1,720,979 research outputs found
MEANINGS OF MEMORY: UNDERSTANDING AGING AND DEMENTIA IN FIRST NATIONS COMMUNITIES ON MANITOULIN ISLAND, ONTARIO
Get PDFThis thesis reports results from my PhD research investigating experiences of aging and dementia among First Nations seniors on Manitoulin Island, Ontario. Dementia has been identified as a growing problem in Aboriginal communities by researchers and Aboriginal stakeholders. However, little research has documented First Nations peoples’ explanatory models of dementia or aging. In this thesis I explore Manitoulin Island First Nations people’s knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours related to healthy aging and dementia. I present data that documents explanatory models of successful aging and dementia, issues surrounding help-seeking and treatment, and practices relating to care-giving. This research uses an ethnographic approach following a community-based participatory action research design. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were carried out with seniors, people with dementia, informal family caregivers, health care providers, and traditional healers in seven First Nations communities on Manitoulin Island. Focus groups were carried out with nurses and personal support workers. A total of 59 participants were involved in this research. Participant observation was used to enrich interview data. A hermeneutic phenomenological approach was used to interpret participants’ lived experiences of aging and dementia. This research demonstrates that First Nations seniors strive to remain healthy and engaged in life as they age. However, it also demonstrates that dementia is a growing problem in First Nations communities. Although First Nations people are generally accepting of memory loss in old age as a natural occurrence, a conflicting perception of dementia as pathological was also present. This research demonstrates that changes to culture and ways of life are perceived to have a significant impact on First Nations peoples’ ability to age successfully and on the emergence of dementia as a growing health concern. I conclude that improving access to culturally safe supports and services is needed to ensure that people can better cope with the challenges of aging and dementia.Doctor of Philosophy (PhD
On their own terms: Health Perceptions of Urban Native People
Get PDFCultural differences between Native patients and non-Native health practitioners lead to misunderstanding and miscommunication in the clinical milieu. This applied anthropology study provides information which can lessen this problem. It is an investigation health perceptions, as described by a diverse group of Native people living in Hamilton, Ontario. Four major themes emerged from open-ended questions covering a wide range of health topics. The first is the meaning which informants attribute to health, and how this contrasts with the traditional view and that expressed by non-Native people. The second is the role of a identity in creating and maintaining good health. The third is people's experience with mainstreams health care practitioners and, in some cases, with traditional healers, and how differing styles of communication and guidance impinge on health promotion. The final theme involves people's feelings about freedom and control, and notes how the course of history as well as Native ethics affect their perception of "personal control". Some alternative ways to conceptualize health promotion strategies are offered. I also suggest a link between individual health, community well-being and community self-determination. The study combines elements of interpretive and critical anthropology and psychological theory with descriptive data derived from questionnaires and unstructured interviews. I conclude with suggestions as to how the health of this population could be optimized by three approaches - that offered by mainstream health care providers , by Native community organizations, and by the society itself.Master of Arts (MA
Exploring the Past, Present and Future of Traditional Native Healing In Southwestern And South-Central Ontario
No full textRespect and acceptance for Native people's traditions including their traditional healing knowledge and practices is growing in both Native and non·Native medical circles. Impressive changes are occurring in the field of Native health care, as traditional healing philosophies and practices take up residence in the mandates and programs of many Native health centres across Canada. This applied anthropology study documents the perceptions of individuals working in Native health care environments regarding traditional healing approaches: past, present and future. One can use Native and non· Native perceptions of traditional healing, and its present utilization, to envision its role in Native health care and in the larger sphere of Native self·determination. Four main themes emerged from the open.ended interviews conducted with respondents. The first concerns the relationship that many respondents have with traditional healing approaches. Many respondents are themselves on a life path in which traditional healing belief and practice has been used in the past to re·calibrate their lives. Worked into this healing process is the intimate relationship between healing and a strong sense of personal and cultural identity. The second is that traditional healing is part of a growing 'healing movement' aimed at improving the collective health of Native communities. The third involves respondent's concern over the tenuous relationship between newly developed traditional healing initiatives and government funding. Respondents expressed concern that funding issues could not only hamper the availability of traditional services, but could effect the quality of services available. The final theme surrounds the future management of traditional healing services. Respondents question ·whether, how or who should regulate and monitor traditional healing. I conclude that these key issues need to be addressed by Native individuals and Native health organizations. In keeping with an applied approach, I offer numerous recommendations regarding the current and future use of traditional healing. These suggestions are based primarily on the information provided by respondents during interviews.Master of Arts (MA
Here to Stay, Gone Tomorrow: Working as a Service Provider in Moosonee and Moose Factory
Get PDFThe experience of a service provider living and working in Moosonee and Moose Factory is largely determined by whether the individual is Cree and from these communities, or is non-Native and from "the south". This study examines these experiences in terms of stress and coping, loosely adopting and occasionally critiquing Lazarus and Folkman's (1984) definitions of these concepts. The cultural and historical factors which influence stress and coping are emphasized without denying the importance of contemporary circumstances in these politically and socially turbulent communities. Non-Native or "southern" service providers are outsiders. They are kept at a distance both by their own interpretation of and reaction to "difference" and by others who are suspicious of their motivations and commitment. Some cope with their outsider status by reinforcing it; they withdraw from active personal and professional participation in community. But instead of refusing to change and clinging desperately to what is familiar, those southerners who have remained the longest in these northern locales are willing to acknowledge the relevance and rewards of different ways of living and working. Native or "local" service providers are insiders, connected to community through blood ties, long term residence and identity as Cree and are therefore vulnerable to demands, criticism and the same struggles with identity experienced by all Aboriginal people. Coping takes the form of investing in community, co-workers, family, self and Creator in order to regain a positive identity and strengthen supportive relationships. A tendency to escape stress through leaves of absence and changing jobs becomes a short-term coping alternative. Based on these findings I offer recommendations aimed at enhancing the coping of local and southern service providers, in order to improve quality of life for helpers and quality of service for residents.Master of Arts (MA
Community Participation in Research and Development: A Case Study from Pangnirtung, Northwest Territories
No full textTheories and models of community participation have received considerable attention from academics in the social sciences, and from practitioners in developing countries. This thesis examines the participatory paradigm as it is manifested in two realms: economic development and applied anthropological research. Primary data are drawn from field-research in the Inuit community of Pangnirtung, Northwest Territories. This thesis is unique in its presentation of a public evaluation, co-researched together with an Inuk member of the community. This report is used as a case-study that provides fodder for the theoretical and pragmatic discussions that surround it. Weaving together academic and applied concerns, this dissertation performs a dual purpose. The first objective is to critically examine the ideas that lie at the root of the participatory research and development ideology, and through the identification of knowledge as power. The second goal is to offer insight into the political, economic, and cultural pragmatics of doing participatory research and development at the community-level. The evaluation of community-based tourism development in Pangnirtung provides the ethnographic data on which this more applied analysis is based. The participatory methodology employed in the evaluation is the base of discussion about the strengths and weaknesses of this type of research. This thesis offers the "co-researcher" model of investigation as a productive process that is relevant not only to the researchers, but also to the communities which are the subject of research. The conclusion draws several theoretical and ethnographic parallels in doing participatory research and development in the North. Important policy implications are highlighted both for government and development practitioners, and for leaders engaged in the struggle for aboriginal self-government. Finally, several recommendations are made toward developing methodologies of research and development, more appropriate to aboriginal community contexts.Doctor of Philosophy (PhD
From birchbark talk to digital dreamspeaking: A history of Aboriginal media activism in Canada
Get PDFThe thesis addresses the interconnectedness of Aboriginal media practices; historically changing government policies; Aboriginal social and political movements; and the local situations of reserve and urban Aboriginal peoples in Canada. It is premised on the idea that in order to understand the cultural transformations associated with the rise of modern Aboriginal society, it is necessary to assess the development of Aboriginal communications media and their impact, and to draw out the ways that colonial processes underwrite contemporary media practices. Focusing on the communicative aspects of Aboriginal agency, it documents colonialism as a form of communication, and tracks Native communicative agency on a broad historical and socao-cultural scale. It attends to the centrality of people and their social relations, rather than to media texts or technology. It offers an analysis of media as a social form and media production as a crucial form of social action. It examines the "cultural mediations" that occur through Aboriginal media production. My principle concern is with Aboriginal strategies of indigenizing, or diminishing the massness of, communications media through narrowcasting . Highlighting media practices and technologies as sites of hybridity and creative adaptation, I assert that the Native mediascape serves as a locus for the production of localizing, nationalizing, and modernizing discourses. The popular version of the narrative of Canadian colonialism conveys the idea that European colonizers made readers of listeners and that agriculture, literacy and more recently, "the media" were imposed on hapless Indian communities by the state. My analysis draws attention to the ways that technologies of literacy, printmaking, radio and television are actively and selectively appropriated, renovated and redeployed by Native peoples themselves. I show that by mobilizing Aboriginal audiences to imagine local communities and to forge social identities that are predicated on Aboriginally-authorized discursive constructs, Indigenous media activists are contributing to the articulation of divergent modernities and a new social order.Doctor of Philosophy (PhD
An Orchid in the Swamp: Traditional Medicine, Healing, and Identity at an Urban Aboriginal Community Health Center
No full textHistorically, Aboriginal perceptions of health and well-being emphasized the need for a collective balance among mind, body, spirit, emotion, and the environment. Illness and disease are believed to be caused by a disruption to this balance. Thus, traditional health practices are utilized to restore balance to either maintain or enhance overall health and well-being. This study examines how access to Anishnawbe Health Toronto, an Aboriginal community health center that offers traditional health practices within a multidisciplinary health care model affects urban Aboriginal health. In particular I examined the various facets of Aboriginal identity and how identity impacts the overall health and well-being of urban Aboriginal people. Specifically, I examined how Aboriginal identity is reaffirmed or established within the context of an urban Aboriginal community health care center and how identity affects the overall health and well-being of the clientele. Through one to one open-ended interviews with the clients, traditional healers, traditional counselors, and biomedical practitioners four main themes emerged. The first theme concerns the establishment of Aboriginal ancestral descent among the clients. In addition to being a requirement to access the services at the center, it serves as a starting point for the establishment of an Aboriginal identity. The second theme concerns the establishment of an Aboriginal spirit name. The receiving of a spirit name serves as a spiritual foundation for an Aboriginal identity. The third theme focuses on the accumulation of Indigenous knowledge and its contribution to the establishment of an Aboriginal cultural identity. The fourth theme concerns the perception of Anishnawbe Health as a bounded Aboriginal community and its significance to the clientele. Through my analysis of these four themes I conclude that the establishment of an Aboriginal cultural identity has a positive effect on the overall health and well-being of urban Aboriginal people.Master of Arts (MA
Native Fishing Conflicts on the Saugeen-Bruce Peninsula: Perspectives on Resource Relations Past and Present
No full textIn this study I examine current native fishing conflicts on Ontario's Saugeen-Bruce Peninsula in order to provide insights that can inform the negotiation of a shared-management agreement. I use literature sources and ethnographic data gathered among the peninsula's two First Nations communities. This study builds on various approaches within ecological anthropology, drawing especially on historical ecology, ethnoecology, and political ecology, all of which encourage recognition of social and political aspects of resource relations. This recognition broadens the typical focus of earlier ecological anthropology and allows an adequate framework for examining the complexity of resource conflicts. The insights I provide through this comprehensive examination of the conflicts demonstrate the relevance of a broadly focused ecological anthropology. I point out how essentialized perceptions of groups and their resource relations play a role in perpetuating the fishing conflicts. Resolving many of the conflict issues will depend on a willingness to revise these essentialized notions.Doctor of Philosophy (PhD
Finding our Way: Paths to Justice Reform in an Aboriginal Community
No full textThis applied, participatory action research explores the context for community-based justice and conflict resolution mechanisms in Sagamok Anishnawbek First Nation. Within the pluralistic Canadian context, Aboriginals ways of law and social control are being reasserted by some First Nations both as a basic right, and as a means of "healing" their communities of the debilitating effects of colonization. This research shows a community in flux, where jural values are divergent and changing, but one in which a distinctive approach to some aspects of social disruption and its resolution is apparent. Like a number of other Aboriginal communities, Sagamok experiences a high level of interpersonal violence, and "mischief" committed by youths in need of improved life opportunities. Community members indicated through this research that they eschew incarceration for most offences in favour of a communicative, rehabilitative response to crimes. They want to strengthen communicative ties to young offenders, and use local resources to address their behaviours. In this and other basic jural values, Sagamok Anishnawbek have shown a preference for restorative justice whereby restitution and reparation take place within a personally relevant social context. In doing so, they model recent "innovations" in criminal case processing. Restoring justice goes far beyond dealing with crime, however, to addressing intracommunal conflicts and tensions. At present, the values and norms relating to conflict and its resolution revealed through this research are manifest chiefly at the individual level. If a justice model is to be developed, such basics need to be discussed and debated at the community level, through communicative process such as community consultations. If Sagamok residents are to discuss and debate these building blocks of a justice system and develop locally appropriate model, they will need to address some fundamental community development needs, one of which is the need for processes of conflict resolution within and between family groups.Doctor of Philosophy (PhD
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