This study investigates the potential of learning stories to provide a means to incorporate Indigenous perspectives and transform the educational status quo by working with locally based early childcare educators to knead the learning story approach into something community specific. This is an action research project grounded in Indigenous methods and methodologies embedded in processes of transformative education informed by post-colonial discourse and de-colonial theory. The study found that learning stories provide a medium through which children can see themselves as part of a world that includes Inuit knowledge(s) and practices. These stories provide a place through which identities grounded in Inuit knowledge(s) and language can be formed. By creating learning stories, the work of the educator and children together becomes visible to children, parents, and the educator’s colleagues. The process of creating learning stories and planning for them strengthens connections with Elders, who become through the process recognized for their role as valuable transmitters of cultural knowledge. / Graduate

Research in Indigenous contexts is strongly associated with colonialism (Smith, 1999). In response to this, Indigenous scholars have, in the last two decades, recentred research on Indigenous ways of knowing and doing (Kovach, 2009; Wilson, 2008). This change marks the advent of an "Indigenous research paradigm" based on "an ontology, epistemology, methodology, and axiology that is Indigenous" (Wilson, 2008, p. 38). In recent years, this approach has gained momentum in Canada, making it a "fifth paradigm" and a sought-after research approach across disciplines (Chilisa, 2020, p. 19). This thesis seeks to better understand the evolution of Canadian Indigenous research across disciplines in the last two decades (1997–2020). Using a mixed-methods approach (western and Indigenous), I adopted Arksey and O'Malley's (2005) scoping review methodology for the initial five steps and Kovach's (2010) Indigenous conversational method for the final consultation step. Based on the in-depth analysis of 46 Indigenous research studies, my findings indicate a notable increase in the number of collaborations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous partners, especially in the last five years. This may signal the beginning of an era of reconciliation in research; however, my conversations with Indigenous scholars revealed that, in many cases, collaborations are tainted by tokenism and present many risks for Indigenous researchers. Indigenous research is principle-based, and its key principles are relationality, reciprocity, respect, and accountability. Indigenous scholars emphasized that the key to successful collaborations and to "good" Indigenous research is taking the time to build genuine relationships based on these principles. My research thus demonstrates that healthy and productive collaborative Indigenous research is possible, but only when there is relational accountability on the part of non-Indigenous partners. In sum, using a scoping review analysis and the Indigenous conversational method, this research has established that the marker of robust and valuable Indigenous research is congruency: the clear and explicit alignment between researchers' positionalities, their epistemic frameworks, and the methodologies used to conduct the research.

In this qualitative research project, I explore the daily lived experiences of five Caribbean students studying at a rural university in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I investigate the personal challenges encountered by young adult Caribbean students and focus on their perspectives and coping strategies as they negotiate the racial binary and sociocultural norms found in the United States. I present my research here in two manuscripts. In manuscript one, Transcultural Adaptations: Caribbean Students at U.S. Universities, framed both by my use of testimonio as method (Haig-Brown, 2003; Pérez Huber, 2009) and the composite lens formed by my use of bricolage (Kincheloe, 2001; Kincheloe, 2004; Kincheloe, McLaren, and Steinberg, 2012), I look at how all these factors influence their academic experiences and their perception and performance of the Self. In doing so, I highlight key aspects of the community experience and add to the conversation surrounding the adaptation of international students to U.S. universities. In manuscript two Interrogating Whiteness: The View from Outside, I delve more deeply into one aspect of their adaptation by interrogating one participant's perspectives on whiteness. I use critical autoethnography (Boylorn and Orb, 2014; Tilley-Lubbs, 2016), and the call-and-response tradition (Hebdige, 1987; Toussaint, 2009) common in Trinidad and Tobago and in the African diaspora to present my exploration of his perspectives. I present his perspectives using the third person voice, followed by an examination of my own ways of knowing, to highlight the questioning and internal conflict that emerged as a result of these conversations on whiteness. I share my epiphanic experience (Denzin, 2013; 2014) in the hopes of establishing discourse and resonance with my reader in this deconstruction of my way of understanding the world. / Ph. D.

The coastal landscape currently known as British Columbia, Canada represents a complex and rapidly evolving site of collaboration, negotiation, and conflict in environmental management, with important implications for Indigenous community well-being. I ground this work in the understanding that settler-colonialism and its remedies, resurgence and self-determination, are the fundamental determinants of Indigenous health and related inequities. Through a case study of eulachon (Thaleichthys pacificus) in Nuxalk territory, I take interest in systemic mechanisms of dispossession and resurgent practices of (re)connection and knowledge renewal as mediators of the relationship between environmental management and Indigenous health and well-being. This work is based in four years of observation, participation, and leadership in the Nuxalk Sputc (Eulachon) Project, a community-directed process that aimed to document and articulate Nuxalk knowledges about eulachon. Functionally extirpated from the region since 1999, these valued fish provide an example of contested management jurisdiction and resurgent Indigenous environmental practice. As a resurgent research and management process, the Sputc Project re-centered Nuxalk knowledges, voices, priorities, and leadership while advocating Indigenous leadership in environmental management. This case study was conducted within the context of the Sputc Project, aiming to share substantive and methodological learnings gleaned from the project, which served as an ideal focal point for the interrogation of relationships between Indigenous well-being, research methodologies, engagement and representation of Indigenous knowledges, and environmental management. Applying a critical, decolonising, community-engaged approach, this work comprises four papers, each drawing on a particular thread of the knowledge generated through this work. In Paper 1, I seek to establish the connection of eulachon and their management to Nuxalk health and well-being. Detailing three stages of this relationship (abundance, collapse, and renewal), I show how the effects of environmental management, and resulting dispossession or reconnection, are mediated by cultural knowledges, practices, responsibilities, and relationships. Turning to research methodology in Paper 2, I examine how Nuxalk people and knowledges guided the Sputc Project process, interrogating the role of critical, decolonising, and Indigenous theories in the elaboration of Indigenous research methods in environmental management and beyond. In Paper 3, I consider how the Sputc Project respectfully articulated and represented Nuxalk knowledges in order to retain relational accountability and strengthen Nuxalk management authority, while promoting values, practices, and relationships essential to Nuxalk well-being. In Paper 4, I demonstrate how the Sputc Project strengthened Nuxalk management authority from the ground up, detailing the practical management priorities that arose through the project process, including those related to interjurisdictional engagement of Indigenous leadership. I end with a reflection on this work’s implications for decolonising health equity and environmental impact assessment frameworks. Highlighting how Indigenous health and well-being is supported by ancestral knowledges and reconnecting relationships, including those involving people, places, and practices related to environmental management, I emphasize the importance of Indigenous leadership (vs. knowledge integration) in environmental management research and practice. A final section seeks to inform decolonising community-engaged research, sharing limitations and learnings related to appropriate engagement, articulation, and representation of Indigenous knowledges. / Graduate

This study is a qualitative examination of my lived experiences and the lived experiences of my immediate family in sport. Using critical race theory (CRT) as my guiding theoretical framework, this research project answers Denzin’s (2003) call to advance “a radical performative social science” that “confront[s] and transcend[s] the problems surrounding the colour line in the 21st century” (p.5). As such, the purpose of this project was to explore issues of race, culture and power within our lived sport experiences and to present these experiences in such way so as to unpack the tensions associated with being an Aboriginal person living in today’s Canadian society.

This study is a qualitative examination of my lived experiences and the lived experiences of my immediate family in sport. Using critical race theory (CRT) as my guiding theoretical framework, this research project answers Denzin’s (2003) call to advance “a radical performative social science” that “confront[s] and transcend[s] the problems surrounding the colour line in the 21st century” (p.5). As such, the purpose of this project was to explore issues of race, culture and power within our lived sport experiences and to present these experiences in such way so as to unpack the tensions associated with being an Aboriginal person living in today’s Canadian society.

The exhibition “Terrance Houle & Adrian Stimson: Exploring Indigenous Masculinities” showcased the performance art of Terrance Houle (Blood/Ojibway) and Adrian Stimson (Siksika) at the Union Gallery in Kingston, Ontario from March 20th to March 22nd, 2012. Both artists used the occasion to interrogate how Indigenous identities are constructed and perceived. The artists’ interaction with the audience and the space of the gallery itself acted to destabilize lingering colonial beliefs about Indigenous identity. This thesis explores how the Kingston performances investigate the historical construction of Indigenous masculine identities. Through the artists’ own embodiment of historical knowledge (both colonial and Indigenous knowledges) and their interaction with the audience and gallery space, the performances challenged and reimagined colonial perceptions of Indigenous masculine identity as a singular, static form. The performances served to translate alternative knowledges about Indigenous men and models of Indigenous masculinity, a dynamic I analyze in this thesis as a larger set of tactics and effects available to artists decolonizing Indigenous masculinities. / Thesis (Master, Cultural Studies) -- Queen's University, 2012-09-25 21:04:21.008

The experience of the life work journeys of urban Aboriginal young people in Canada is largely unknown. This group faces multiple challenges in entering the labour force from social and economic disparities to cultural discontinuity. This qualitative case study collected stories from urban Aboriginal young people who are in search of meaningful and sustainable work. Using group interviews set within Indigenous sharing circles, 25 youth living in Victoria, British Columbia shared their stories of the supports, challenges and barriers they face in their life work journeys. In collaboration with community partners and knowledge keepers, the stories were reviewed to identify a relational model of life work shared by these young people. Participants identified their relations as their foundational support, and spoke to the role of work, education and culture in their career development. The results have important implications for theory, research and practice regarding counselling and researching with Aboriginal youth. / Graduate

The aim of this study is to explore if Western researchers with different academic backgrounds comply with requests articulated by Indigenous scholars in establishing relationships with Indigenous Sámi reindeerherders. I examine if the researchers’ motivations, attitude and their possible decolonizing approaches are in accordance with the requests of Indigenous scholars, and how these differ between social and natural scientists.The results illustrate that the researchers’ general mind set,as well as their decolonizing approaches-ifexisting-only partly meet the requests of Indigenous scholars. However,the herders are still interested in participating in research projects,even though the outcomes of these projects often do not seem to have direct positive effects on the reindeerherding community.The differences between social and natural scientists are not strongly pronounced and may possibly be caused by other factors than the academic background only

This work examines the characteristics of Indigenous leaders and the situational contexts in which they work that enable them to effect institutional change in the Canadian public post-secondary education environment. Drawing on my own work and interviews with Indigenous leaders in mainstream insitutions, this research examines topics of culture, identity, teachings, maintaining balance, racism, challenges and opportunities, and success. Knowledge gathered through the interviews revealed themes, highlights and caveats that offer important considerations for Indigenous people who are contemplating taking on leadership positions in post-secondary institutions. Wise practices and ways forward are posited in two areas: 1) self-care and self-preservation – being well so that we can do well; and 2) considerations for non-Indigenous students, staff and faculty in supporting their Indigenous counterparts and in engaging in the important work of decolonizing and Indigenizing post-secondary institutions. / Graduate