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Topic

ȽÁU, NOṈET SXEDQIṈEȽ - Healing House Post (Totem Pole)

School of Child and Youth Care

Date & location

• Thursday, December 12, 2024
• 2:00 P.M.
• Virtual Defence

Examining Committee

Supervisory Committee

• Dr. Sarah Wright Cardinal, School of Child and Youth Care, University of Victoria (Supervisor)
• Dr. Sandrina Carere, School of Child and Youth Care, UVic (Member)
• Dr. Billie Allan, School of Social Work, UVic (Outside Member)

External Examiner

• Dr. Georgina Martin, Faculty of Health Sciences and Human Services, Vancouver Island University

Chair of Oral Examination

• Dr. Lisa Bourque Bearskin, School of Nursing, UVic

Abstract

My doctoral project, ȽÁU,NOṈET SXEDQIṈEȽ, consists of an Indigenous Healing Framework which finds expression in the raised form of a W̱SÁNEĆ Healing House Post/Totem. My overall research question is: How do W̱SÁNEĆ heal from systemic anti-Indigenous racism? ȽÁU,NOṈET SXEDQIṈEȽ (Healing House Post) responds both conceptually and practically to the ongoing damage inflicted on our peoples through prejudice, dehumanization, and systemic racism – all too familiar to survivors of colonization. The house post is comprised of four sections: KELȽOLEMEĆEN Orca whale: Life before europeans; SPÁ¸EŦ Bear: To give and receive acknowledgement; WEXES Frogs: Reconstruction within Canadian Systems – Persistent Dehumanizing Trauma Theory/Response Theory; and QELEṈSEN Eagle: Healing vision. Each section has stories that frame my epistemology embedded with my Matriarchal roots in W̱SÁNEĆ. All are connected to the QELEṈSEN Healing Vison of Eagle at the top of the House Post, which will speak healing pathways in response to the anti-Indigenous racism in the systems we live and work within that were not created for us. The Healing House post transitions from theory to practice through its material representation of both decolonizing resistance and culturally specific W̱SÁNEĆ pathways to healing. The result is storytelling from my Matriarchal teachings, which came from traditional ways of knowing and being that are the reasons why we are still here. It does this by addressing Indigenous-specific systemic racism with Ancestral knowledge and QENÁȽ LÁ,ET SȽÁNI (Matriarch), teachings that speak to Matriarchal wisdom derived from my advocacy for and protection of my children, family, and community members.