Date of Award

5-12-2024

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Cultural Foundations of Education

Advisor(s)

Danika Medak-Saltzman

Second Advisor

Gretchen Lopez

Keywords

decolonizing;Indigenous education;Indigenous feminism;Indigenous methodologies;Indigenous storytelling;Two Spirit/Indigiqueer

Subject Categories

Arts and Humanities | Native American Studies | Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies

Abstract

Creation is an ongoing process and Indigenous stories are meant to reflect this never-ending process of creation, sharing stories that grow with context and to impart teachings appropriate to context. Michel First Nation (MFN) and related Nehiyaw (Cree) nation’s creation stories, largely written about by white/settler scholars, narrate histories that extol the virtues of cis-straight men while rendering cis-straight women to the sidelines and Two Spirit/Indigiqueer (2S) people absent. Facing the highest rates of violence of any demographic (Martin et. al., 2019), 2S people are under threat of becoming ancestors before they are elders passing down knowledge. Uncovering 2S creation stories is therefore vital not only for 2S survival, but also for the restitution of these knowledges to entire Indigenous communities. Drawing on Indigenous feminist/queer scholarship, this work brings 2S peoples and epistemologies to the forefront of anti-colonial projects in education and sovereignty/nation-rebuilding. Indigenous feminist scholars argue that these epistemologies must be centered because the ongoing project of colonization seeks to eradicate Indigenous ontologies that honor the sovereignty/bodily autonomy of 2S people (Deer, 2015; Wilson, 2018). Using Nehiyaw-specific methods of miskâsowin (deep self-reflection), Talking Circles (Graveline, 2000; Kolopenuk, 2020) grounded in a Nehiyaw epistemic-ontology of wahkotowin (interconnection/ accountable relationship to all human/other-than-human beings), this project shares stories of five relatives of MFN who impart teachings that emerge from commitments to nation, lands, Indigenous resurgence, and past and future generations of MFN and related peoples. The stories that emerge from this project demonstrate 2S people and teachings as life-givers/creators who share a methodology of curiosity or “shapeshifting” reminiscent of Nehiyaw ancestral creation stories, definitions/practices of love that unsettle hierarchies and human-centrism, and tools and hopes for survival in a colonial world.

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Open Access

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