionales. En secuencia, analizo como el régimen internacional de Derechos Humanos da forma y es formado por una remodelación global coordenada de la categoría indígena. En el segundo capítulo, yo evalúo dinámicas regionales del Río de la Plata en lo que se refiere a relaciones interétnicas y la formación nacional del Uruguay, país que sostiene la calidad de país sin indios por más de un siglo. Tercero, después de brevemente exponer la historia de la reemergencia Charrúa, analizo y comento discursos, reivindicaciones y dinámicas colectivas de pertenencia étnica derivadas de la actividad transnacional del Consejo de la Nación Charrúa (CONACHA). Tejiendo argumentos hechos en los tres capítulos, sostengo que la reemergencia Charrúa en Uruguay puede desafiar límites políticos por transtornar las ambíguas y complicadas formaciones nacionales y la legitimidad de su autoridad soberana en la región. Además, abogo que los fenómenos de reemergencia indígenas o etnogénesis sean considerados no solamente como objeto de interés para las Relaciones Internacionales, sino también como un sitio privilegiado para que sean analizados sus límites constitutivos y potenciales fracturas.

This is a project that takes inequality as its starting point to ask not why it persists in all its myriad forms, but rather how we might better understand its resiliency in order to re-orient our responses. It asks how we can re-imagine one another and work across asymmetrical divides in ways that move us towards substantial forms of social justice, actively disallowing the entrenchment of hierarchical valuing systems, and how we can engage with literature as part of reconfiguring ‘equality’ in the process. These questions are traced through Indigenous women’s literatures in Canada and black South African women’s literatures as sites of deeply textured resistance and re-imagined relationality. My analysis focuses on select texts from the 1980s to present in two primary archives: from Indigenous Canada, The Book of Jessica: A Theatrical Transformation (Maria Campbell in collaboration with Linda Griffiths) and Monkey Beach (Eden Robinson); and from South Africa, Mother to Mother (Sindiwe Magona) and Coconut (Kopano Matlwa). I use conversation as my methodological and thematic compass for seeking modes of enabling comprehension across perniciously unequal systems of making meaning and considering the possibilities for transformative knowledge production and textual interpretation at sites of unequal intersubjective exchange. I employ an uneasy comparative practice that I base on horizontal forms of juxtaposition within conversational structures, and I argue that conversation’s generative instability and risky uncertainty open onto hopeful possibilities for transformative change. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This project examines a small selection of the literatures by Indigenous women writers in Canada and black South African women writers to conceptualize anti-oppressive approaches to working across differences in both literary/scholarly and activist/lived contexts. It uses conversation as a critical methodology for engaging four primary texts and practicing an uneasy comparative method based on horizontal forms of juxtaposition rather than vertical relations of evaluative power: Mother to Mother (Sindiwe Magona) and The Book of Jessica (Maria Campbell and Linda Griffiths); and Coconut (Kopano Matlwa) and Monkey Beach (Eden Robinson). The overall aim is to re-imagine forms of engaging across difference along a range of registers – racialization, gender, nation, class, language, and geographical location – that create conditions for more expansive and substantive forms of social justice than are currently visible. The project draws on feminist, Indigenous, postcolonial, critical race, and related areas of scholarship with an orientation towards social justice.

This conflict study in Theology investigates reconciliation possibilities in indigenous lands in northern Sweden to be discussed through the Sámi Trail of Tears Walking Trail – a real-life innovation project. The historical material is based on the depiction of forcefully dislocated Sámis and the now polarized situation where local indigenous groups risk new conflicts partly with each other, partly with extractive industries, motorized tourism, and the majority’s society. Six public media sources were used for a brief thematization to detect discourse ethics used in communicative action. Further, two conferences were visited through participatory observation, revealing the importance of inclusion and visualized sovereignty. Five relevant sites were observed by asking how a walking trail could add value to reconciliation processes, and twenty interviews, or reasonings, were done mainly in Sápmi and Torne River valley, with one additional in Northern Finland to compare the situation of Forest Sámis in both countries. While site observations revealed ongoing slow violence in environments, they also showed how individuals become activated by their existing or absent relationships to a place. The interviews depicted cultural and existential views on place-bodies, reindeer keeping, natural elements, and material and immaterial values connected to them. The research also focused on the indigenous value-based Verdi system, recognized, and remembered by interviewees belonging indigenous communities. Further, the investigation asked about the role of leadership in truth- and reconciliation processes. The material was collected through qualitative indigenous research methods, and completed with perspectives of inclusion, wilderness spirituality, slow violence, and slow tourism. The material was analytically discussed through Jürgen Habermas’s Theory of Communicative Action. The findings points toward importance of continuing truth commissioning, a potential role of the Church in future negotiations, and also criticism against the failings of national leadership participation in truth-telling and reconciliation processes. Lastly, a briefly discussed model of Habitus-Based Reconciliation suggests focusing on long-term existential aspects of shared places and negating natural resources needed for communities and local cultures.

According to philosopher, Emmanuel Levinas, alterity can exist only in its infinite and fluid nature in which the aspects of it that exceed the human ability to fully understand it remain unthematized in language. Levinas sees the encounter between self and other as the moment that instigates ethical responsibility, a moment so vital to avoiding mastering what is external to oneself that it should replace Western philosophy’s traditional emphasis on being as philosophy’s basis, or “First Philosophy.” Levinas’s conceptualization of language as a fluid, non-mastering saying, which one must continually re-enliven against a congealing and mastering said, is at the heart of his ethical project of relating to the other of alterity with ethical responsibility, or proximity. The imaginative poetic language that some contemporary poetry enacts, resonates with Levinas’s ethical motivations and methods for responding to alterity. The following project investigates facets of this question in relation to Levinas: how do the contemporary poets Peter Blue Cloud, Jorie Graham, Joy Harjo, and Robert Hass use poetic language uniquely to engage with alterity in an ethical way, thus allowing it to retain its mystery and infinite nature? I argue that by keeping language alive in a way similar to a Levinasian saying, which avoids mastering otherness by attending to its uniqueness and imaginatively engaging with it, they enact an ethical response to alterity. As a way of unpacking these ideas, this inquiry will investigate the compelling, if unsettled, convergence in the work of Levinas and that of Blue Cloud, Graham, Harjo, and Hass by unfolding a number of Levinasian-informed close readings of major poems by these writers as foregrounding various forms of Levinasian saying. / Ph. D.