The history of the Hmong migration as refugees from Laos to the United States reveals a situation whereby the Hmong have been confronted with various political, economic, religious, and social forces that have dramatically shaped their lives. Over the past 35 years, the Denver Hmong’s exposure to cosmopolitan urban centres and rural ways of life in Colorado have continued to influence and develop the character and practices of the community. Within this social and cultural milieu, numerous and contentious views regarding health, community, family, and the reproduction of family have remained entangled within the moral and ethical foundations of Christian faiths and traditional shamanic practices. Furthermore, these perspectives of community and family are enmeshed within a Hmong ethos of continuity that is derived from historical strategies and experiences from Laos and the refugee camps of Thailand. Within the Denver Hmong community, the moral foundations of spiritual practices and a pronounced emphasis on continuity have continued to uphold the idea of family as a central tenant to being Hmong. In doing so, this has further emphasised various degrees of entanglement and mutual reliance within and between families and individuals. As a result, significant pressure has been placed on younger Hmong to strengthen the networks of family, extended family, and community by reproducing and forming families of their own. The production and reproduction of family has in turn drawn into focus generational tensions concerning ideas of family, education, gender, expectations of behaviour, and approaches to health and healing. In consideration of these points, this thesis examines how people within the Denver Hmong community negotiate, maintain, and contest the intersection of these matters while constructing and maintaining the central tenants of Hmong life and a Hmong continuity through the reciprocal reproductive qualities of the social, the spiritual and symbolic, and the biological.

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This thesis explores the roles of women of faith in peacebuilding in the conflict between the Gusii and Maasai of South-western Kenya. While religion has at times legitimated women’s exclusion and predominantly created male religious elite figures in peacebuilding, I demonstrate how women of faith deploy religious resources for peace. Acting within complex unequal gendered socio-cultural conditions and positions, the women of faith deploy religious faith as an identity, motivation, and legitimating moral authority and voice in peacebuilding. Gendered barriers hinder them from finding status and a place in formal peacebuilding mechanisms alongside males, but still the women of faith struggle and develop an attitude and disposition of moral influence, and faith power that facilitates them to act as agents in peacebuilding. The women of faith deploy religious resources in mourning and burial rituals of healing and reconciliation, in everyday spiritual practices of sharing lives, and through services that provide security and protection especially for children, the elderly, the injured and the infirm. Religion enables women to establish protective infrastructure through women of faith networks and organizations that provide services to the community, mobilize human capital, and conduct outreach and community engagement. I show that even as the women of faith deploy these religious resources for peacebuilding, they recognize the gendered barriers they are faced with and the public peacebuilding mechanisms that they are excluded from. Deployment of religious resources for peacebuilding intersects with gender identities and relations, and in some instances religious faith transcends established gender norms and gendered barriers or even removes them.

The purpose of this thesis is to gain a greater understanding of Aboriginal world views and determine their implications for the education of Aboriginal adults. Aboriginal world views are the fundamental assumptions or deep structures which form the basis of Aboriginal cultures. World views are mediated and expressed through language, dance, art, and religion. In this research I chose to gain; a greater understanding of Aboriginal world views by, interviewing the Aboriginal staff and students of the Prince George Native Friendship Centre.<p>I began the fieldwork for this ethnographic study in June of 1992 by interviewing the staff and students of Project Refocus, by taking part in two classes with the students of the Start Program, and by entering into conversations with individual staff members from a variety of programs. Four of the participants in these interviews: became key respondents who acted as editors of my written work and guides for my ongoing investigation. I built upon the knowledge gained in our conversations by reading the' literature pertaining to Aboriginal world views. This knowledge was further supplemented by my participation in such Aboriginal ceremonies as the sweatlodge and the pipe ceremony. Personal narrative is entwined with academic discourse throughout the thesis in order to reflect the manner in which I gained a greater understanding of Aboriginal world views.<p>Examination of the interview transcripts revealed two themes common to the world views of the Aboriginal participants. The first theme, harmonious relationships, demonstrates the value these participants place on living in harmony with the other human and non-human entities who inhabit the world. Recognizing that all entities are important to the continuation of life, the participants in this research work to enhance and preserve their relationships with their human and non-human cousins. The second theme, spirituality, refers to many participants' belief that all aspects of the natural world possess, spiritual characteristics. The spiritual dimensions of nature link human and non-human together in kinship, and lead to greater knowledge and understanding.<p>Having examined the two themes of harmonious relationships and spirituality, I go on to discuss their implications for the education of Aboriginal adults. Foremost among these is that knowledge has a social purpose; it is not acquired for personal gain but is to be used for the benefit of the human and non-human community. Second, Aboriginal peoples consider that the relationship between educator and learner lies at the heart of the educative process in contrast to Euro-Canadian education which stresses the transmission of skills and knowledge. Third, education does not interrupt the harmonious interrelationships found in nature. Finally, approaches to the education of Aboriginal adults should incorporate their spiritual understandings, for their knowledge and wisdom are spiritually inspired.

The purpose of this thesis is to gain a greater understanding of Aboriginal world views and determine their implications for the education of Aboriginal adults. Aboriginal world views are the fundamental assumptions or deep structures which form the basis of Aboriginal cultures. World views are mediated and expressed through language, dance, art, and religion. In this research I chose to gain; a greater understanding of Aboriginal world views by, interviewing the Aboriginal staff and students of the Prince George Native Friendship Centre.<p>I began the fieldwork for this ethnographic study in June of 1992 by interviewing the staff and students of Project Refocus, by taking part in two classes with the students of the Start Program, and by entering into conversations with individual staff members from a variety of programs. Four of the participants in these interviews: became key respondents who acted as editors of my written work and guides for my ongoing investigation. I built upon the knowledge gained in our conversations by reading the' literature pertaining to Aboriginal world views. This knowledge was further supplemented by my participation in such Aboriginal ceremonies as the sweatlodge and the pipe ceremony. Personal narrative is entwined with academic discourse throughout the thesis in order to reflect the manner in which I gained a greater understanding of Aboriginal world views.<p>Examination of the interview transcripts revealed two themes common to the world views of the Aboriginal participants. The first theme, harmonious relationships, demonstrates the value these participants place on living in harmony with the other human and non-human entities who inhabit the world. Recognizing that all entities are important to the continuation of life, the participants in this research work to enhance and preserve their relationships with their human and non-human cousins. The second theme, spirituality, refers to many participants' belief that all aspects of the natural world possess, spiritual characteristics. The spiritual dimensions of nature link human and non-human together in kinship, and lead to greater knowledge and understanding.<p>Having examined the two themes of harmonious relationships and spirituality, I go on to discuss their implications for the education of Aboriginal adults. Foremost among these is that knowledge has a social purpose; it is not acquired for personal gain but is to be used for the benefit of the human and non-human community. Second, Aboriginal peoples consider that the relationship between educator and learner lies at the heart of the educative process in contrast to Euro-Canadian education which stresses the transmission of skills and knowledge. Third, education does not interrupt the harmonious interrelationships found in nature. Finally, approaches to the education of Aboriginal adults should incorporate their spiritual understandings, for their knowledge and wisdom are spiritually inspired.

This thesis explores the roles of women of faith in peacebuilding in the conflict between the Gusii and Maasai of South-western Kenya. While religion has at times legitimated women’s exclusion and predominantly created male religious elite figures in peacebuilding, I demonstrate how women of faith deploy religious resources for peace. Acting within complex unequal gendered socio-cultural conditions and positions, the women of faith deploy religious faith as an identity, motivation, and legitimating moral authority and voice in peacebuilding. Gendered barriers hinder them from finding status and a place in formal peacebuilding mechanisms alongside males, but still the women of faith struggle and develop an attitude and disposition of moral influence, and faith power that facilitates them to act as agents in peacebuilding. The women of faith deploy religious resources in mourning and burial rituals of healing and reconciliation, in everyday spiritual practices of sharing lives, and through services that provide security and protection especially for children, the elderly, the injured and the infirm. Religion enables women to establish protective infrastructure through women of faith networks and organizations that provide services to the community, mobilize human capital, and conduct outreach and community engagement. I show that even as the women of faith deploy these religious resources for peacebuilding, they recognize the gendered barriers they are faced with and the public peacebuilding mechanisms that they are excluded from. Deployment of religious resources for peacebuilding intersects with gender identities and relations, and in some instances religious faith transcends established gender norms and gendered barriers or even removes them.

Berlin-based Singaporean dance and multimedia artist Choy Ka Fai experiments with digital mapping, the storage and transmission of choreography and Asian spiritual dance practices. He has built a comprehensive and growing archive of recorded choreographies from artistic, spiritual, folkloric, and pop cultural contexts. It includes avatars of dancers, field and video recordings of dances and rituals and interviews with various protagonists. Choy Ka Fai explores altered and expanded corporeal states and the relationships between bodies and both worldly and spiritual phenomena. In his work, organic, material and data-based bodies appear side by side on an equal level and futuristic and queer potentials of human and digital bodies are made visible. In conversation with Lucie Ortmann Choy Ka Fai emphasises the fundamental importance of the practise of archiving for his work. He talks about his methods of showing and sharing his extensive, collected and created material in constantly new formats, ranging from performance, video installation, lecture to digital games, and how he continues to develop it further. He also reflects on the challenging processes of transferring and translating spiritual practises and dance cultures to different contexts and audiences.

The intent of this thesis is to understand how we as educators and learners in our Western system of education can bridge and heal the fundamental principles of a constructed divide embedded in our consciousness that continues to be reproduced in our Western academy. The primary goal is to make visible this divide that is based on the intellectualization of Western education in the absence of spiritual aspirations, thus revealing the potential of spiritual transformation within the academy and our everyday lives. In my literature-based thesis research I explored, analyzed and discussed two bodies of literature: the historical intellectualization of Western education on the one hand, and, on the other, Eastern Philosophy with the emphasis on Higher Self Yoga, African Philosophy and North American Aboriginal Spirituality. I investigated these bodies of literature employing a research paradigm that has its foundation in a spiritual ontology and epistemology. I analyzed my findings using such methodologies as appreciative inquiry, content analysis and textual analysis, including anti-colonial and indigenous knowledges theoretical frameworks. I found that the synthesis and integration of the inner life wisdom revealed in the three philosophies is an integral component fundamental toward a whole life vision of education, an educative vision that has the potential to serve as a catalyst to open the gates for life-enhancing change in the academy and our everyday lives. Change implies becoming aware of our true origin, who we truly are, and what our intrinsic purpose is. Change implies becoming aware of humanity’s accelerated transition toward a higher level of spiritual planetary consciousness, a spiritual evolution as an inner quest of unity with nature, the larger human community, the universe, and the divine Source itself. Change implies whole life educational processes, inclusive of the unfoldment of inner life wisdom, the authority of the human spirit, and the sense of divinity, as useful bridging work in healing the divide in our aware consciousness and our educational institutions. Whole life change needs to be the responsibility of academic education, as well our self-responsibility of realizing ourselves as citizen of the world living within one-world consciousness. All is one.

The intent of this thesis is to understand how we as educators and learners in our Western system of education can bridge and heal the fundamental principles of a constructed divide embedded in our consciousness that continues to be reproduced in our Western academy. The primary goal is to make visible this divide that is based on the intellectualization of Western education in the absence of spiritual aspirations, thus revealing the potential of spiritual transformation within the academy and our everyday lives. In my literature-based thesis research I explored, analyzed and discussed two bodies of literature: the historical intellectualization of Western education on the one hand, and, on the other, Eastern Philosophy with the emphasis on Higher Self Yoga, African Philosophy and North American Aboriginal Spirituality. I investigated these bodies of literature employing a research paradigm that has its foundation in a spiritual ontology and epistemology. I analyzed my findings using such methodologies as appreciative inquiry, content analysis and textual analysis, including anti-colonial and indigenous knowledges theoretical frameworks. I found that the synthesis and integration of the inner life wisdom revealed in the three philosophies is an integral component fundamental toward a whole life vision of education, an educative vision that has the potential to serve as a catalyst to open the gates for life-enhancing change in the academy and our everyday lives. Change implies becoming aware of our true origin, who we truly are, and what our intrinsic purpose is. Change implies becoming aware of humanity’s accelerated transition toward a higher level of spiritual planetary consciousness, a spiritual evolution as an inner quest of unity with nature, the larger human community, the universe, and the divine Source itself. Change implies whole life educational processes, inclusive of the unfoldment of inner life wisdom, the authority of the human spirit, and the sense of divinity, as useful bridging work in healing the divide in our aware consciousness and our educational institutions. Whole life change needs to be the responsibility of academic education, as well our self-responsibility of realizing ourselves as citizen of the world living within one-world consciousness. All is one.