Dockstator, Mark

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

Indigenous men are disproportionally incarcerated in the Canadian criminal justice system. A disproportionate number of Indigenous men who are incarcerated have also been through the foster care and adoption system. A good deal of them are disconnected from their cultures, traditions and communities. For many the prisons are the first times that they encounter Indigenous Knowledge (IK), Elders, and Knowledge Holders, and the introduction to IK can be a watershed moment for them. Reconnection is a critical first step in a healing journey that many Indigenous men begin in prisons. The healing journey is about healing from their history, traumas, and the actions that led them to prisons, but healing is also a process of healing towards a better life and better future. It does not stop once they are beyond the prison walls. This research project focuses on the Indigenous Healing Programs and Services that support the men that are on this healing journey. Using the Haudenosaunee framework of Kan'nikonhrí:io (the Good Mind) and Wake'nikonhrèn:ton (the Crooked Mind), this project endeavours to understand how these programs and services understand and support healing, how masculinity factors into the delivery of these programs.

Author Keywords: Community, Good Minds, Haudenosaunee, Healing, Social Programming, Social Work

The residential school legacy is one of the darkest chapters in Canadian history. From the mid-1850s to 1996, thousands of Aboriginal children were taken from their homelands and placed in residential schools. Taken against their will, many dreaded attending these schools. Some attended for as long as ten to fifteen years, only to be strangers in their own communities upon their return. In the past thirty years, survivors began disclosing the loneliness, confusion, fear, punishment and humiliation they suffered within these institutions, and also reported traumatic incidents of sexual, physical or emotional abuse. These childhood traumas still haunt them today.

This dissertation examines the four compensation processes (Litigation,

Alternative Dispute Resolution, Independent Assessment Process and the Common Experience Process) used by survivors to determine whether the compensation payments made to them assisted in reconciliation of their residential school experience. To complete an analysis of the processes, twenty-four residential school survivors from Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia were interviewed about their experiences with one or more of the compensation processes. The study begins with a historical overview of the residential school legacy and continues with the residential school healing movement that initiated and finalized a negotiated settlement agreement for all living survivors.

This dissertation provides a unique perspective to the residential school legacy by using a cultural framework, Anishinabe teachings and concepts to share the voices of residential school survivors. The pivotal Anishinabe teaching within this study comes from The Seventh Fire Prophecy. This prophecy states that: "If the New People will remain strong in their quest, the Waterdrum of the Midewiwin Lodge will again sound its voice." In this dissertation the residential school survivors are the New People. As the dissertation unfolds the author utilizes various Anishinabe concepts to illustrate how the compensation processes failed to assist the New People to reconcile with their residential school experience.

This study presents a medicine wheel understanding of reconciliation and the Residential School Legacy. It concludes with an important message to the second and third generation survivors to continue the reconciliatory efforts that the New People introduced. It is crucial that the children and grandchildren of the New People begin the reconciliation process not only for themselves but for the next seven generations.

Author Keywords: Anishinabe, compensation, Indian residential schools, reconciliation, survivors

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

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

Indigenous peoples and organizations have a long history of incorporating cultural knowledge and teachings into program and organizational design and structure. The approach to incorporating cultures into Indigenous organizations is not uniform, nor is the ways that they are understood. This dissertation focuses on Nogojiwanong Friendship Centre, in Peterborough Ontario and their approach to incorporating Indigenous cultures into their organization from 2010-2014.

The intention of this dissertation is to build knowledge of Indigenous perspectives of organizational structure, grounded in Anishinabe teachings. The teaching circle, vision- time – feeling –movement, guides my learning process and the structure of the dissertation. In using an Anishinabe framework the importance of relationships and the Anishinabe clan system are foundational to my understanding, and will be discussed at length.

The purpose and goal of this research is twofold. First, to show the complexity, intentionality and depth to an Indigenous research process; a process that is often nuanced in the literature. Second, to show how Anishinabe thought can (and does) provide a framework for a service delivery organization, in its governance and program and service delivery. The thesis of this dissertation is that Anishinabe knowledge is not always visible to outsiders, but it was present at Nogojiwanong Friendship Centre in the ways they approached research, governed themselves and delivered programs and services.

Key Words: Indigenous Knowledge, Indigenous Governance, Indigenous Research Ethics, Indigenous Research Framework

Author Keywords: Indigenous Governance, Indigenous Knowledge, Indigenous Research Ethics, Indigenous Research Framework

Since the end of the Second World War, artists of Native descent have engaged with the Fine Art world where their work has come to be placed in the category of Native art. As a result of my journey, I have come to realize that in the Fine Art world the term Native art tends to be associated with the practices of our ancestors in times past obscuring our contemporary nature. In the present day context, however, I see an evolution and will tell the stories of the artists I met, who became a part of my life and thus a part of my narrative to point out that the voices of contemporary artists of Native descent, when speaking of their work, demonstrate a modern form of Native creativity, pride and joy that needs to be properly recognized. While Native artists do respect our traditions and do deal with issues of importance to our communities, they also create their artwork using sophisticated and modern techniques. It is up to us to make our contemporary nature known far and wide.

A storytelling approach based on the Michael Thrasher Medicine Wheel Teachings is employed to present the voices of our contemporary artists of Native descent who when speaking of their work create a rich and vibrant story of Native creativity, pride and joy.

Author Keywords: Culture, Elder, Indigenous Knowledge, Native Art, Storytelling