Zohar, Asaf

This intercultural rediscovery of Indigenous cacao culture draws upon Environmental Studies, Intercultural Studies, Indigenous Studies, Anthropology and Agroecology. The methodological antecedent for this kind of symbolic food study of cacao is the work done by Gustavo Esteva and others on the civilizational importance of maize. Similarly, the rediscovery of the Indigenous Knowledge of cacao explores the profound meaningfulness of cacao to ancient Mesoamerican civilization, and how that ecological, agricultural, and health wisdom can regenerate modern agricultural paradigms, and ecogastronomy. Chapter 1 explores, meditates, and reflects upon 20 Indigenous Knowledge teachings of cacao guided and supported by a unique interpretation of the Popol Vuh, the Mayan oral epic and creation story, as well as 20 years of collaboration and field work experience in Mexico. The methodology in chapter 1 is rooted in a phenomenological approach to dwelling with and relating to IK in an unmediated and embodied manner. Experience, story, dream and an awareness of the challenges of looking at Oral culture teachings are combined with an intercultural analysis of the Popol Vuh and other supporting texts. The spiritual ecology of the cacao forest garden of Chapter 2, seeks to make the connection between the maize milpa and the cacao forest garden milpa and posits a unique transition theory. The transition theory seeks to operationalize these Indigenous Knowledge agricultural and crop traditions into a regenerative agricultural model. Based upon Indigenous Knowledge, this view of the cacao forest garden functionally regenerates soils, regenerates forests, and supports food sovereignty in a way that is rooted in community scale Indigenous cultural practices, techniques, and food traditions. The methodology for chapter 2 and chapter 3 of this thesis moves to an intercultural comparison and analysis of agro-ecological and spiritual ecological understandings of cacao, chocolate, and the forest garden. Chapter 3 seeks to move from the explicating and analyzing of the 'transition theory' and proposes four main practical initiatives that further strengthen and explore the regenerative spiritual ecology of cacao forest gardens. The Indigenous forest garden commons of the Americas can be a powerful, unique, and fecund contribution to the intercultural dialogue around cultural regeneration in the 21st century. The Indigenous forest garden makes contributions around intercultural dialogue and reconciliation as well as current understandings around regenerative agricultural models. The cacao forest garden moves beyond an either/or narrative that separates environmental regeneration from cultural regeneration, and instead contributes to an intercultural both/and more holistic approach to regeneration that is rooted in culture and supported by agriculture.

Author Keywords: cacao, chocolate, forest garden, indigenous kmowledge, maize, transition theory

Local environmental initiatives can create visible and essential changes and inspire greater environmental action. Municipal governments and local environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) are important local actors, but their partnerships and relationships have not received much attention. This thesis examines what activities and relationships have been developed between municipal governments and ENGOs in the Peterborough region, what benefits they gain and what challenges they face during collaboration, and how these partnerships affect public perceptions of the organizations. I conducted 14 interviews with members of local ENGOs and municipalities and received 52 survey responses from residents. The findings indicate groups have unique relationships for planning, programming, and advocacy activities. Relationships were key and challenges included lack of time and prioritization, communication, and public buy-in. Partnerships provide an opportunity to share positive accomplishments and build reputation. This study sheds light on the complex relationships among local organizations and provides recommendations for improving partnerships.

Author Keywords: Community Engagement, Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations, Local Sustainability, Municipal Government, Partnerships, Relationships

This research aimed to capture the experiences of cities that have endeavored to localize the SDGs in their areas. Literature review and one-on-one interviews with SDG practitioners have been conducted to glean best practices and effective strategies to develop recommendations for how cities in Canada should plan to localize the SDGs in their areas. The research uncovered themes in relation to building on existing initiatives, stakeholder management, data management, and the role of personal rapport and connections in professional settings. This research also revealed an important tension between the top-down approach of adopting a unified federally devised framework and a bottom-up community indicator approach. Finally, the research uncovered opportunities to increase support for local organizations and city governments embarking on localizing the SDGs through engagement with academia and partnering with faculty and graduate students at the local university to incorporate graduate research into SDG localization efforts and tap into funding opportunities. The research also resulted in a flow chart that is gleaned from interviews and the literature review to describe a step-by-step process that cities and communities could deploy to localize SDG targets and indicators.

Author Keywords: Indicators, Localization, Measurement, Strategies, Sustainable Development Goals, Voluntary Local Review

In the 1980's, Hollow Water First Nation citizens created a healing movement to address community issues from an Indigenous perspective resulting in the development of the Community Holistic Circle Healing (CHCH) in 1989. The CHCH organization developed a Community (Restorative) Justice process as an alternative to a Western-based Justice approach to address issues such as domestic violence and sexual abuse. The CHCH organization addresses justice from a healing perspective (rather than the Western approach's punitive/surveillance model) and includes the offender and offender's family, the victim and the victim's family, as well as the community to identify issues, develop plans, implement healing activities, and evaluate the outcome so that the root systemic issues affecting community can be addressed holistically. Hollow Water First Nation is much more engaged in addressing the roots of why the offence occurred and looks for Anishinaabek approaches to resolve community-defined issues. Western society tends to implement a symptomatic approach to violence deterrence through punishment rather than address issues through a healing process. My research looks at the complex history of the healing movement, the operation of the CHCH organization and the personal values that emerged from the healing movement, and Hollow Water's next iteration of organization from the children of the people that began the healing movement. These people are now aged around mid-40's and have seen their parents engage in a community justice movement, saw their parents develop their own way to address community issues through the emergence and operation of the CHCH organization, and now, themselves, have developed highly critical and creative skills around the workings of community development.

I use Berger and Luckmann's seminal 1966 book The Social Construction of Reality, Hallowell's perspectives on the Anishinaabek culture in his anthropological research conducted in Beren's River, Manitoba during the 1930's, Max Weber's The Theory of Social and Economic Organization (1915), interviews with the original activists, and my experiences living in Hollow Water for 4+ years (from 1997 to 2001) to give an account of the history of the healing movement and its consequent personal transformation of the people engaged in examining their thoughts, values and behavioural processes. I use the Learning Organization Theory, developed by Peter Senge (a management professor from Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in his 1990 book The Fifth Discipline, interviews of CHCH staff and other community organization staff members, as well as, Indigenous authors, such as, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson's Dancing on Our Turtle's Back (2011) and Michael Hart's Seeking Mino-Pimatisiwin (2002) to provide an understanding of Indigenous concepts as they apply to the process of CHCH's healing/learning operations. From these sources and interviews, I provide an account of Hollow Water's Healing Movement which includes the decline of the CHCH organization from late 1990s to 2020. Given the current hyperpolitical environment in Canada, Hollow Water's next generation of community member activists are perhaps about to reclaim power and establish empowered relationships as the Indigenous Renaissance unfolds.

Author Keywords: Community Healing Movement Process, Hollow Water First Nation, Indigenous Axiology and Praxis, Learning Organization, Restorative Justice, Systems-Thinking

This thesis explores the history of the Indigenous child welfare system in Manitoba and the effects of the Millennium Scoop on children in care. My research question is: what was the experience of children in care in Manitoba from 1990 to 2015? A related question is: how do survivors find healing? The thesis begins with a discussion of the history of acts, policies, and practices that began with the Indigenous child welfare system during the running of Residential schools. Then the acts, reviews, and policies that have shaped the child welfare system in Manitoba are discussed more thoroughly. The focus of the thesis is on the stories of Phoenix Sinclair, Tina Fontaine, and Natasha Reimer. I share their stories and provide an analysis of how the child welfare system has affected their lives. The negative effects of being a child in care are numerous. Being a child in care leaves behind grief, loss of identity, and loss of security. The systemic issues of the child welfare system include inadequate funding, overloaded case workers, staff burnout, and a lack of transparency. These overarching failures translate into the failure of children in care: details are overlooked, wrong decisions are made, and children are left to fend for themselves. Or they fall into the cracks and do not receive adequate care. This then translates into the deaths of children in care, or they are left to navigate life on their own and forced to create their circle of supports. Despite all the complications and negative impacts, some children can succeed while in care. Natasha's story is a perfect example of such resilience.

Author Keywords: child welfare, indigenous studies, millennium scoop, sixties scoop

This thesis shows and emphasizes the importance of Indigenous Knowledge (IK) in informing collaborative efforts that promote sustainable economic development in Indigenous communities. It tells the story of a participative research study undertaken with six Tseltal communities located in the Region Selva of Chiapas, Mexico, in the context of the Covid19 pandemic of 2020 and early 2021. In this study, the research participants reflect on their endeavours pursuing projects focused on the economic self-sufficiency of their communities. Their initiatives, which are deeply grounded in Tseltal practices while accompanied by the local non-profit organization IXIM AC, focus on developing economically self-sustaining enterprises in self-organized groups led by local Indigenous women. The findings offer a deep immersion into two aspects that emerge from Tseltal knowledge: The Nucleus of Tseltal community wellbeing and the Four Elements of Buhts'an qu'inal (Tseltal community wellbeing). The study's results show that these two IK grounded aspects guide the participants' endeavours in developing sHachel jwohc' a'tel (Tseltal initiatives of entrepreneurship) while also enabling opportunities for gender transformative collaborative work and sustained engagement in local initiatives of sna'el ya'beyel stuc te bin ay ma'yuc (Tseltal economic development oriented to community wellbeing).

Author Keywords: Community Wellbeing, Indigenous Entrepreneurship, Indigenous Knowledges, Indigenous Women, Participative Action Research, Sustainable Development

The world has met the target of halving the number of people without access to improved-drinking water . However, the focus in rural areas (where 83% of the people without access to improved-drinking water live) has been on the construction of infrastructure, rather than on the strengthening of existing local institutions to create a long-term sustainable solution. This research aims to understand what are the necessary characteristics that CWOs, the main rural water supplier institutions around the world, must have to offer safe water continuously and in the long term. The results indicate that to offer such conditions, internal and external characteristic need to coexist. Those characteristics will emerge from case studies analysis in rural and peri-urban areas in Colombia, through interviews, surveys, document reviews, observation exercises, and a comparison with the literature. Internal characteristics include proper infrastructure conditions, user satisfaction, best management practices, social capital, be a development catalyzer, and environmental awareness. External characteristics include easy access to subsidies, efficient communication channels with authorities, continuous training, and environmental legislation/education. This study concludes that enforcing these characteristics will strengthen the existing institutions and can provide a sustainable solution for rural water supply issues.

Author Keywords: community-based water supply organizations, costs, management, financial sustainability, rural Colombia, state subsidies, water tariffs

Abstract

Maintaining Balance in Times of Change: An Investigation into the Contemporary Self-Regulatory Dynamics that Operate in and around First Nations Traditional Healing Systems

The evolution of health regulation processes in Canada has focused on the development of standards of practice premised upon the principle of `do no harm' and the approval of these by government regulatory agencies. This thesis examines three emerging communities of practice that bring traditional indigenous knowledge and indigenous healers forward into health care and their approaches to regulation. The results indicate that surrounding contexts of meaning influence understandings about self-regulation and that these understandings are dynamic because contemporary practices of First Nations traditional healing can occur in different contexts. The study cautions that unless we remain close to these `healer centred' contexts, there is no guarantee that the self-regulatory value systems stemming from modern Western medical communities of practice will not be applied by default or that the emerging `integrative' models of self-regulation developed between governments and First Nations will continue to reflect First Nations' understanding of self-regulation.

Author Keywords: health and wellness, indigenous, self-determination, self-regulation, traditional healing

Biomaterial technology and utilizing bioproducts can contribute to Canada's economic growth while moving towards sustainable development. Canadian bioproducts are commonly developed within universities but Canada's record of transferring university technology to market has been less than optimal. In an attempt to offer new ideas for improvement, qualitative data analysis from comparing stakeholder interviews in Canada and Brazil regarding university technology transfer through biomaterial spin-off development identifies the enablers and barriers to success. This thesis offers modality changes that if implemented will contribute to increasing university spin-off development in Canada to achieve economic growth and sustainable development. These modality changes include: 1) Create research network alliances; 2) Incorporate university commercialization activities into faculty performance measurement; 3) Implement a general business class as a pre-requisite to all degree requirements; 4) Restructure funding programs from one time sums to phase based implementation; 5) Establish a pre-incubation program in addition to the traditional incubator.

Author Keywords: biomaterials, Brazil, Canada, policy, university spin-off, university technology transfer

This research explores the obstacles Jordan is facing regarding the sustainable treatment and reuse of wastewater in the agricultural sector. It assesses the technical, socio-cultural, and political aspects of decision-making around water and wastewater management in Jordan by focusing on a case study involving wastewater usage in the Jordan Valley. It includes a literature review and interviews with representatives of key stakeholders. While at one level wastewater treatment is a technical process with technological solutions, a nuanced understanding of the non-technical challenges facing the wastewater treatment sector in Jordan is necessary. These challenges are inherently embedded in and contextualized by a series of historical, complex and dynamic political and socio-cultural issues involving stakeholders at local and national levels. Only through an interdisciplinary approach with real stakeholder engagement will meaningful solutions to these challenges be developed and implemented, and at least a portion of Jordan's water needs be meaningfully addressed.

Author Keywords: Agriculture, Jordan Valley, Political challenges, Sociocultural challenges, Technical challenges, wastewater management