Coastal archaeological sites dating to the late Pleistocene and early Holocene are rare on the northwest coast of North America, as they are in many regions of the world, due to changing environmental factors, in particular glacial isostasy and eustasy, resulting in low visibility and survival of archaeological deposits. This dissertation outlines methods and results used to locate late Pleistocene and early Holocene archaeological sites on the Dundas Island Archipelago on the Northwest Coast culture area of British Columbia, Coast Tsimshian Territory, where archaeological sites older than 5,000 years BP are not known. Part of the reason for this is that masses of glacial ice accumulated on the Cordilleran Mountains of North America during the last glacial maximum, which depressed mainland coastal regions isostatically in relation to sea levels. As a result of lateral displacement of subcrustal material, areas to the west of the Cordillera bulged and landforms were raised relative to the sea. With deglaciation, the depressed crust began to rebound and the forebulge subsided resulting in rapidly dropping sea levels along the mainland to the east and rapidly rising sea levels along outer coastal islands to the west. These processes occurred in concert with sea levels that began rising eustatically following the last glacial maximum. Between the inner and outer coasts lies the Dundas Island Archipelago. This research project hypothesized that the study area was close to a sea level hinge lying between these two regions with very different sea level histories. With less significant shoreline movement, it was further anticipated that shoreline situated archaeological sites dating to the late Pleistocene and early Holocene might be found in close proximity, although slightly higher than the present day shoreline. This dissertation addresses the following question: Where are late Pleistocene and early Holocene archaeological sites situated on the Dundas Island Archipelago? To address this question, this dissertation details the methods and results used to determine a sea-level and vegetation history for the Dundas Island Archipelago and the archaeological prospection that was undertaken along relict shorelines. Pollen analysis of sediments from a lake core identified a sequence of six vegetation zones beginning before 12,385 BP. Based on diatom identification of cores from four lake basins, combined with supporting indicators, a sea level curve for the Dundas Islands was constructed showing a slow regression of shorelines from 13 m above the barnacle line to present day elevations over the last 12,000 years BP. Drawing upon these palaeo-environmental data, areas were selected for archaeological survey and prospection. Field testing of these selected areas resulted in the identification of five archaeological sites dating to the early Holocene. These are the first archaeological sites dating older than 5,000 years BP that have been found and dated in Coast Tsimshian Territory. The elevations and radiocarbon dates on all archaeological deposits are consistent with the sea level curve based on palaeo-environmental data points. Overall, this dissertation draws upon palaeo-environmental methods and results for the purpose of identifying and interpreting archaeological sites situated on raised marine landforms.

The World Health Organization and the United Nations state that people normally access water through their place of residence. However, in North America people regularly need access to water services, such as toilets, fountains, or bathing facilities, when not in a private residence. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the current situation of access to water for personal uses for people outside a place of residence as an emergent research topic. To accomplish this, I conducted a literature review and a thematic analysis of nine key-informant interviews with stakeholders in Victoria. Findings from the research reveal that access to water for personal uses is limited in Victoria when outside a place of residence. Furthermore, the consequences and implications of this limitation directly and indirectly influence both individuals and the broader community. Finally, policy recommendations, action responses, and future research directions inform possible responses to address this issue.

Climate change and population growth is putting increased pressure on water supply. However, detailed water-balance information, which would assist with management is lacking for major reservoirs around the world. This information is particularly critical in mid-latitude northern Mediterranean climates where evaporation is a potentially important water-balance component. This study examines the seasonality of the water balance for the Sooke Reservoir in western Canada, a major water supply for the City of Victoria, British Columbia. Evaporation is estimated with three evaporation models, Penman, Priestley-Taylor, and Hamon and the results are compared. Inflows are estimated with the contributing-area approach and the HBV-EC, hydrologic model. Finally, a worst-case drought scenario is created. If conditions of low precipitation and high evaporation like those found in the study period were to persist, water levels would become critically low during the third dry season and by the fifth season if water restrictions were put in place.

Continued documentation of the disproportionate burden of ill health faced by Aboriginal Peoples in Canada raises questions about the gap between what is known and what action is being taken to improve Aboriginal health in Canada. In order to explore this puzzle of knowledge translation (KT), a conceptual framework was developed by synthesizing the KT literature with the Aboriginal health research literature. Using this framework as a guide, this study explored the idea of KT within one Aboriginal health research context – the Network Environments for Aboriginal Research British Columbia (NEARBC). Concepts, ideas, and patterns drawn from the systematic thematic analysis of semi-structured qualitative interviews highlight the complexity of Aboriginal KT and the challenges that lie ahead. The lessons learned from these challenges are reviewed and opportunities for KT to help transform the discourse and practice of Aboriginal health research and policy in Canada discussed.

This thesis explores the concept of justice and its relationship with violence against women in intimate heterosexual relationships (VAWIHR). Open-ended questions elicited information on the work conducted by five women who self identified as working on the front lines of VAWIHR. A themes analysis of the interviews located five practices of justice in the interviews: front-line workers, government policy and funding allocation, custody practices, the criminal justice system, and alternative responses. None of the five practices of justice was able to respond effectively to VAWIHR. Front-line workers, essential for supporting and guiding women through the other practices of justice, are limited in their responses by government policy and funding allocation. Custody practices and the criminal justice system are unable to deal adequately with VAWIHR because such practices cannot contextualize responses to the issues, and realities of VAWIHR. The potential alternatives for VAWIHR address some of the issues, but not the full complexity of VAWIHR

This thesis is a journey into the realm of Spider Woman—the Cosmic Weaver—and explores ways in which Spider Woman figures and textile imagery became increasingly important and powerful healing metaphors in literature, during the rise of second wave feminism. Margaret Atwood's Lady Oracle, Paula Gunn Allen's The Woman Who Owned the Shadows, and Alice Walker's The Temple of My Familiar illustrate the importance of these healing metaphors in women's fiction. Framing the analysis is Mary Daly's concept for creating a gynocentric literature (Gyn/Ecology) that escapes patriarchal linguistic constraints through the process of "spooking, sparking and spinning' new words and new stories on a "loom of our own."

This exploratory qualitative case study provides a description of the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation’s practice in addressing deep-rooted conflict, from the Republic of Ireland. This research grew out of practical problems from the field of conflict resolution in Canada, in particular interest-based mediation, in addressing deep-rooted conflict. Using an extended epistemology, data is harvested from praxis to create naturalistic generalizations: guidelines for addressing deep-rooted conflict. The research findings are the result of a synthesis of three data sources: interviews with facilitators from Glencree, textual data, and nearly five months of onsite observation. The main themes derived from the research include: Glencree’s Diverse Practice; Glencree’s Approach to Conflict; Glencree’s Identity; Glencree’s Approach to Deep-Rooted Conflict; and Implementing Glencree’s Approach. This study is intended as a snapshot in time of a set of dynamic and emergent ideas addressing conflict in practice. Through an inductive research design, findings from praxis are related to theory from the field of conflict resolution. In addition, implications for addressing deep-rooted conflict are identified, including Glencree’s emphasis on the need for flexibility as a characteristic for conflict work, and an underlying worldview incorporating aspects of dynamic systems theory and chaos theory.

Legal decisions on Aboriginal rights and title and treaty negotiations with First Nations in British Columbia (BC) are inextricably linked. While much has been written on the impacts of a small number of such legal decisions, there has been very little research that critically examines how legal decisions on Aboriginal rights and title, in general, influence the way the parties to the BC treaty process conduct treaty negotiations. In-depth interviews with ten First Nations, provincial, and federal chief negotiators/advisers, together with British Columbia Treaty Commission (BCTC) commissioners and senior-level program staff, suggest that legal decisions on Aboriginal rights and title influence the conduct of treaty negotiations in an indirect and serpentine manner. Further to this, the results suggest that legal decisions on Aboriginal rights and title may act to simultaneously facilitate and constrain the conduct of negotiations.

This thesis examines the lives and experiences of poor young women street sex workers in the city of Surabaya, Indonesia. This thesis focuses on sexual and reproductive health knowledge and practices; conditions of work; and experiences of discrimination, marginalization, and agency. Qualitative research methods, including participant observation techniques and multiple in-depth interviews, were used to gain a detailed understanding of these women’s lives. Results of this research indicate that these young women are severely marginalized through poverty, state ideologies, and public moralities. Their marginalized status leads them to experience poor health outcomes, physical violence, sexual violence, and police harassment. The concept of structural violence is used to describe how poverty and marginalization impact these young women’s health, everyday-lives, and life chances.

This thesis is an investigation of pregnancy advice books for expectant fathers. It explores how male partners are encouraged to participate in contemporary pregnancy management through medico-moral discourses, This study challenges current theoretical conceptions of responsibilization by contending that responsibilization is a necessarily social process. Working within a governmentality framework, this study uses both content analysis and critical discourse analysis. I found that responsibilization of expectant fathers followed two stages. First, they were invited to accumulate knowledge about pregnancy, and then to adopt behaviours befitting the ideal father. The structure and content of advice invited expectant fathers to become “responsible” by changing their own behaviour—and the behaviour of their pregnant partners. In most cases, the only behavioural modifications required of the expectant father are those that will influence the behaviours of their pregnant partners.