This thesis considers the limitations of redress measures for injustices against Indigenous peoples in Canada and seeks to provide an alternative account of reconciliation that aims towards addressing these limitations. Current reconciliation and treaty processes designed to address Indigenous claims have resulted in a disconnect between material and symbolic or affective harms and are insufficiently reciprocal and receptive to the multiplicity of conflicting accounts of history to meaningfully effect a transformation of Indigenous-non-Indigenous relations. Furthermore, current processes aim towards closure with respect to past injustices instead of establishing lasting political relationships through grappling with diverse perspectives on those injustices. This thesis engages with these challenges by exploring Indigenous-non-Indigenous relations in Canada through the lens of Hannah Arendt’s relational, non-instrumental account of politics and recent literature on agonistic reconciliation in order to propose an alternative account of living in reconciliation through treaty relations. / Graduate

The dissertation studies the relationship between Québécois and Indigenous peoples with regards to two different approaches to self-determination. It offers a critique of sovereignty-based self-determination in the form of the nation-state – a hegemonic model throughout the world and within Québécois political imagination – by shining light on the co-constitutive relationship between vulnerability and sovereignty, tracing the origins of their conceptual association in the work of Hobbes. The dissertation argues that, comparatively, by asserting the priority of relationality over individuality, the work of Marcel Mauss contributes to a relational theory of self-determination. By positing togetherness, relationality, reciprocity, and difference as forming the most basic reality of politics, Maussian gifting offers new perspectives on the question of vulnerability in the context of intercultural relations. Finally, through a study of the ethos of Indigenous treaty philosophy, the dissertation argues for re-envisioning Québécois self-determination through the role of treaty partner and honouring the gift of hospitality contained in the early treaties and alliances of peace and friendship with Indigenous peoples. / Graduate / 2020-04-18

This thesis considers the differences in the political relationship between Canada and Indigenous peoples as established in Treaty Six (1876) by Alexander Morris and that of the Indian Act (1876) as driven by David Laird and Electoral Franchise Act (1885) by John A. Macdonald. Through using historical and contemporary sources related to Treaty Six, and House of Commons debates related to the two Acts, this thesis argues that the relationship as established in Canadian policy and conceived of by Canadian politicians of Treaty Six was akin to a “nation-to-nation” relationship, and that the Indian Act and Electoral Franchise Act represent a turning away from this toward a less equitable relationship that placed Canada above Indigenous polities. This thesis also shows that within the Canadian political mainstream there was considerable dissent to this turning away from more equitable relationships, as shown by the continued opposition by politicians less well-known today such as William Paterson. / Graduate / 2019-08-28

In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) called on Ministries of Education, Faculties of Education, school administrators, and K-12 teachers to integrate Indigenous knowledges and pedagogies across the school curriculum. The TRC explicitly emphasized that education would be the intergenerational key to reconciliation in Canada and most provinces and territories quickly implemented curricula and developed resources to respond to the Calls to Action. Despite this mandate and these commitments, many teachers and teacher candidates continue to report that they do not have the skills, knowledge, or confidence to teach about the history of the Indian Residential Schooling system, Indigenous knowledges, or reconciliation. Research suggests that teacher resistance to "difficult knowledge" is a crucial contributing factor toward teachers avoiding, ignoring, and dismissing reconciliation work and upholding colonial logics. Moreover, teacher candidates and teachers often rely on the inaccurate and incomplete narratives they have learned about Canadians and First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Peoples. This impacts what and how they teach about these relationships, complicating the transformational changes the TRC urgently called for. How, then, might teachers unlearn these colonial stories and move from learning about Indigenous peoples to learning from them? Drawing on Donald’s concept of "ethical relationality", this study employed a qualitative approach to conduct conversational interviews with teacher candidates, teachers, staff, and students at two research sites. This study asks, "What are the curricular and pedagogical significances of ethical relationality to processes of unlearning colonialism?" Using a hermeneutic approach to interpret the stories shared, this study weaved within and between the landscapes of home and place. Findings reveal that teachers who experience supportive, multi-layered, and extended opportunities to unlearn settler colonialism and learn Indigenous wisdom traditions and knowledges from Indigenous peoples have the opportunity to understand a new story about Canadian-Indigenous relations. This study suggests that unless teachers begin to unlearn colonial logics, deeply understanding that they are implicated in ethical kinship relations with the places in which they live and with First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples, there is a significant possibility that curricula, professional development, and resources will not manifest in the transformational change that the TRC called for.

This project provides a coalitional reading of Chinese Canadian literature, film, and history based on an allegorical framework of Asian-Indigenous relationalities. It tracks how Chinese labour stories set during the period of Chinese exclusion can not only leverage national belonging for Chinese settlers but also be reread for a different sense of belonging that remains attentive to other exclusions made natural by settler colonial discourses and institutional structures, that is, the disavowal of Indigenous presence and claims to sovereignty and autochthony. It contributes to important discussions about the experiences of racism and oppression that typically privilege the relations and tensions of diasporic and Indigenous communities but hardly with each other. What is more, this study aligns with a recent surge of interest in investigating Asian-Indigenous relations in Asian Canadian, Asian American, and Asian diaspora studies. The political investments driving this project show a deep commitment to anti-racist and decolonial advocacy. By examining how Chinese cultural workers in Canada have tried to do justice to the Head Tax generation’s experiences of racial exclusion and intersectional oppressions in fiction, non-fiction, graphic non-fiction, and documentaries, it asks whether there are ways to ethically assert an excluded and marginalized Chinese presence in the context of the settler colonial state. By doing justice to the exclusion of Chinese settlers in the national imaginary, do Chinese cultural workers as a result perform an injustice to the originary presence of Indigenous peoples? This thesis re-examines the anti-racist imperative that frames Chinese labour stories set during the period of Chinese exclusion in Canada: by exploring whether social justice projects by racially marginalized communities can simultaneously re-assert an excluded racialized presence and honour their treaty rights and responsibilities, it works to apprehend the colonial positionality of the Chinese diaspora within the Canadian settler state. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This project examines representations of Chinese labour and Asian-Indigenous relations in Chinese Canadian literature and film. By focusing on how Chinese Canadian writers and artists honour and remember the nation-building contributions and sacrifices of Chinese labourers in stories set in Canada during the period of anti-Chinese legislation policies such as the Chinese Head Tax and the 1923 Chinese Immigration Act, this thesis provides a critical look at the values and ideologies that these narratives may draw upon. It asks whether it is possible for writers and artists to commemorate Chinese labour stories without also extending the colonization of Indigenous peoples, forgetting the history of Asian-Indigenous relationships, or promoting work ethic values that may hinder community building with Indigenous peoples and respecting Indigenous ways of living and working off the land. This study explores questions of history, memory, national belonging, social justice, decolonization, and relationship building.

In the Gulf Islands and Salish Sea Regions of British Columbia the Parks Canada Agency (PCA) currently operates Gulf Islands National Park Reserve (GINPR) and is in the development phase for the proposed Southern Strait of Georgia National Marine Conservation Area Reserve (SSGNMCAR). Protected areas such as these are meant to protect the ecological and cultural heritage of the region on behalf of all Canadians. As the government runs and expands their protected areas in the region it is important to look at their relationship with Indigenous communities in particular, as the PCA mandate requires the agency to work in “partnership” with Indigenous communities (Parks Canada 2017). The region is home to nearly 20 First Nations groups including the three W̱SÁNEĆ First Nations of the W̱SÁNEĆ Leadership Council (WLC). The WLC is an Indigenous government that has publicly stated their perception of a strained relationship with the PCA beginning before the formal establishment of GINPR in 2003. Through historical analysis; interviews with employees from the PCA and members of the W̱SÁNEĆ community; and a review of several aspects of site management and establishment in the region – this thesis explores the changing relationship between the PCA and W̱SÁNEĆ First Nations. Through this thesis I collect and discuss recommendations from W̱SÁNEĆ community members, and develop several myself, for the PCA to consider developing to improve the partnership between the two bodies. Potentially a partnership could lead towards formalized and lasting co-operative decision-making practice in the region’s cultural and natural heritage management. / Graduate