Conflict is an integral and necessary aspect of human societies. The challenge is not to prevent conflict or even to resolve it, but rather, to effectively manage it so that it does not paralyse people. Historically, Gitksan society managed conflict through their legal traditions and governance practices, and I argue that it is the undermining of this conflict management system that has generated the pervasive conflicts among the Gitksan people today. While it is not possible to attribute the current internal conflict experienced by the Gitksan to the major legal action of Delgamuukw (inclusive of the several decades of preparation, levels of litigation and court decisions, and political aftermath), it was, and arguably still is, a very powerful force and influence in the lives of the Gitksan people. The extensive present-day internal conflicts in Gitksan communities must be reflexively appreciated within the complex of power relationships between the Gitksan people and Canada, and between Gitksan law and Canadian law. In Canada and beyond, Delgamuukw and the Gitksan were (and still are) part of a much larger continuum of political, social, and economic change as well as local economic shifts involving natural resources. The Gitksan people’s legal traditions enabled them to effectively manage themselves in a complex, decentralized, non-state society. Gitksan oral histories and other records such as the songs, crests, kinship roles, and traditions contain implicit and explicit law both as content and in their architecture as cognitive units that enable the sorting of information and dynamic intellectual processes of legal reasoning by analogy and metaphor. Gitksan legal traditions include intentional and deliberative collective processes to change law over time, transform implicit law into explicit law, and create legal precedent and a formal memory archive. These legal traditions are integral to the Gitksan people’s ongoing political perseverance and are the basis for the enduring connections to their territories. Moreover, the legal traditions are part of the dynamic political and social change processes that enable the Gitksan to be Gitksan in the past as well as in the present – complete with all the contested, pragmatic, entangled, contemporary forms of Gitksan politics. A deeper, critical, and more complex appreciation of Gitksan legal traditions is necessary if they are to be practically useful to the Gitksan people in today’s world for application to today’s issues. I have taken the position that Gitksan conflict management processes must be grounded within a substantive and critical articulation of Gitksan laws and legal practices, legal order, and legal theory. I propose a Gitksan legal theory that derives from a substantive treatment of the legal order, laws, and law cases. I draw resources from both western and indigenous legal theorists to explore, describe, and analyse Gitksan legal traditions. My proposed Gitksan legal theory comprises a broad overview, general principles, normative principles, and general working principles. While my work is based on a number of Gitksan law cases, my theoretical approach may be extrapolated to other non-state, decentralized peoples.

This dissertation is concerned with the ways in which Māori legal traditions have changed in response to the process of negotiated settlement of historical claims against the state. The settlements agreed between Māori groups and the state provide significant opportunities and challenges for Māori communities and, inevitably, force those communities to confront questions relating to the application of their own legal traditions to these changed, and still changing, circumstances. This dissertation focuses specifically on Māori legal traditions and post-settlement governance entities. However, the intention is not to simply record changes to Māori legal traditions, but to offer some assessment as to whether these changes and adaptations support, or alternatively detract from, the two key goals of the settlement process - reconciliation and Māori self-determination. I argue that where the settlement process is compelling Māori legal traditions to develop in a way that is contrary to reconciliation and Māori self-determination, then the settlement process itself ought to be adjusted. This dissertation studies the nature of changes to Māori legal traditions in the context of the Treaty settlement process, using a framework that can be applied to Māori legal traditions in other contexts. There are many more stories of Māori legal traditions that remain to be told, including stories that drill into the detail of specific legal traditions and create pathways between an appropriate philosophical framework and the practical operation of vibrant Māori legal systems. Those stories will be vital if we in Aotearoa/New Zealand are to move towards reconciliation and Māori self-determination. The story that runs through this dissertation is one of a settlement process that undermines those objectives because of the pressures it places on Māori legal traditions. But it need not be this way. If parties to the Treaty settlement process take the objectives of self-determination and reconciliation seriously, and pay careful attention to changes to Māori legal traditions that take place in the context of that process, a different story can be told – a story in which Treaty settlements signify, not the end of a Treaty relationship, but a new beginning. / Graduate / 0398 / 0332 / 0326 / carwyn@uvic.ca

This dissertation presents a comparative case-study of how two groups of culturally diverse elementary school students engage with particular forms of narrative practice shared by cultural educators through First Nations cultural education programs. The project develops the argument that different cultures afford different symbolic resources useful in “structuring” and “organizing” experience for individuals and that one important way in which these “possible worlds” are shared in a community is through storytelling. To develop this argument the project was structured around two main research questions: 1) what are the forms and functions of narrative practices that children experience during the First Nations cultural education programs? And 2) how do children “echo” and “transform” these narrative practices through their participation in the narrative activities organized around the programs? Participants in the project were two First Nations cultural educators conducting cultural education programs in public schools who participated as research partners, as well as 16 students from a grade 1 classroom (Class A) who participated in the first educator’s program and 15 students from a grade 4 classroom (Class B) who participated in the second educator’s program. Data for this project came from a multiple sources and analysis focused especially on stories told from the cultural educators during their programs as well as retellings of these stories from students in the two classrooms. Additional data was included from interviews and discussions with the cultural educators and student participants, field notes on the cultural education programs, and the classroom communities, as well as discussions with classroom teachers. This additional data was integrated into the project at various points to support interpretations. An ethnopoetic or verse analysis (Hymes, 1981, 1996, 2003) of stories told by the cultural educators revealed recurring patterns in the stories that both educators employed for particular rhetorical effects. In addition, these patterns revealed a number of “cultural features” of the storytelling performances that the educators used to emphasize specific points, to make parts of the stories especially memorable for the audience and to share lessons with the audience. Verse analyses of students’ story-retellings revealed a number of ways in which these students echoed and transformed these cultural features and made use of them to share the meaning or lesson of the stories. Finally, comparative analyses of story-retellings from the differently aged students in the two classrooms through a number of analytical frameworks showed that the retellings from grade 4 students were more complex in a number of ways, but also that students in both classrooms skillfully employed these different forms of narrative resources. The results reported in this study suggest that students were making use of the space provided in the cultural education programs to explore particular forms of narrative practice shared by the cultural educators and that they were making use of these narrative resources in meaningful ways. / Graduate / 0620 / jwallen@uvic.ca, james_w_allen@hotmail.com

In spite of the rapid growth of evangelicalism there is a paucity of reflection on its theological method. The transition from modernity to postmodernity, with the accompanying call for a postfoundationalist rather than a foundationalist method, has provided additional challenges to evangelicalism. Canadian theologian Stanley J. Grenz has proposed a model for evangelical theological construction that utilizes scripture, tradition and culture as the sources for theology, and the Trinity, community and eschatology as its focal motifs. He supplements these with the belief that the Spirit guides the church, and that the community of faith will therefore be pneumatologically guided as it communally attempts to discern truth in a changed context. Grenz believes that his theological method moves beyond foundationalism as it appeals to a trio of interacting sources, rather than to the single source of scripture. In exploring and evaluating Grenz' theological method, this thesis tests the research proposition "that Stanley Grenz' theological method effectively revisions evangelical theology." To ascertain the validity of the proposition, it utilizes four evaluative questions which explore the originality, theological coherence, appropriateness and effectiveness of Grenz'method for evangelical theology. The application of his model in his text, Welcoming but Not Affirming, serves as a test case to determine the implications of his method. Concluding that Grenz' model makes only a modest contribution towards revisioning evangelical theological method, the concluding chapters of the research explore ways to supplement Grenz' model to allow a stronger affirmation of the research proposition. Utilizing Wolterstorff's concept of control beliefs, it proposes that Grenz' model would be more effective if he added a control belief to guide his theological construction, and motivates for adopting the control belief the gospel liberates.ln addition, it argues that Grenz' three focal motifs for theology need to be preceded by the gathering motif of the cross, arguing that if seen outside of this gathering motif, the motifs of Trinity, community and eschatology lack adequate substance. Noting the often acrimonious context in which theological revisioning takes place, the research ends with a plea for the empowerment of imagination in theological construction.

This thesis seeks to interpret Christology from the perspective of tribal people in Mizoram, northeast India, with an objective to help them and their churches to understand Jesus Christ in a way meaningful to them. In this study, historical and socio-theological analysis is used to show that Christology and culture are always related, and that different Christologies have been developed in different cultural contexts. This analysis in turn helps identify the issues that must be addressed in the construction of a contextual Christology for Mizoram context. In this study, Mizo culture and experience are taken into account as essential theological source. The first chapter discusses the need for a contextual Christology and examines the basic issues and methodological approaches surrounding the construction of contextual Christology. In the second chapter, the context of tribal people in Mizoram is analysed. Among the major issues that must be addressed in Christological construction, the thesis identifies the growing disparity between rich and poor within the state and the socio-economic alienation of Mizos from mainland India. The third chapter surveys the Christological tradition in Mizoram from its beginning to the present. It finds that the Christological heritage in Mizoram is largely irrelevant to Mizo people because of its uncritical application of Western theology to this very different historical and cultural context. The idea of Christ introduced into Mizoram is basically individualistic, otherworldly and dualistic. Neither missionaries nor native church leaders have taken the local culture seriously into account in doing Christology. The fourth chapter attempts to recover some major liberating cultural traditions of the Mizos as sources for Christology, including their concepts of pasaltha, humanity, land, God and spiritual beings, and life after death. The study reveals that, despite the Western overlay, there is a significant continuity and influence of traditional culture in Mizo Christianity. On the basis of these findings, the fifth chapter seeks to reinterpret the significance of Jesus Christ in the Mizoram context, using a Mizo conceptual framework. It argues that the idea of the pasaltha incorporates much of the New Testament portrait of the person and work of Christ, Jesus' self-giving life and ministry, incarnation, suffering and death on the cross, can all be seen as manifesting the principle of tlawmngaihna, which is an essential characteristic of the pasaltha. Jesus' resurrection and exaltation can be seen as God's response to Jesus' person and work precisely as pasaltha-tlawmngai. Similarly, the kingdom of God, which defined and summed up Jesus' message and mission, can be perceived in the Mizoram context as exhibiting the qualities of a communitarian society.

Whole document restricted at the request of the author / Significant changes have occurred in the Catholic practice and theology of mission since the second Vatican Council (1962-65). To appreciate better the extent of these changes, I have charted major shifts in the story of mission of the Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions, founded in Lyon in 1861. In particular, I have examined the various theologies that informed these shifts. This micro-study of one particular Catholic group offers an entry-point into a consideration of contemporary Catholic theologies of mission and missionary practice. Since Vatican II, there has been a growing awareness of the universal and salvific presence of the Spirit in creation and history. I will seek to show how this has affected Catholic missiological reflection through an examination of the work of selected Catholic theologians. These theologians direct attention to the mission of the Spirit, and to the relation between the Spirit and the Son in the mission of the Triune God. This pneumatological emphasis often has been overlooked in theologies of mission that are more overtly ecclesiological or christological in their orientation. I then examine selected New Testament texts in order to discern the legitimacy of such pneumatological emphases in emerging trinitarian theologies of mission. While New Testament texts indicate that the mission of the Spirit is both antecedent and consequent to the mission of Jesus, the examination of scriptural texts in this research concentrates on the antecedent mission of the Holy Spirit in selected Johannine, Matthean and Lukan texts. My research suggests that an emphasis on the mission of the Spirit permits an understanding of mission that can expand the parameters associated with ecclesiocentric and christocentric models of mission.

In spite of the rapid growth of evangelicalism there is a paucity of reflection on its theological method. The transition from modernity to postmodernity, with the accompanying call for a postfoundationalist rather than a foundationalist method, has provided additional challenges to evangelicalism. Canadian theologian Stanley J. Grenz has proposed a model for evangelical theological construction that utilizes scripture, tradition and culture as the sources for theology, and the Trinity, community and eschatology as its focal motifs. He supplements these with the belief that the Spirit guides the church, and that the community of faith will therefore be pneumatologically guided as it communally attempts to discern truth in a changed context. Grenz believes that his theological method moves beyond foundationalism as it appeals to a trio of interacting sources, rather than to the single source of scripture. In exploring and evaluating Grenz' theological method, this thesis tests the research proposition "that Stanley Grenz' theological method effectively revisions evangelical theology." To ascertain the validity of the proposition, it utilizes four evaluative questions which explore the originality, theological coherence, appropriateness and effectiveness of Grenz'method for evangelical theology. The application of his model in his text, Welcoming but Not Affirming, serves as a test case to determine the implications of his method. Concluding that Grenz' model makes only a modest contribution towards revisioning evangelical theological method, the concluding chapters of the research explore ways to supplement Grenz' model to allow a stronger affirmation of the research proposition. Utilizing Wolterstorff's concept of control beliefs, it proposes that Grenz' model would be more effective if he added a control belief to guide his theological construction, and motivates for adopting the control belief the gospel liberates.ln addition, it argues that Grenz' three focal motifs for theology need to be preceded by the gathering motif of the cross, arguing that if seen outside of this gathering motif, the motifs of Trinity, community and eschatology lack adequate substance. Noting the often acrimonious context in which theological revisioning takes place, the research ends with a plea for the empowerment of imagination in theological construction.

This thesis seeks to interpret Christology from the perspective of tribal people in Mizoram, northeast India, with an objective to help them and their churches to understand Jesus Christ in a way meaningful to them. In this study, historical and socio-theological analysis is used to show that Christology and culture are always related, and that different Christologies have been developed in different cultural contexts. This analysis in turn helps identify the issues that must be addressed in the construction of a contextual Christology for Mizoram context. In this study, Mizo culture and experience are taken into account as essential theological source. The first chapter discusses the need for a contextual Christology and examines the basic issues and methodological approaches surrounding the construction of contextual Christology. In the second chapter, the context of tribal people in Mizoram is analysed. Among the major issues that must be addressed in Christological construction, the thesis identifies the growing disparity between rich and poor within the state and the socio-economic alienation of Mizos from mainland India. The third chapter surveys the Christological tradition in Mizoram from its beginning to the present. It finds that the Christological heritage in Mizoram is largely irrelevant to Mizo people because of its uncritical application of Western theology to this very different historical and cultural context. The idea of Christ introduced into Mizoram is basically individualistic, otherworldly and dualistic. Neither missionaries nor native church leaders have taken the local culture seriously into account in doing Christology. The fourth chapter attempts to recover some major liberating cultural traditions of the Mizos as sources for Christology, including their concepts of pasaltha, humanity, land, God and spiritual beings, and life after death. The study reveals that, despite the Western overlay, there is a significant continuity and influence of traditional culture in Mizo Christianity. On the basis of these findings, the fifth chapter seeks to reinterpret the significance of Jesus Christ in the Mizoram context, using a Mizo conceptual framework. It argues that the idea of the pasaltha incorporates much of the New Testament portrait of the person and work of Christ, Jesus' self-giving life and ministry, incarnation, suffering and death on the cross, can all be seen as manifesting the principle of tlawmngaihna, which is an essential characteristic of the pasaltha. Jesus' resurrection and exaltation can be seen as God's response to Jesus' person and work precisely as pasaltha-tlawmngai. Similarly, the kingdom of God, which defined and summed up Jesus' message and mission, can be perceived in the Mizoram context as exhibiting the qualities of a communitarian society.

Whole document restricted at the request of the author / Significant changes have occurred in the Catholic practice and theology of mission since the second Vatican Council (1962-65). To appreciate better the extent of these changes, I have charted major shifts in the story of mission of the Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions, founded in Lyon in 1861. In particular, I have examined the various theologies that informed these shifts. This micro-study of one particular Catholic group offers an entry-point into a consideration of contemporary Catholic theologies of mission and missionary practice. Since Vatican II, there has been a growing awareness of the universal and salvific presence of the Spirit in creation and history. I will seek to show how this has affected Catholic missiological reflection through an examination of the work of selected Catholic theologians. These theologians direct attention to the mission of the Spirit, and to the relation between the Spirit and the Son in the mission of the Triune God. This pneumatological emphasis often has been overlooked in theologies of mission that are more overtly ecclesiological or christological in their orientation. I then examine selected New Testament texts in order to discern the legitimacy of such pneumatological emphases in emerging trinitarian theologies of mission. While New Testament texts indicate that the mission of the Spirit is both antecedent and consequent to the mission of Jesus, the examination of scriptural texts in this research concentrates on the antecedent mission of the Holy Spirit in selected Johannine, Matthean and Lukan texts. My research suggests that an emphasis on the mission of the Spirit permits an understanding of mission that can expand the parameters associated with ecclesiocentric and christocentric models of mission.

In spite of the rapid growth of evangelicalism there is a paucity of reflection on its theological method. The transition from modernity to postmodernity, with the accompanying call for a postfoundationalist rather than a foundationalist method, has provided additional challenges to evangelicalism. Canadian theologian Stanley J. Grenz has proposed a model for evangelical theological construction that utilizes scripture, tradition and culture as the sources for theology, and the Trinity, community and eschatology as its focal motifs. He supplements these with the belief that the Spirit guides the church, and that the community of faith will therefore be pneumatologically guided as it communally attempts to discern truth in a changed context. Grenz believes that his theological method moves beyond foundationalism as it appeals to a trio of interacting sources, rather than to the single source of scripture. In exploring and evaluating Grenz' theological method, this thesis tests the research proposition "that Stanley Grenz' theological method effectively revisions evangelical theology." To ascertain the validity of the proposition, it utilizes four evaluative questions which explore the originality, theological coherence, appropriateness and effectiveness of Grenz'method for evangelical theology. The application of his model in his text, Welcoming but Not Affirming, serves as a test case to determine the implications of his method. Concluding that Grenz' model makes only a modest contribution towards revisioning evangelical theological method, the concluding chapters of the research explore ways to supplement Grenz' model to allow a stronger affirmation of the research proposition. Utilizing Wolterstorff's concept of control beliefs, it proposes that Grenz' model would be more effective if he added a control belief to guide his theological construction, and motivates for adopting the control belief the gospel liberates.ln addition, it argues that Grenz' three focal motifs for theology need to be preceded by the gathering motif of the cross, arguing that if seen outside of this gathering motif, the motifs of Trinity, community and eschatology lack adequate substance. Noting the often acrimonious context in which theological revisioning takes place, the research ends with a plea for the empowerment of imagination in theological construction.