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"Is Water a Human Right?": Priming Water as a Human Right Increases Support for Government Action
No full textMany First Nations homes in Canada do not have adequate water services. This issue is unlikely to be resolved without public pressure on the government. Thus, we investigated one strategy to increase non-Indigenous Canadians’ support for government action: framing water as a human right. Informed by a partnership with Indigenous community members and multidisciplinary collaborators, we conducted seven experiments that sampled non-Indigenous Canadian community members (N = 584) and university undergraduates (N = 274). Overall, framing water as a human right increased public support, relative to control conditions. Further, the human rights frame indirectly increased support for government action through increases in perceived suffering (physical and financial) and empathy. We discuss policy implications and end with a call for action.  
The Historical Roots of Social Assistance: An Inadequate Response to the Colonial Destruction of Mi’kmaw Livelihood in Nova Scotia
No full textSocial assistance and related programs are an important part of life in the 13 Mi’kmaq communities of Nova Scotia. Given the substantive importance of social assistance and related programs in Mi’kmaq communities, it is surprising how little research has been conducted on the subject. This research aims to understand the origins of economic dependence and the related emergence of social assistance among the Mi’kmaq in Nova Scotia. We identify key historical periods and processes that have shaped the current policy landscape. A defining characteristic of social policy on reserve has been the fact that First Nations themselves have had very little say in how programs such as social assistance are designed and delivered. There is hope that a more self-determined and holistic approach may emerge
Our People, Our Health: Envisioning Better Primary Healthcare in Manitoba First Nation Communities
No full textRecognizing the right of self-determination of Indigenous Peoples is essential to improving the state of community-based primary healthcare of First Nations in Canada. Understanding communities’ priorities and local health agendas is critical for primary healthcare transformation. We used a community-based participatory research approach to engage our partners: Nanaandawewiwgamig, the First Nations Health and Social Secretariat of Manitoba, and eight First Nation communities. Community-based research assistants conducted 183 in-depth interviews in their respective First Nations. Key themes that emerged from these interviews include primary prevention focused on health and social determinants; an integrated healthcare system providing access to both Western and First Nations traditional health knowledge; infrastructure improvement; youth engagement; healthcare leadership; investing in community-based human resources; and promoting culturally respectful, responsive, geographically sensitive, and outcomes-oriented care. Policy approaches could implement some local priorities with direct impact on healthcare, while other social determinants will create indirect, albeit critical, conditions for health and healthcare changes over time
The COVID-19 Pandemic: Invoking the Famine and Pestilence Clause to be Paired with the Medicine Chest Clause from the Numbered Treaties
No full textTreaty-based strategies are required to address the unique needs of Indigenous communities in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic. A treaty-based approach should recognize provisions within the Numbered Treaties, including the Famine and Pestilence Clause and Medicine Chest Clause, agreed to during the signing of Treaty 6 in 1876. The Famine and Pestilence Clause established the Crown’s obligation to aid Indigenous Peoples within Treaty 6 Territory in the event of calamities such as locust raids, storms, starvation, and disease. The Medicine Chest Clause instituted the means through which the Crown would provide medical care for Indigenous Peoples within the jurisdiction. The Government of Canada has a legal obligation to invoke the Famine and Pestilence Clause and Medicine Chest Clause in a strategy to address the spread of COVID-19 in Indigenous communities
Good Morning and the Familial Communications Between Generations During Japanese Economic Miracle
No full textYasujiro Ozu’s films are often straightforward stories with minor critiques on philosophy and humanity, and in his postwar films, the modernist view on Japanese culture as the country started to show societal changes and economic development
Cave Art and the Development of Written and Visual Communication
No full textWriting is an act of recording a message into a storage medium and enables the transmission of that message through time or space. Cave art is classified as a form of proto-writing and paved the way for modern-day written communication, like the alphabet. Similarly, cave art is also a form of proto-cinema and was a catalyst for other early forms of cinema that gave way for shadow plays, the camera obscura, and panoramic paintings
Young Canadian Muslims: Islamophobia and Higher Education
No full textThis study examined Islamophobia in Canadian higher education through the accounts of eight Muslim students in Canadian universities. Qualitative semi-structured interviewing was utilized to investigate how Muslim students report being perceived by faculty, non-Muslim peers, and student service providers. Analysis of interview data yielded six major themes: (1) difficulty in requesting religious accommodations, (2) soft bigotry through low expectations, (3) misrepresentations of Islam in mass media, (4) defensive posturing to combat anti-Muslim sentiment, (5) public emboldening of overt Islamophobia, and (6) resisting and challenging Islamophobic sentiments. The findings of this research indicate that Muslim students experience feelings of marginalization and alienation within higher educational institutions. The respondents articulated the burden of responsibility to take an active role in combatting Islamophobia
Quotative and intensifier use: Gender identities and word choice in guided narrations
No full textQuotatives and intensifiers represent two linguistic categories that are subject to rapid linguistic change. While they have been studied in terms of gender (Tagliamonte and D’Arcy 2004, Fuchs 2017), this has yet to be done in a way that is inclusive of non-binary genders. Quotatives are used to report speech, and intensifiers are used to increase or decrease the intensity of a modified word. To elicit tokens, guided narrations were used. Interviews consisted of a background questionnaire, a picture narration task, spontaneous dubbing, and open-ended narration. The results indicate large amounts of individual variation, with the highest frequency users of both quotatives and intensifiers being women, and lower frequency users being men, whereas nonbinary speakers have a wide spread of usage but overall use more intensifiers and quotatives than men but fewer than women. Future research can follow this gender-inclusive methodology and could validate these findings with larger sample sizes
The Music Man: TUMATA and Turkish Music Therapy
No full textThis essay examines how the modern-day Turkish music therapy group TUMATA relates to a longer history of Islamic medical music treatment. It traces the history of music therapy in the Islamic Middle East, and then proceeds to examine the Muslim Sufi Mevlevi mystical sect within this context. The musical songs of TUMATA and its founder Dr. Oruç Güvenc shed light on how modern music drew upon the historical medicinal understanding of musical therapy. Their songs intertwine with the religious beliefs of the Sufi mystics, while simultaneously avoiding blind allegiance to their traditions. TUMATA retained artistic license and created music therapy within a deep Islamic tradition but did not hesitate to break from that heritage. Thus, the group and its founder provided a mechanism through which to explore the history of Islamic music therapy while examining the modern ways this practice manifests itself
Queering and Disabling Sex: Navigating the Intersections of Queerness, Sexuality, and Disability
No full textQueering and Disabling Sex: Navigating the Intersections of Queerness, Sexuality, and Disability - a paper by Nicole Di Giuseppe