This thesis presents the results of a qualitative research study that examined the resilience development with six Anishinabe (Ojibway) women. This study examined from the women’s perspectives, “What meaning(s) do First Nation graduates of secondary or post-secondary education make about risk and/or protective factors that may have affected their success in completing their degree/diploma requirements?” In this research, I closely examined the historical accounts and progressive educational changes of six successful Anishinabe women who attended either the residential, provincial or band operated schools. The narrative/storywork voiced by the women was gathered by one in-depth interview and were analyzed in two parts. First, the Western idea of resilience (Benard, 2004) was examined. Second, the development of resilience utilizing Indigenous narrative/storywork (Archibald, 2008; Thomas, 2008; Wilson, 2008) and the cultural framework of the Medicine Wheel teachings (Bopp, Bopp, Brown, & Lane, 1988; Medicine Wheel Evaluation Framework, 2012) was explored. The findings from this thesis revealed that through protective factors and/or supports of their community, environment, school, and family and restored Indigenous philosophy, maintained culture, language, spirituality and traditional worldviews, a process of resilience emerged and/or was developed and overpowered risk factors, challenges and/or adversities. The amalgamation of findings supports what research suggests that Aboriginal people exist in two worlds, their world and mainstream world (Fitznor, 2005). Co-existance, acceptance, and a balance of both worlds are supports and fundamental keys to resiliency and educational success.

This thesis presents the results of a qualitative research study that examined the resilience development with six Anishinabe (Ojibway) women. This study examined from the women’s perspectives, “What meaning(s) do First Nation graduates of secondary or post-secondary education make about risk and/or protective factors that may have affected their success in completing their degree/diploma requirements?” In this research, I closely examined the historical accounts and progressive educational changes of six successful Anishinabe women who attended either the residential, provincial or band operated schools. The narrative/storywork voiced by the women was gathered by one in-depth interview and were analyzed in two parts. First, the Western idea of resilience (Benard, 2004) was examined. Second, the development of resilience utilizing Indigenous narrative/storywork (Archibald, 2008; Thomas, 2008; Wilson, 2008) and the cultural framework of the Medicine Wheel teachings (Bopp, Bopp, Brown, & Lane, 1988; Medicine Wheel Evaluation Framework, 2012) was explored. The findings from this thesis revealed that through protective factors and/or supports of their community, environment, school, and family and restored Indigenous philosophy, maintained culture, language, spirituality and traditional worldviews, a process of resilience emerged and/or was developed and overpowered risk factors, challenges and/or adversities. The amalgamation of findings supports what research suggests that Aboriginal people exist in two worlds, their world and mainstream world (Fitznor, 2005). Co-existance, acceptance, and a balance of both worlds are supports and fundamental keys to resiliency and educational success.

Environmental racism has recently entered the realm of academic inquiry and although it currently sits in a marginalized category, Indigenous and environmental communities and scholars have acknowledged it as an important subject of critical inquiry. With roots in southern Americana history, environmental racism has had a limited scope of study within Canadian universities. Few Canadian scholars have presented the rippling effects of this critical phenomenon to Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students and the challenge to bring this discourse to the universities of Canada remains significant. Mainstream educators and environmentalists dismiss discourses of environmental racism, ecological destruction and the correlating demise of Indigenous peoples’ knowledges, cultures and wellness as an insignificant and sometimes radical propaganda. In opposition, Indigenous peoples globally are countering this dismissal by telling their stories to ensure all have access to the discourses of environmental racism found within the ecological destructions of traditional lands and the cultural genocides of their peoples. The stories of their histories and the subsequent activism define the resistances found within Indigenous communities. These same stories show the resiliencies of Aboriginal peoples in their quest for self-determination. Using an Indigenous research methodological framework, this study seeks to provide an understanding of the complexities associated with incidences of environmental racism found within Canadian Aboriginal communities. It further seeks to find, analyze and report the depth of resistance and resilience found within the storywork of Aboriginal women. The researcher attempts to gain perspective from eight Aboriginal women of four distinct Nations by focusing on the context of their lives in relationship to their leadership decisions and actions from a worldview of Indigenous knowledge, eco-justice and peace. The lived experiences of Aboriginal women from the traditional lands of the Cree, the Denesuline, the Inuit and the Métis are critical to an analysis of how environmental racism is dismantled and wellness sought. The storywork of these participants provides answers as to how these Aboriginal women have come to resist environmental racism and why they currently lead others in the protection and sustainability of traditional lands, Aboriginal knowledge, culture and kinship wellness. Framed within Indigenous research methodology, all researcher actions within the study, including the collection, analysis and reporting of multiple data sources, followed the ceremonial tradition and protocols of respect and reciprocity found among Aboriginal peoples. Data from semi-structured qualitative interviews and written questionnaires was analyzed from the supportive western method of grounded theory. Findings revealed the strength of Storywork through the primary themes of Woman as Land and Woman as Healer. These are discussed through the Sisters’ embodiment of resistance, reflection, re-emergence and re-vitalization. The ways in which these Indigenous women have redeemed their knowledges and resurged as leaders is integral to the findings. The study concludes with an emphasis on the criticality of collective witnessing as transformation.

Indigenous adoptee scholars across Turtle Island and beyond have done good work in coming to understand their identity through community connection, culture, education and practice. A plethora of research has guided young Indigenous interracial adoptees on their journey, yet there are few stories focused on the experiences of interracial Maya adoptees reconnecting to their culture in KKKanada. Currently there is limited research documenting Maya adoptees experiences of displacement and cultural reclamation in KKKanadian adoption studies. Research must make more space for these stories and the stories of local Indigenous communities supporting them. In this story (thesis), through engagement with current literature and ten research questions, I explored what it meant to live as an interracial adoptee in West Coast Indigenous communities. An Indigenous Youth Storywork methodology was applied to bring meaning to relationships I have with diverse Indigenous Old Ones, mentors and Knowledge Keepers and their influence on my journey as a Maya adoptee returning to my culture. My personal story was developed and analyzed using an Indigenous decolonial framework and Indigenous Arts-based methods. This storying journey sheds light on the intricate intersections of interracial adoption, specifically for Maya Indigenous Youth who currently live in KKKanada. The intention of this Youth Storywork research work is to create space for Indigenous, Interracial, Transracial and Maya adoptees in Child and Youth Care, Social Work and Counselling Psychology education, policy and practice. / Graduate / 2021-11-18

ABSTRACT Imaginative storytelling offered as an invitation to learning dovetails with the notion of Romance in cyclical, organic learning. It is upon the theme of rhythmic storytelling and its relationship to Alfred North Whitehead’s cycle of Romance/Freedom of “The Wood between the Worlds” that I concentrate in this thesis. The thesis proceeds in four chapters to facilitate such understanding. Chapter One reawakens the childlike wonder of the stories my father related to me when I was young; my personal academic trajectory traces out the Whiteheadian pattern of the overlapping tri-cycle of Romance/Freedom, Precision/Self-Discipline, and Generalization/Freedom. Chapter Two introduces the enchanted Narnian “Wood between the Worlds” envisioned by Clive Staples Lewis with reference to the literary and sensory forests I have known. Chapter Three presents the Voices of the Children from my Grade Two class over a period of one year, based upon my memories and personal anecdotal notes of their stories as well as their creative use of storytelling. I also explore Antonio Machón’s consideration of children’s drawings as storytelling. In conclusion, Chapter Four describes my journeys with First Nations pilot programs Math Warriors (Saskatoon Catholic School Board) and Indigenous Knowledge in Science (Saskatoon Public School Board), leading me to better appreciate Indigenous educational philosophy. In the process I consider insights shared by Verna Kirkness (Cree), Jo-ann Archibald (Stó:lö and Coast Salish), and others. Finally, I interpret “The Wood between the Worlds” from a Whiteheadian perspective, reflecting upon contrasts and commonalities Whitehead may share with Aboriginal thought.

Oppression of voice has continued for displaced Syrians, beyond the ‘kingdom ofsilence’ under the Assad dictatorship, in the form of dominant media narratives, oftennegative, which fail to represent their lived realities. This case study explored the waysin which storytelling, within the program #MeWeSyria, creates a space for Syrianvoices in southeast Turkey and how this space could be transformative. The researchfocused on the process of storytelling, as a process of voice (Couldry, 2010) rather thanthe stories themselves as media products. Eleven semi-structured interviews wereconducted with members of the #MeWeSyria community, from three different levels:participants, facilitators and staff. Analysis considered the characteristics of the#MeWeSyria space, in relation to providing a space for the process of voice to flourish,in light of Wheeler et al.’s (2018) ‘transformative storywork’, and demonstrated theways in which this space could be transformative on personal, interpersonal and broadercommunity-societal levels. This research suggests that #MeWeSyria creates a space forSyrian voices by operating as a Syrian-led, participatory, community space whichcreates the conditions for the process of voice to flourish. In this space, personal andcollective consciousness and a sense of agency is developed, which are revealed as thestarting point for engagement in action for further change, on interpersonal, communityand societal levels. #MeWeSyria is shown to defend, at its core, voice as value(Couldry, 2010), the right of each person to tell their own story and the principle thatevery voice matters.

This Inuvialuit ‘story’ revolves around the Inuvialuit uprising and resurgence against government and industrial encroachment, and the self determination efforts to regain sovereignty of traditional territories. This ‘story’ also discusses how meaningful consultation made the Inuvialuit Final Agreement a reality, through which Inuvialuit land rights and freedoms were formally acknowledged and entrenched in the Canadian Constitution. Through meaningful consultation, Inuvialuit have become ‘meaningful participants’ in sustainable and future-making decisions of Inuvialuit nunangat (Inuvialuit lands) and waters, with respect to the Inuvialuit People and natural beings that Inuvialuit depend upon and maintain relationship with. As ‘meaningful participants’, Inuvialuit have the sovereign rights to “make meaning” and carve out a future as a sovereign nation within the country of Canada. This Inuvialuit ‘story’ is told with an informal framework through which it decolonizes academia, while also highlighting Indigenous voice through an Indigenous lens and worldview. The government and industry are called upon to meaningfully consult with Indigenous Peoples who have not only inhabited Turtle Island for millennia, but who have inherent Indigenous rights and freedoms, as Indigenous embodiment and well-being, and temporality and future-making are entangled with homelands. / Graduate