What does it mean to be Indigenous in the city? This question, expressing the experiences of a majority of Indigenous peoples in Canada today, is largely overlooked. Indigenous youth, who have grown up exclusively in the urban space of Winnipeg, with limited to no connection with the reserve or rural community of their families, define the contours of this thesis. My own personal and family history as having Cree-Métis roots in the Red River area as well as Scottish-English settler roots will tether along with the main narrative, if only to tell a parallel while also divergent story of the complex historical threads that inform many identities and collectivities today. In the days where Indigenous groups are struggling and fighting to maintain their histories and cultures against the legacy of colonialism that has been trying to rob Indigenous peoples of their history and culture for hundreds of years, the politics of identity are a highly charged scene where historical conflicts are waged. As lines are drawn, however, the complexities and richness of identity are often deadened at the expense of urgency and expediency. It is my contention that the youth tell us something about the complexity of individual and collective identity, living as they do in an environment that contains cultural, political, and material paths laid down by both traditional Indigenous and settler-Canadian historical processes. The youth remind us to ground our intellectual and political work in the everyday, the place where our bodies make sense of the world we live in. The practice of storytelling is a unique source of making sense of this world that is grounded in the everyday. I will utilize the storytelling practices of a wide range of authors, and will also seek to expand the practice of storytelling beyond its discursive, literary, and oral forms to that of embodied practice and movement, as well as a primary mediator or our relations with the land. Storytelling helps us see that the youth are on Indigenous land and articulating a dynamic identity that helps us (re)conceive the divisions between the rural/reserve and the city as well as see differently the historical continuities and discontinuities of Indigenous identities. Storytelling becomes the basis in this project for me to seek how our political and intellectual commentaries can become accountable to our everyday experience while also putting the everyday in to dialogue with the political and intellectual concepts we rely upon to guide us.

This thesis is concerned with the demands that humans are placing on the planet. Such demands are interrogated in long-running debates about how to reconcile the tensions between development, as an immanent process of capitalist expansion (see Cowen & Shelton 1996), and the environment, taken broadly in reference to finite natural resources, landscapes and wildlife. As environmental issues become increasingly prominent in local struggles, national debates, and international policies and programmes, we need to be paying more attention to how they are produced and shaped by politics and power relations, as well as to the differences between how groups relate to their biophysical environments. In this thesis, I do this by investigating the political ecology of post-neoliberalism in Bolivia. The country has been heralded as one of the most radical political projects in Latin America and a reformed state is being implemented in the name of radical politics and revolution, appropriating discourses of indigeneity and social movements. Here, the state has blamed the global environmental crisis on the continuing dominance of capitalism and neoliberalism. This has been publically rejected by the state, whilst new ‘post-neoliberal’ forms of development and harmonious relationships between people and nature have been promoted. However, Bolivia’s post-neoliberal state project has become increasingly dependent on hydrocarbon extraction becoming the most natural resource-dependent country in the region. This has created new sites of contestation and conflict between citizens and the state, as well as complicating what the Bolivian case contributes to wider debates about development and the environment. In this project I research an ongoing conflict over the Isiboro Secure Indigenous Territory and National Park (TIPNIS) concentrating on the key themes of development, environment and indigeneity. This political ecology of post-neoliberalism contributes both to our understanding of this emerging political project and to broader debates about human/nature relationships - by questioning the dynamics of fringe politics. This means questioning how the terms and content of ‘alternatives’ and ‘radical’ politics are set and how this in turn shapes the possibilities for transformative paths towards more sustainable human/nature relationships.

O presente trabalho busca analisar o processo de politização das identidades indígenas, entendido como uma luta por reconhecimento, ressaltando a dinâmica das fronteiras étnicas na interação entre indígenas e o Estado, na Bolívia pós-1985. Entende-se que ao fundamentarem sua luta em um largo histórico de dominação e traduzirem-na em uma demanda por direitos e por reconhecimento social e político, os povos indígenas ressignificam sua posição marginal na sociedade e conformam a base para sua organização. Defende-se que, uma vez que as identidades resultam de constantes processos internos e externos de definição, a possibilidade de conformação de uma identidade efetivamente autônoma só se concretiza se os sujeitos podem definir quais os parâmetros legítimos a partir dos quais se dá o reconhecimento, que adquire um caráter eminentemente político. A este respeito, entende-se que a luta avançada pelos povos indígenas representa um desafio para as formas tradicionais de definição de cidadania, questionando o paradigma liberal até então hegemônico, especialmente no que tange a natureza coletiva do sujeito indígena e sua relação com o território e com a política em geral. Assim, a indigeneidade se coloca como uma peça chave para a compreensão das mudanças ocorridas nas últimas décadas na Bolívia, assim como para a compreensão de um processo mais amplo de descolonização das categorias e instituições do Estado-nação. Desta forma, o trabalho segue de forma a discutir como a luta por reconhecimento por direitos se construiu a partir das críticas ao colonialismo interno do Estado boliviano, posteriormente avançando sobre como ampliação das fronteiras da identidade indígena serviu como elemento aglutinador de um processo crescentemente contencioso das relações entre a sociedade as instituições do Estado em sua acepção liberal. Posteriormente, discutir-se-á sobre como as lutas e demandas indígenas foram reconhecidas na Constituição de 2009 em um esforço conjunto de representantes de diversos movimentos sociais no país para superar a abordagem multiculturalista através da plurinacionalidade e da interculturalidade. Por fim, destacar-se-á as presentes contradições deste processo, no qual o empoderamento político indígena se depara com a centralidade cada vez maior da democracia representativa e dos apelos de uma identidade nacional indigeneizada, em detrimento dos avanços legais da Constituição plurinacional e das lutas por interculturalidade e pela consolidação da autonomia dos sujeitos coletivos na Bolívia / The following work will discuss the process of politicization of indigenous identities, understood as a struggle for recognition, highlighting the dynamics of the ethnic boundaries in the interaction between the indigenous and the state in Bolivia after 1985. We sustain that as indigenous peoples root their struggle in a long background of domination which is translated into a demand for rights and for social and political recognition, they ressignify their marginality within the society and establish the foundations for their organization. We suggest that, inasmuch as identities result from constant processes of internal and external forms of definition, the possibility of constructing actually autonomous identities is only possible if the subjects are able to define by which standards should they be granted recognition, which, in turn, becomes eminently political. Following that, we observe that the indigenous struggles posits a challenge to traditional forms of defining citizenship, as they question the hegemony of the liberal paradigm so far, specially in matters of the collective nature of indigenous subject and its particular relation to the territory and politics. Therefore, indigeneity is presented as a key factor for understanding the political changes in Bolivia over the last decades, but also for analyzing the process of decolonization of nationstate categories and institutions. We herein discuss how the struggle for recognition in the legal and social dimensions was key for constructing a broader critique of the internal colonialism in the Bolivian State, followed by a discussion on how the expansion of the boundaries of the indigenous identities transformed it into a converging element of a increasingly contentious process in the relation between the society and the states institutions in their most liberal facet. Later on, we will explore how these struggles and demands were recognized in the 2009 Constitution, as a result of the mutual effort of representatives of various social movements to overcome the multicultural approach to indigenous rights with plurinationality and interculturality. Finally, we assess the present contradictions of such process, in which the political empowerment of the indigenous faces the rising centrality of representative democracy and the appeals of a indigenized national identity, as opposed to the consolidation of constitutional plurinationality and of the intercultural plea for the consolidation of the autonomy of indigenous collective subjects in Bolivia

abstract: The purpose of this project is to investigate the political aesthetics of Delilah Montoya's photographic landscape image, Desire Lines, Baboquivari Peak, Arizona (2004), an image drawn from a larger photo-documentary project by Montoya and Orlando Lara titled, Sed: Trail of Thirst (2004). This thesis employs Jacques Rancière's concept of the aesthetic regime to identify how Desire Lines functions as a political work of art, or what Rancière would consider "aesthetic art." This thesis shows that the political qualities of Desire Lines's work contrast with the aesthetic regime of art and systems in the U.S. nation state that have attempted to erase an indigenous presence. Thomás Ybarra-Frausto's and Amalia Mesa-Bains' definitions of Rasquachismo, as well as Gloria Anzalúda's concept of Nepantla, are used to assist in identifying the specific politics of Montoya's work. The first portion of this thesis investigates the image's political aesthetic within the context of the politics of art, and the second portion addresses the image's political qualities within the framework of the politics of the everyday life. This thesis shows that Desire Lines, Baboquivari Peak, Arizona reveals a Chicana/o aesthetic that challenges the dominant paradigm of postmodernism; furthermore, viewing the content of the image through the concept of Nepantla allows for a political reading which highlights the work's capacity to challenge the Eurocentric view of land in the U.S. Southwest. Desire Lines, Baboquivari Peak, Arizona is an indigenously oriented photograph, one which blurs the lines of the politics of art and the everyday and has the power to reconfigure our understanding of the U.S borderland as an indigenous palace of perseverance exemplifying the will to overcome. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Art History 2014

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The pursuit of church indigeneity and unity was a two-fold theme throughout the history of twentieth-century Chinese Christianity. Modern scholarship has generated a good number of studies regarding church indigeneity, but has neglected the parallel trend towards interdenominational co-operation and church union in China. This thesis endeavours to remedy this deficiency. The thesis examines the process of the quest of Chinese Protestants for a united indigenous church, focusing on Cheng Jingyi (1881-1939), one of the key figures in the early twentieth-century ecumenical movement. Additionally, it pays particular attention to the Church of Christ in China as a case study. It discusses the feasibility of the ecumenical convictions which were shared by a considerable number of mainline Chinese Protestants, with Cheng Jingyi as a representative, and evaluates the legacy of the church unity movement in early twentieth-century China. The thesis argues that the church unity movement within the mainline Chinese churches differed from the ecumenical movement in the West, which aimed to realise fraternal co-operation and even union among various denominations. In China the aim was to establish a single national church on a federal pattern, reflecting a Chinese indigenous understanding of ecumenism and ecclesiology. It also reflected a broader vision of the Christian church than that exhibited by the majority of the independent Chinese Protestant groups or by the Chinese church under the control of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement during the 1950s. Based on the conviction of the universal nature of the church in which the Chinese church was an indispensable part, the church unity movement in China surpassed a narrowly nationalistic vision. Nonetheless, the good intentions of the Church of Christ in China were overshadowed by its dependence on foreign subsidies. The church never achieved ‘three-self’ status: it was self-governing and self-propagating, but never self supporting. As such its goal of indigeneity was never fully realised.

<p>This dissertation investigates identity, citizenship, and belonging on the Navajo (Diné) Nation in Arizona and New Mexico through an ethnographic study of Navajo country western bands and the politics of Navajo language use. As the second largest tribe in the United States, the Navajo have often been portrayed by scholars as a singular and somewhat monolithic entity. But my dissertation tracks the ways that Navajos distinguish themselves from one another by dint of geographic location, physical appearance, linguistic abilities, degree of Navajo or Indian blood, class affiliations and musical taste. These distinctions are made over and above citizenship requirements for enrollment in the Navajo Nation. Thus, I focus on how a Navajo politics of sameness and difference indexes larger ideas and perceptions of "social authenticity" linked to the ability to speak, look and act "Navajo." Based on 28 months of fieldwork, the dissertations draws on three types of qualitative data: 1) interviews with Navajo country music performers and Navajo language activists 2) participant observation that included playing with three Navajo country bands and living on the reservation 3) discourse analysis of musical performances, band rehearsals, Navajo newspaper articles and other media The resulting study joins linguistic anthropology, the anthropology of music (ethnomusicology) and American Indian Studies to show how "being Navajo" is contested and debated, and, more broadly, to interrogate the complex ways that indigenous identities are negotiated across multiple, often-contradictory and crisscrossing axes.</p> / Dissertation

This thesis examines the processes of urban Indigenous identity-making at the Victoria Native Friendship Centre (VNFC), and within Greater Victoria, B.C. more broadly. The diverse experiences of VNFC staff and community members are explored in relation to colonial narratives that fix Indigenous identities to ‘traditional’ ancestral spaces (Wilson and Peters 2005). This project contributes to the newly-emerging bodies of anthropological literature that focus on urban Indigenous identity construction and place-making. I carried out 8 semi-structured interviews with 11 Indigenous women (both VNFC staff and community members over the age of 18) and conducted informal participant observation at various locations around the Centre. Representing a range of different backgrounds and life histories, the women brought to light shared experiences of resistance, relationship-building, and finding balance that permeate identity-making at the Friendship Centre and in Greater Victoria. In addition to challenging discourses that assume “Indigenous people simply cannot be Indigenous in the city” (Watson 2010, 269), discussions with these women also highlight the resilience and adaptability of Indigenous identity-making that transcend spatial boundaries. / Graduate / 2017-08-19 / 0326 / 0740 / kneale26@uvic.ca

Le but de cette étude est de démontrer que dans le monde « globalisé » tel qu’il l’est aujourd’hui, le développement des savoirs et des écritures indigènes dans la deuxième moitié du XXe siècle a favorisé l’émergence d’une construction cognitive plus tant indigène qu’exogène non-ethnocentrée. Il convient davantage de rechercher une nouvelle approche fondée sur les études littéraires pour analyser ce corpus de récits d’exploration déjà largement étudié par les historiens. Cette nouvelle direction a pour but de faire émerger un prisme qui puisse faire dialoguer toutes ces disciplines et ces notions : il se trouve que c’est la textualité qui va permettre la mise en relation de ces thématiques de façon critique. En effet, dans les récits d’explorateurs, c’est le point de non-subjectivation et d’objectivation du monde qui a fait que l’Indigène y a été construit comme objet par cette textualité. Ainsi, faire le diagnostic de cet accès « marqué » à la subjectivation amène à en retracer la généalogie dans les œuvres littéraires et artistiques ‒ toutes en tant que « narratives » ‒ mais aussi les textes fondateurs afférents à ces contacts coloniaux. Le savoir sur l’Indigène construit à cette époque laisse entrevoir des savoir de l’Indigène, ou plutôt des savoirs créés à partir de la reconsidération de l’Indigénéité, non plus comme caractéristique intrinsèque de l’Indigène, mais comme lieu privilégié de la construction de sa subjectivité et de son identité. L’Indigénéité conçue désormais comme prisme et repensée par le biais de la textualité va servir à mettre en lumière les nouvelles relations qui se tissent au gré de mouvements culturels, qui sont eux-mêmes redéfinis selon leur endogénéité et exogénéité. / The aim of this study is to demonstrate that in our current, globalised world, the development of indigenous knowledges and writings in the second half of the twentieth century prompted the emergence of a cognitive construction that was not so much indigenous as exogenous and non-ethnocentric. A new literary approach is therefore necessary to analyse this collection of exploration narratives, previously examined by historians. The goal of this new approach is to identify a prism or paradigm which will bring these disciplines and concepts into dialogue: it is textuality which will connect all of these themes, allowing for their critical analysis. In exploration narratives, it is the point of non-subjectification and objectification of the world which ensures that the Native is constructed as an object by this textuality. Thus, carrying out a diagnosis of this distinct access to subjectification impels one to retrace the genealogy of this phenomenon in literary and artistic works, which are analysed here as “narratives,” as are the founding texts related to these colonial contacts. The knowledge over the Native constructed at this time allows us to discern the knowledges of the Native, or rather the knowledges created through the reassessment of indigeneity, which is no longer seen as inherent characteristics of the Native, but rather as a privileged location for the construction of her/his subjectivity and identity. Indigeneity, henceforth understood as a prism, re-examined through textuality, will in turn bring to light the new relationships being woven as a result of cultural movements, which are themselves redefined according to their endo- or exogeneity.

This thesis focuses on processes of Aboriginal community-making in Redfern, an inner city suburb of Sydney, Australia. It addresses the ways in which the Australian state governs Aboriginal people by developing 'projects of legibility' (and illegibility) concerning Aboriginal community sociality. To address Redfern Aboriginal community-making requires focusing on the ambiguities arising from the contemporary policy of 'Aboriginal self-determination' and adopting an ethnohistorical approach to Aboriginal community-making that has arisen under this policy rubric. By ethnohistorical I refer to the engagement of Aboriginal people in Redfern in Aboriginal community-making policy practices and not a historiography of these policies. Attention will be paid to past and present negotiations concerning the (re)development of the Redfern Aboriginal community and their intersections in the state-led redevelopment process Aboriginal community- makers were engaged in during the course of my research in 2005-2007. These negotiations centre on attempts made to reproduce certain forms of sociality that both reveal and obscure Aboriginal social relations when inscribed in the category 'Aboriginal community'. This analysis is meant to contribute to the limited anthropological research that exists on urban Aboriginal experiences generally and research conducted on Aboriginal experiences in southeastern Australia. It addresses the complex social field of Aboriginal community-making practices that exist in Australia where Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians are located within the bureaucratic structures of the state, institutional networks, as well as non-government community organisations. This research contributes to understanding 'the institutional construction of indigeneity' (Weiner 2006: 19) and how this informs the (re)development of urban Aboriginal communities.