Journal articles on the topic 'Aboriginal spirituality'

Abstract The marginalized position in which the Indigenous peoples of Australia find themselves today is undeniable. Within the tragedy of low life-expectancy, high rates of substance abuse, malnutrition, poor housing, high infant mortality, deaths in custody etc. lies a spiritual crisis. This crisis is aggravated by the circumstance that the loss of the land to the European invaders has caused a loss of Aboriginal identity. In their attempt to recover from this colonial legacy the Aborigines try to re-find their (religious) self-identity and to unite through Aboriginality. In this search for Aboriginal identity through spirituality and faith some Christian theologians explore the possibilities of an Aboriginal contextual theology as a response to this crisis.

Abstract The encounter of Aboriginal Australians with European settlers led to appalling injustices, in which Christian churches were in part complicit. At the root of these injustices was the failure to comprehend the Aborigines’ relationship to the land. In their mythic vision, known as The Dreaming, land is suffused with religious meaning and therefore sacred. It took two hundred years for this to be acknowledged in British-Australian law (Mabo judgement, 1992). This abrogated the doctrine of terra nullius (the land belongs to no-one) and recognized native title to land, based on continuous occupation and ritual use. But land disputes continue, and at a deeper level, there is little appreciation of the Indigenous spirituality of the land and the significance it could have for reconciliation with First Nations and the ecological crisis. Aboriginal theologies can help Christians to appreciate the riches of this spirituality and work towards justice.

The Catholic church has been implicated in histories of colonisation and loss of identity for First Nations peoples. For many Aboriginal people, it is also a source of community, pastoral care and identity, and is held in complex balance with Aboriginal spirituality. This paper describes a process of seeking insider knowledges from Catholic First Nations school students about how they hold their Aboriginal spirituality with care alongside their Catholic faith identity, and how they navigate the Catholic education system. It shows how the Tree of Life process was adapted to include invitations to reflect about spirituality and religious identity. This provided space for identification of unique outcomes about what the students valued and how they hold on to what is important to them.

The bookRainbow Spirit Theologyasserts that the gospel needs to be expressed in Aboriginal terms for Aboriginal people. The Rainbow Spirit Elders articulate an indigenous theology to help revitalize Aboriginal spirituality. Their contextualization model is anthropological; Aboriginal culture is their main source for doing theology. Scripture and church tradition are secondary sources that are creatively used to illustrate their developing theology of the land, suffering and reconciliation. The Gospel is the third source, with a focus on cosmic redemption, especially for the land and the crying need for justice and reconciliation. The book affirms but does not explicitly deal with personal redemption, but other writers are further exploring salvation images for Aboriginal people and what Jesus means to them. As these streams of reflection flow together, the Rainbow Spirit Elders hope to help all of Australia develop a deeper spirituality at home in our land.

This paper highlights common errors in social work students’ approaches to faith/spirituality and place whilst on field education placement. It briefly investigates the Christian conception of sacredness and space which often underpins such errors.The issue is exemplified by contrasts between Aboriginal Australian conceptions of place and spirituality and the mutually exclusive conceptions of these spaces, held by many non-Aboriginal welfare practitioners in Australia. This paper suggests some ways in which social workers, including social work students, could engage with spirituality, inclusive of geo-socio-political materiality, in their work, where appropriate, with Indigenous, migrant, refugee or colonial settler populations.The paper engages critically with literature on cultural competence in relation to issues of land, and the identity one gains from connection to land, and spirituality. This paper concludes by identifying key questions for placement students and educators seeking to respond appropriately when interfacing sacred spaces of the ‘other’.

The Native game of lacrosse has undergone a considerable amount of change since it was appropriated from Aboriginal peoples beginning in the 1840s. Through this reformulation, non-Native Canadians attempted to establish a national identity through the sport and barred Aboriginal athletes from championship competitions. And yet, lacrosse remained a significant element of Aboriginal culture, spirituality, and the Native originators continued to play the game beyond the non-Native championship classifications. Despite their absence from championship play the Aboriginal roots of lacrosse were zealously celebrated as a form of North American antiquity by non-Aboriginals and through this persistence Natives developed their own identity as players of the sport. Ousted from international competition for more than a century, this article examines the formation of the Iroquois Nationals (lacrosse team representing the Haudenosaunee Confederacy in international competition) between 1983-1990 and their struggle to re-enter international competition as a sovereign nation. It will demonstrate how the Iroquois Nationals were a symbolic element of a larger resurgence of Haudenosaunee “traditionalism” and how the team was a catalyst for unmasking intercommunity conflicts between that traditionalism—engrained within the Haudenosaunee’s “traditional” Longhouse religion, culture, and gender constructions— and new political adaptations.

AbstractThree themes are set out in this paper. The first is that learning about ecologically sensitive living–and putting that living into practice–are central to Aboriginal indigenous education. Second, Australia's first peoples were and are deprived of landscapes providing the base to their spirituality; continuing processes maintain that loss of independence. The third is that Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians need to address quickly courses of action which provide for a reinvigoration of that landscape connection and independence. This need has points of significance for environmental educators, several of which are presented.

There is a dearth of literature available on traditional Aboriginal child rearing. This review paper explores Aboriginal child rearing to determine if traditional practices are still in use, how these may differ from mainstream child rearing and may have been modified by mainstream influences and colonialism. Traditional Aboriginal parenting is discussed in the context of colonialism and historic trauma, with a focus on child autonomy, extended family, fatherhood, attachment, developmental milestones, discipline, language, and ceremony and spirituality. This review was completed using the ancestral method, i.e., using the reference list of articles to find other relevant articles and more structured literature searches. In light of the high number of Aboriginal children in foster care, this research may serve to highlight the role that historical issues and misinterpretation of traditional child rearing practices play in the apprehension of Aboriginal children. It may also assist non-Aboriginal professionals when working with Aboriginal children and their families.

There is a dearth of literature available on traditional Aboriginal child rearing. This review paper explores Aboriginal child rearing to determine if traditional practices are still in use, how these may differ from mainstream child rearing and may have been modified by mainstream influences and colonialism. Traditional Aboriginal parenting is discussed in the context of colonialism and historic trauma, with a focus on child autonomy, extended family, fatherhood, attachment, developmental milestones, discipline, language, and ceremony and spirituality. This review was completed using the ancestral method i.e. using the reference list of articles to find other relevant articles and more structured literature searches. In light of the high number of Aboriginal children in foster care, this research may serve to highlight the role that historical issues and misinterpretation of traditional child rearing practices play in the apprehension of Aboriginal children. It may also assist non-Aboriginal professionals when working with Aboriginal children and their families.

The Aboriginal Fathers Project set out to explore the roles of fathers in British Columbia’s Aboriginal families. The project aimed to investigate the ways community programs could support fathers’ involvement with their children, and increase their participation in family-centered programs. This article briefly describes the project and outlines a few of the major findings from the research. This article discusses findings from the project which highlight the impact of colonialism and assimilation processes on the roles of Aboriginal fathers. The suggestion to develop father-specific support groups and the use of traditional practices and spirituality in the support groups is discussed.

Abstract Sport activity of achievement-oriented (professional, Olympic, spectacular character) is first of all exposition of rivalry and striving for variously understood sports success (resulting from measurable or discretionary criteria). It refers to winning a competition or taking another expected place as well as to other forms of satisfaction, such as financial gratification or social (political, ethnic, professional) recognition. Spirituality is here neither an aim, nor an expected value - it constitutes rather an additional or redundant quality. A competitor focuses his/her attention first of all on the main aim assumed in planned or current rivalry. Emotional sensations which are experienced by athletes before, during or after competitions testify to mental and emotional stress which accompanies sports combat. It is also difficult to associate spirituality or spiritualism with sport for all - like, for example, that of health-oriented character - sport of the disabled, physical education, sport of playful character or physical recreation. That difficulty results from the fact that neither spiritualism, nor spirituality inspires for physical activity in the abovementioned fields; neither spiritualism, nor spirituality is the outcome of activity in the realm of sport for all. Exceptions are constituted by ancient Olympic Games as well as by some experiences connected with recreational forms of tourism mediated through achievement-oriented sport (also by pre-Columbian Native American societies and Maoris aboriginal population of New Zealand). For example Hellenic Olympic Games were a highly spiritualized form of sports rivalry - including also rivalry in the field of art, and especially in the field of theatre. They were one of numerous forms of religious cult - of worshipping chosen gods from the Olympic pantheon. On the other hand, during mountain hiking and mountain climbing there can appear manifestations of deepened spirituality characteristic for the object of spiritualization of non-religious, quasi-religious or strictly religious qualities. I would like to explain - at the end of this short abstract - that spiritualism (which should not be confused with spiritism) is - generally speaking - first of all a philosophical term assuming, in ontological and axiological sense, that spiritual reality, self-knowledge, consciousness or mental experiences are components of the human being - components of a higher order having priority over matter. They constitute, in the anthropological context, beings of a higher order than the body. Spiritualism according to its popular interpretation means spirituality. Qualities which are ascribed to that notion in particular societies can be determined on the basis of empirically oriented sociological research. They make it possible to determine various ways of interpreting and understanding that notion as well as views or attitudes connected with it.

Between 1967 and 1992, Aboriginal traditional Elders played increasingly important roles working with Aboriginal inmates in Canadian penitentiaries. Whereas in 1967 a small group of individuals entered prisons as Elders on a voluntary basis, unrecognized by Correctional Services Canada (CSC), over the following decades Elders and CSC developed increasingly formal relationships. By 1992 the Corrections and Conditional Release Act legislated the employment of Elders as spiritual leaders for Aboriginal peoples in prison. This transition was brought about because of an ongoing cultural dialogue between Aboriginal prisoners through inmate groups called the Native Brotherhoods, Aboriginal community organizations that worked inside prisons, and penal administrators. While Native Brotherhoods and the Elders who worked with them were central to the decolonization of prisons, in legislating the practice of Aboriginal spirituality in prisons and mandating the employment of Elders, CSC took control of Aboriginal cultural practices and alienated the community groups that once supported Elders. While the increased rights of Elders under this new framework responded to many of the needs voiced by prisoners and community members, the shift from community-based to institutional-based service represented an important change in the relationship between Aboriginal peoples and Canadian penal institutions. This paper argues that the efforts of individual Elders and Native Brotherhoods and the consolidation of control over their efforts by the penal administrations were the result of simultaneous processes of decolonization and neocolonialism.

Prolegomena for Considerations on Western Sport and SpiritualismSport activity of achievement-oriented (professional, Olympic, spectacular character) is first of all exposition of rivalry and striving for variously understood sports success (resulting from measurable or discretionary criteria). It refers to winning a competition or taking another expected place as well as to other forms of satisfaction, such as financial gratification or social (political, ethnic, professional) recognition. Spirituality is here neither an aim, nor an expected value — it constitutes rather an additional or redundant quality. A competitor focuses his/her attention first of all on the main aim assumed in planned or current rivalry. Emotional sensations which are experienced by athletes before, during or after competitions testify to mental and emotional stress which accompanies sports combat.It is also difficult to associate spirituality or spiritualism with sport for all — like, for example, that of health-oriented character — sport of the disabled, physical education, sport of playful character or physical recreation. That difficulty results from the fact that neither spiritualism, nor spirituality inspires for physical activity in the abovementioned fields; neither spiritualism, nor spirituality is the outcome of activity in the realm of sport for all.Exceptions are constituted by ancient Olympic Games as well as by some experiences connected with recreational forms of tourism mediated through achievement-oriented sport (also by pre-Columbian Native American societies and Maoris aboriginal population of New Zealand).For example Hellenic Olympic Games were a highly spiritualized form of sports rivalry — including also rivalry in the field of art, and especially in the field of theatre. They were one of numerous forms of religious cult — of worshipping chosen gods from the Olympic pantheon. On the other hand, during mountain hiking and mountain climbing there can appear manifestations of deepened spirituality characteristic for the object of spiritualization of non-religious, quasi-religious or strictly religious qualities.I would like to explain — at the end of this short abstract - that spiritualism (which should not be confused with spiritism) is — generally speaking — first of all a philosophical term assuming, in ontological and axiological sense, that spiritual reality, self-knowledge, consciousness or mental experiences are components of the human being — components of a higher order having priority over matter. They constitute, in the anthropological context, beings of a higher order than the body.Spiritualism according to its popular interpretation means spirituality. Qualities which are ascribed to that notion in particular societies can be determined on the basis of empirically oriented sociological research. They make it possible to determine various ways of interpreting and understanding that notion as well as views or attitudes connected with it.

Since the 1960s, often in an urban setting and alongside the Friendship Centre movement, emerged a form of pan-Indian spirituality often used to connect urban Aboriginal people living far from their home communities and provide a safe cultural meeting place, a harbour for political protest, and an opportunity to embark on healing journeys. This paper will provide an introduction into some of the characteristics of pan-Indian spirituality mainly as expressed through the Healing Movement in particular, the social contexts in which it is emerging, and its national and international reach. The example of the Healing Movement, I argue, demonstrates the complexities of pan-Indian Spirituality, since it is developing through an interplay with localized Indigenous traditions and increasing levels of cross-tribal cultural and spiritual sharing, the encounter of Anglo-European and Indigenous cultures in the development of an ideology of pan-Indian spirituality, and the opportunities and challenges of the significant urbanized nature of Canadian First Nations’ lives.

One of the most subtle and complex oral literatures, Australian Aboriginal literature, still keeps meaning covert to Western readers, despite its ever-growing popularity and prolificity. As an introduction to an ongoing research into orality in Australian Aboriginal Literature, this paper aims to focus on a number of reasons which, while make Aboriginal stories more palatable for Western culture, distil original meaning of concepts, beliefs and traditions. In other words, what are some of the elements which hinder source – reader communication when it comes to Australian Aboriginal literature? The focus of this paper is meaning transformation through layers of interpretation, starting from an original performance of a story, with its syncretism of art forms. It is well worth it to explore such development of meaning, from performance to oral translation into English, with its later written form, to ultimately broken-down fragments covert within poems or novels. It is of no wonder Western readership comes up against difficulty in grasping meaning from Australian Aboriginal literature, as our own understanding of universal concepts, such as time, space, spirituality is so fundamentally different. There are, however, valuable lessons to be learnt and any effort will yield reward.

In the light of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), and the often troubling rush to judgment towards the missionaries by many today, it is well to pause and consider those individuals, flawed as they were, who saw deeper truths in Aboriginal culture than was acknowledged in their day. Consider one known as “Steentje, Little Stone,” in Belgium, and eventually as “Ka Miyohtwat – the good man” among his parishioners. Few Canadian missionaries have had the kind of impact that Roger Vandersteene had upon the Cree of Northern Alberta: he was accorded an extraordinary place in the religious terrain at a time when antagonism towards the role of the Church in residential schools was beginning to swell. This article summarizes some of the key points of his achievement, focusing purposely on his perceptions of his mission and the ramifications for understanding traditional Aboriginal spiritual values. He saw these values expressed most effectively in the close relationship between the spiritual world and the potential for wellness and healing.

Abstract The paper, focused on a few years at the end of the First World War, explores the request of a group of Aborigines in the Australian state of Victoria for freedom of religion. Given that the colony and now state of Victoria had been a stronghold of liberalism, the need for Indigenous Victorians to petition for the removal of outside restrictions on their religious beliefs or practices might seem surprising indeed. But with a Pentecostal revival in train on the mission stations to which many Aborigines were confined, members of the government agency, the Board for the Protection of the Aborigines, preferred the decorum of mainstream Protestant church services to potentially unsettling expressions of charismatic and experiential spirituality. The circumstances surrounding the revivalists’ resistance to the restriction of Aboriginal Christians’ choice of religious expression offer insight into the intersections of faith and gender within the historically created relations of power in this colonial site. Though the revival was extinguished, it stood as a notable instance of Indigenous Victorian women deploying the language of Christian human rights to assert the claims to just treatment and social justice that would characterize later successful Indigenous activism.

Abstract This paper explores the blurring of boundaries among class identities in nineteenth-century Protestant missions to the Tsimshian, Aboriginal people of the northwest British Columbia coast. Through an exploration of the nature of Christian chiefs, Tsimshian demand for literacy and schooling, and finally mission housing, this paper highlights ways in which the class implications of religious association had profoundly different meanings in Native and non-Native milieus. Scholars must take into account historical Aboriginal perspectives not only on conversion, but on their class positions in mission Christianity and more precisely, how their roles within the mission sphere were informed by their own notions of class. While some Native converts undoubtedly utilized conversion to Christianity to circumvent usual social conventions surrounding rank, privilege, and access to spiritual power, other Tsimshian sought transformation by using these new forms of spirituality to bolster their existing social positions.

AbstractAustralian settler philosophy needs to create the basis for two important cultural dialogues, with the philosophy of Aboriginal people on the one hand, and with the land the settler way of life is destroying on the other. Through these interconnected dialogues we might begin the process of resolving in a positive way the unhappy anxieties surrounding Australian identity. Mainstream Australian academic philosophy has certainly not provided fertile ground for such dialogues, and its dominant forms could hardly be further away from Australian indigenous philosophies or from land-sensitive forms of environmental philosophy. It is a paradox that in a continent where Australian Aboriginal people have given land spirituality what is perhaps the world's most powerful and integrated development, settler philosophy contrives to provide what is probably the world's strongest dismissal of other ways to think about the land than those legitimated by western reductionism and rationalism. This paradox, I suggest, can be explained through understanding the ascendancy of ex-colonial masculinity in Australian culture and academic philosophy.

This article discusses the appropriateness of using mental health promotion as a prevention and healing tool for Canadian Aboriginal youth dealing with issues of suicide. Strengths of mental health promotion in the context of this population include its emphasis on community-wide approaches, consideration of root causes of mental health issues, recognition of culture as a protective factor, and integration of diverse forms of knowledge. Limitations include an inadequate role for spirituality, lack of culturally-sensitive program evaluation, and emphasis on Western patterns of time, space, and communication. In response to this analysis, recommendations are proposed that could guide the development of future mental health promotion programs.

Explanations on the origins of life, spiritual possession and death after life cannot be explained from a naturalistic, positivistic methodological view point simply because scientists have not ventured deep enough to develop measuring instruments for these phenomena. This inadequacy in positivism has led to the exclusion of theoretical explanations of crime and desistance as a result of spirituality. The anomaly can be discharged, had it not been that a bias has developed against spiritual phenomena which is substantiated in this article. In a liberal world, emphasising freedom of conscience and speech, this is a contradiction worthy of enquiry. Our existential world has for ages been affected by behaviour, claimed to be influenced by the supernatural. The question is whether criminologists can ignore phenomena such as spiritual possession claimed by especially Africans, aboriginal peoples and some religions? Many perpetrators, by their own testimonies, as indicated in the article, have been motivated by spiritual phenomena in the perpetration of crime. It is necessary to indicate that the article does not favour a purely spiritual (or religious) approach to crime but calls for an epistemological assumption within Criminology that encourages philosophical debates and theory development, giving consideration to spirituality. This article argues for a pre-theoretical debate in criminological philosophy1 and to develop our research into a phenomenological capacity to deal with metaphysical issues.

The subject of this paper being contemporary Australian rangelands literature, I have restricted the study to literature of the decade to 1994, with focus on 1992-1994. I acknowledge recent informative studies, but have developed an individual perspective. In addition to considering recent novels and factual books I have given attention to newspaper and magazine accounts, as these give the most immediate observations of the rangelands, and attitudes towards them and their inhabitants. Key trends that emerge are perceptions of the rangelands as pristine - probably the one continuum since the commencement of written records about Australia; the entirely contrasting view of pastoralists as destroyers of rangelands; and recognition of Aboriginal spirituality as significant in caring for the land. The trends are not, however, entirely in the one direction, as I indicate by presenting both the positive and negative views presented by a select number of writers.

In 2015 the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada concluded a six-year process of listening to the stories of Canada’s First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. More than 6000 witnesses came forth to share their personal experiences in listening sessions set up all across the country. These stories primarily revolved around their experience of abuse and cultural genocide through more than 100 years of Residential Schools, which were operated in a cooperative effort between churches and the government of Canada. The Commission’s Final Report includes 94 calls to action with paragraph #60 directed specifically to seminaries. This paper is a case study of how Taylor Seminary, in Edmonton, is seeking to engage with this directive. It explores the changes made in the curriculum, particularly in the teaching of missiology, and highlights some of the ways the seminary community is learning about aboriginal spirituality and the history and legacy of the missionary methods that have created conflict and pain in Canadian society.

Traditional languages are a key element of Indigenous peoples’ identity, cultural expression, autonomy, spiritual and intellectual sovereignty, and wellbeing. While the links between Indigenous language loss and poor mental health have been demonstrated in several settings, little research has sought to identify the potential psychological benefits that may derive from language reclamation. The revival of the Barngarla language on the Eyre Peninsula, South Australia, offers a unique opportunity to examine whether improvements in mental health and social and emotional wellbeing can occur during and following the language reclamation process. This paper presents findings from 16 semi-structured interviews conducted with Barngarla community members describing their own experienced or observed mental health and wellbeing impacts of language reclamation activities. Aligning with a social and emotional wellbeing framework from an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspective, key themes included connection to spirituality and ancestors; connection to Country; connection to culture; connection to community; connection to family and kinship; connection to mind and emotions; and impacts upon identity and cultural pride at an individual level. These themes will form the foundation of assessment of the impacts of language reclamation in future stages of the project.

Strong female governance has always been central to one of the world’s oldest existing culturally diverse, harmonious, sustainable, and democratic societies. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women’s governance of a country twice the size of Europe is based on complex laws which regulate relationships to country, family, community, culture and spirituality. These laws are passed down through generations and describe kinship systems which encompass sophisticated relations to the more-than-human. This article explores Indigenous kinship as an expression of relationality, culturally specific and complex Indigenous knowledge systems which are founded on a connection to the land. Although Indigenous Australian women’s kinships have been disrupted through dispossession from the lands they belong to, the forced removal of their children across generations, and the destruction of their culture, community and kinship networks, the survival of Indigenous women’s knowledge systems have supported the restoration of Indigenous relationality. The strengthening of Indigenous women’s kinship is explored as a source of social and emotional wellbeing and an emerging politics of environmental reproductive justice.

The tree stands as a sacred symbol in many faith traditions. Unsurprisingly, nature-based new religious movements are no exception. This article considers the manifestation of sacred trees in a number of religious traditions, including Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander spirituality, Abrahamic traditions, Ancient Egyptian religion, Buddhism, Hinduism, Norse mythology, the Shinto faith, and nature-based new religious movements. After this initial section, I present the findings of a fieldwork project undertaken in 2016. Using the survey as a tool, this project enquired into the use of trees, plants, and private gardens among practitioners from nature-based new religious movements. This survey makes use of both quantitative and qualitative survey methods, having been distributed to various nature-based new religious movements in New Zealand, Australia, Europe, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Despite extensive tree lore, these survey results present the tree as a peripheral plant in the practitioners' everyday practice, with the garden as a whole being more critical than any single variety of vegetation.

This paper presents findings from qualitative interviews with five Jewish people — two Rabbis and three workers in various community service capacities — about their understandings and practices of the Jewish principle oftikkun olam.Tikkun olamis a Hebrew phrase that means “the repair of the world,” has its roots in Rabbinic law, the Kabbalah and the ‘Aleinuprayer, and became a mainstream term for Jewish social justice work and community contribution in North America following the Shoah (Holocaust). In this study, participants spoke to the imperative to act and responsibility; externaltikkunand internaltikkun; collectivity and interconnectedness; the presence of Jewish history in their work, particularly in the case of the Holocaust; and the spiritual dimension of working with people. This study was undertaken with a narrative approach, to honour and preserve understandings oftikkun olamacross Jewish communities. This study indicates the continuing influence oftikkun olamin settings both within and outside the Jewish community. Potential future areas of research are the role of spirituality in social workers’ commitment to social justice and the commitment expressed by several participants to work with Aboriginal people based on a shared history of cultural genocide.

This paper evolved, maybe ‘was birthed’ is an even better term given the circumstances, out of an engagement process that brought Gordon Shawanda and several university students together over an academic year. Gordon was invited to attend my Aboriginal Spirituality class at the University of Toronto in September 2009. He liked being there so much that he came each week, sitting through lectures, reading the materials, and participating with unerring grace in the many discussions over the entire year. We were all touched by his presence, his quiet dignity, and his deep interest in our academic learning and sharing experience. Gordon embodies what modern education is trying to get right, the bringing together of theory and practice, and the unveiling of the kind of humanity that can bring Indigenous Knowledge alive for all young people everywhere. Gordon was inspired by their enthusiastic receiving of his words to write down his story. This paper is his first real attempt to express the pain and healing he has experienced over his adulthood. I am honoured and humbled to (gently) edit this work for publication. This is a story that comes directly from the heart and soul of one man, but is the lived experience of many of our people who attended Indian Residential Schools in Canada. It is organized into four parts.

The Natural City: Re-Envisioning the Built Environment.Edited by INGRID LEMAN STEFANOVIC and STEPHEN BEDE SCHARPER. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012. $35.00Reviewed by Madison Van WestEditors Ingrid Leman Stefanovic and Stephen Bede Scharper believe that there is something unnatural about our cities, but not for the reasons you might think. It is not the concrete, or the high-rises, or the cars—at least not necessarily. Our cities are unnatural because individuals within them lack a sense of place. They lack a spiritual connection to the built environment, and they lack an understanding that our cities are as much a part of the ecological system as trees and meadows. The task of The Natural City: Re-Envisioning the Built Environment is to begin the work of reconnecting the urban to the natural so that individuals might live more fulfilling and sustainable lives. It is an essential read for anyone involved in city-building, or for city-dwellers looking to gain a new perspective on their role in the urban environment.Each of the volume’s four sections takes a different theoretical approach to “natural city.” The first section lays the philosophical groundwork for the reader to better understand the natural/urban divide and the pervasive sense that cities are somewhere other than nature, as are the humans that live within them. This viewpoint is an appropriate starting place for the collection, and a theme that runs throughout, as it informs how we approach environmental issues generally and how we build our cities specifically. Technocracy and expert opinion reigns in planning and architecture, usually at the expense of meaning and purpose within our urban spaces that responds to our needs as human beings. Peter Timmerman, in his chapter, is not surprised by this separation, as our literary and philosophical history has been preoccupied with the urban and human mastery over the natural for some time.In the second section, we see that temples, mosques, churches, and other sacred spaces are not the only built forms imbued with spiritual meaning. In the natural city, the entire city would reflect and respond to the spiritual needs of its inhabitants. This does not presume a single cosmological understanding shared by all, but instead a common understanding that the city is more than its physical composition. Vincent Shen explains that this is logical for Daoists, who view the Dao as being embodied in the way we create and navigate cities. In his chapter, Stephen Scharper argues that religion is not a necessary element of this shift. He cites Aldo Leopold’s land ethic as means to facilitate this ideological shift in urban planning to focus on the integrity of the biotic community rather than solely the human community. This perspective is, in my view, among the most important contributions to literature on urban planning, which is notably lacking in discussions of religion and spirituality in the built environment.The third section focuses on the role of society in the natural city, both as creator and inhabitant, with an eclectic group of authors whose connection to one another is not always readily apparent. For example, Richard Oddie’s work on acoustic ecology and soundscapes in cities bumps up against Trish Glazebrook’s ecofeminist approach to engaging the cityzenry (her term to distinguish residents of a city vs. residents of a nation). This section also offers an international perspective through John B. Cobb, Jr.’s case study of China and Shubhra Gururani’s of India, which describes the challenges of sustainable development and the impact of development on society’s ability to access the necessities of life, respectively. The chapters in this section may appear dissimilar, but they find common ground in themes of politics, citizenship, quality of life, and urban development.To close, the final section considers praxis, or the linking of theory and practice in building the natural city. William Woodsworth makes explicit the fact that the City of Toronto is built on the land of Aboriginal communities, and their legacy remains in both the artifacts still under the ground and the modern architecture that channels the spirit of the city’s former inhabitants. Complementing this historical approach, Robert Mugerauer writes of city-building that reflects ecological systems within nature; healthy cities with clean air and soil and thriving watersheds. Above all, this section highlights the fact that cities are always changing, and it is our responsibility to guide that change in a way that reflects the human need for creativity, the biological need for adaptability, and the need for all life to thrive into the future.Though only a few chapters were mentioned above, it is clear that this collection is truly interdisciplinary; offering works in the field of philosophy, anthropology, theology, engineering, architecture, and more. This breadth exposes readers to many fields of study that may not always be in communication with each other. The virtues of interdisciplinary learning have been widely espoused, especially in environmental studies, but in this context it is especially important, as the task of creating the natural city will involve the collaboration of entire societies. The collection also manages the challenge of discussing complicated concepts in clear language, successfully balancing a depth of analysis and accessibility of concepts.So, what does the natural city look like, and how do we get there? In the end, the answer is not explicitly clear. What is clear from the collection is that to discover the natural city requires a paradigm shift; a change in thinking that will compel individuals to view urban environments not as cold or devoid of life, but instead as natural spaces full of inherited spirit, meaning, and potential. This collection starts the dialogue on reintegrating the natural with the urban; an essential topic for the survival of human and non-human alike. ~MADISON VAN WEST is a Masters in Environmental Studies and Planning Candidate at York University. She is currently working to uncover new forms of public involvement and community engagement in city building.

Full TextIn contemporary, North American society, what it means to be ‘human’ is often taken for granted; in other words, ‘humanness’ is usually accepted as a readily knowable, uncomplicated and stable aspect of social reality. Ivone Gebara argues that because we believe that we already know the meaning of ‘humanness,’ reflecting on this notion often appears to be of little interest, need or value. “Since we imagine that everyone already knows what a [‘human’] is, we might have the feeling that we are wasting our time on notions that are already familiar, and that we ought to be seeking solutions to the urgent problems that [currently] face us” (Gebara, 1999: 67). Like Gebara, I argue that the concept of ‘human,’ is not ‘natural,’ stable or straightforward, rather it is a culturally-specific and historical invention, one intimately implicated within contemporary, environmental problems. In other words, although the category of human is often understood as readily comprehensible and fundamentally elevated above, and detached from, nature and ‘more-thanhuman’I beings, I maintain that the human subject is positioned within what I will term ‘the web of life,’ that is, the worldwide, ecological community which encompasses both human and more-than-human subjects. I believe the term, ‘becoming’ is a useful adjective to describe the human; becoming allows us to consider the human not as a natural or stable entity, but as one which is emerging and transforming in relation to environmental and social contexts. As a being situated within an ecological web of life, the human is not distinct from nature and more-than-human animals, but exists and changes in continuous relation to them. Long before the onset of European colonization of what is now considered North America, various dualisms permeated the European, historical imagination. Within this worldview, aspects of these dichotomies were understood to exist in fundamental distinction from one another; that is, not only were divisions of each dualism conceptualized as inherently disconnected and independent, but one aspect of each dichotomy was always understood as naturally and intrinsically superior to the other. Sallie McFague argues that the primary dualism within this imagination was the conceptualization of ‘reason’ and ‘nature’ as fundamentally distinct entities, in which reason was positioned in hierarchical relation to nature. However, this dichotomy has been broadened to represent, incorporate and interconnect with multiple other dichotomies, including, spirit/body, male/female, reason/ emotion, and human/nature (McFague, 1997: 88). According to McFague, “the [reason/nature] dualism illuminates most of the other dualisms: whatever falls on the top side of a dualism has connections with ‘reason,’ and whatever falls on the bottom side is seen as similar to ‘nature’” (1997: 88). In this sense, the projection of these constructions onto seemingly-different aspects of reality, including ‘different’ bodies, functioned to hierarchically organize both European society and the universe at large. It is important to recognize that because these dualisms were constructions of a very particular and ethnocentric group within European history, namely elite, white men, such subjects were also imagined to embody the superior aspects of various dichotomies; in other words, characteristics associated with reason were presumed to adhere to white, European males (McFague, 1997: 88). Within this imagination, the rational capacities and spiritual natures of white, masculine and European humans were imagined to prevent them from being confined by or to their bodies, or influenced by emotional or sexual responses. Importantly, because such racialized and gendered subjects were the only subjects envisioned to embody these and other superior dimensions of various dualisms, white, European men were positioned as the ideal modes of humanness within a great chain of being. In this sense, as the white, European masculine subject was assumed to embody humanness, subjects who were constructed to embody the opposing dimensions of these dichotomies were regarded as his nonhuman Others. Arguably, as the human was constructed to embody whiteness, masculinity and European ancestry, his Other may be regarded as the colonized, non-white woman. Through her gendered, racialized and cultural difference from the human, she was constructed to embody characteristics he did not. According to this dualistic relationship of interconnected difference(s), because she embodied matter, or solely bodily existence, she possesses neither inherent consciousness nor spirituality allowed by such consciousness. Because she was conceptualized as the Other to the sole, normative human, she was categorized as nonhuman. In this sense, it may be recognized how there has existed a significant, conceptual connection between non-white women and nature, as both were understood as nonhuman material beings in relation to the European, white man, who was presumed to embody true humanness. Through this ideology of the normative human subject, women and nature are conceptually demoted to a subordinate position because of what they are assumed to be (Primavesi, 1991: 142). However, this connection between nature and Aboriginal women is not only ideological: because both are regarded to exist in solely material form, and therefore to lack spiritual natures or capacities for consciousness, various manifestations of colonial violence against both nature and Aboriginal women have been historically disregarded, undermined or recognized as justified. This construction of the masculine human subject as the one who alone inhabits higher realms of reason and spirit served to legitimize and stabilize future social and religious structures of subordination and dominance. Women and nature have been placed under male domination and rule by the compelling and authoritative force of this prevailing ideology (Primavesi, 1991: 142-147). Within contemporary, North American academe, this historical, European construction of the human has been greatly interrogated, denaturalized and critiqued by postcolonial, critical race and psychoanalytic theorists, including Frantz Fanon and Sylvia Wynter, among many others. Within their theories, great energy is focused on how the articulation of humanness has, and continues to affect subjects who have been historically excluded by this rigid definition at the level of social, emotional, psychic and bodily realities. These theorists are correct in their assertions that the purpose of the human construction was to reduce the modes of being, embodied by nonwhite and non-European/nonwestern subjects, in order to elevate the mode of being embodied by their cultural Others. However, it must be recognized that there exists a subtle, but continued, hierarchical and dualistic relationship between human and nonhuman within these theories. Not only do human beings continue to be understood as stably and inherently different from nonhuman beings, principally animals, but human experiences of colonial violence, and therefore, human modes of being, are essentially recognized as more significant than the modes of being and lived realities of more-than-human beings. In fact, as the conflation of racialized humans with more-thanhumans is articulated as undermining the violence experienced by such human subjects, violence against animals and nature, in such forms as human invasion, objectification, exploitation and voracious consumption, is disregarded as violence per se. Gebara calls this trend an anthropocentric “hierarchicalizing of knowing [that actually] runs parallel to the hierarchicalizing of society, [which is] itself a characteristic of the patriarchal world” (1999: 25). In this sense, within such criticism, there is an attempt to destabilize one conception of the boundary between human and nonhuman, while a second human/nonhuman dualism is (re)produced and supported; ultimately, the traditional border, employed in colonial fantasies to distinguish what counts as (a) human and what does not, is kept intact. These attempts to distinguish the human, along with having a colonial genealogy, are built on the assumption of a distinct sphere in which humans act, and blind to ideas of significant interconnection and interdependence: dimensions of each dualism are considered not only unrelated to, but to actually oppose, one another. However, each element of social reality is constructed in relation to others; in other words, every aspect of each dichotomy involves a reference to that which is supposedly opposite, distinct from, or Other to, the primary category (See Hewitt Suchocki, 1982). In this sense, all aspects of the dichotomies require reference beyond them in order to develop as intelligible categories and, therefore, cannot be understood, or even exist, outside the relationships within which they are implicated (Hewitt Suchocki, 1982: 6—7). More importantly, there are material interrelationships that are not captured by these dichotomies. As an example we can think of contemporary environmental threats, such as global warming and Colony Collapse Disorder in North America, that illustrate how humans are not ultimately separate from nature, but dependent on it for our survival, and that ‘natural’ phenomena has the potential to powerfully and disastrously affect humans. In this sense, it must be recognized that there is danger within denial: by assuming that we are not part of nature, we ultimately deny the significance of ecological problems on their own bodies and lived realities. However, I think it necessary at this point to remark on the (neo)colonial anthropo-centrism within many conceptions of human/nature relationality. Similar to the consciousness of more-than-human animals, when ecological problems are recognized as problems per se, and especially, when such issues are recognized to transcend the human/nature divide and create an impact in the lives of humans, such problems tend to be understood in human terms. In other words, nature often becomes the subject of human attention, concern, and care when humans acknowledge the fact that we are intimately related to, and ultimately dependent on, the earth for our survival and wellbeing, and that by abusing and destroying nature and more-than-human subjects, humans ultimately bring about their own destruction. Although within such types of care, the interrelatedness among all beings within the web of life is recognized, such care for nature often develops because humans fear the effects of environmental disasters on our lives, and not because we genuinely care about the lives and wellbeing of Other creatures or the earth, in and of themselves. And even within environmental concerns, the recognition of the interrelatedness of all living subjects often leads to a hierarchy of environmental issues. Within conceptions of human/ more-than-human relations, there is often a hierarchy of environmental issues and social issues, including the (neo)colonial treatment of humans outside the dominant, white, European/western man as nonhuman, strengthening the conceptual disconnect between these human and more-than-human. These aspects of environmental interrelatedness must be regarded as not only anthropocentric, but violent, contemporary manifestations of the historically-dominant, European construction of the normative and viable human subject. In this sense, it is evident that a new consciousness must emerge. Humans must begin to recognize that, as Paula Gunn Allen states, “we are the land… the land and the people are the same… The earth is the source of being of the people and we are equally the being of the earth. The land is not really a place separate from ourselves… The land is not a mere source of survival, distant from the creatures it nurtures” (Allen, as quoted in Christ, 1997: 114). Christ employs the term ‘interdependence’ in order to characterize the connection between all beings in the web of life. Yet the word interdependence must be used cautiously, for although humans are dependent on nature, animals, plants and other more-than-humans, as well as other humans for our survival, the earth is not reciprocally dependent on humans. In fact, the presence of (certain) humans on the earth has historically prevented, and continues to threaten, the flourishing and wellbeing of Others, including both human and more-than-human beings within the web of life. In this sense, concepts such as interdependence undermine the reality of power relations that exist between and among different modes of being, including human relationships and those between humans and nature. For this reason, ecofeminists’ use the notion interdependence to illustrate that humans are not separate from, but intimately implicated within, the natural world. This concept helps to demonstrate that “‘human’ beings are essentially relational and interdependent. We are tied to [‘human’ and ‘more-than-human’] Others from the moment of birth to the moment of death. Our lives are dependent in more ways than we can begin to imagine on support and nurture from the web of life, from the earth body” (Christ, 1997: 136). Because the interdependent relation between human subjects and the earth is conceptualized as so intimate, human actions can have significant, and often disastrous effects on nature. However, the agency and power of nature in creating significant phenomena in the lived realities, societies and experiences of humans must also be recognized. This concept destabilizes colonial, western (and gendered) conceptions of the earth as a passive object, to be owned, harnessed, excavated and harvested in order to increase the economic and social flourishing of humans. In other words, the notion of interdependence demonstrates that humans are also affected by more-than-human lives, and that the earth is not a passive, receptive instrument to be exploited by and for human cultures. Examples such as decreased air quality and Colony Collapse Disorder illustrate the power of the earth to violently fight back against human abuse in order to protect itself. In order for a more life-affirming, harmonious relationship between the natural world and human beings to emerge and, therefore, in order to ensure the survival of all beings within the web of life, what ultimately needs to emerge is a new conception of the relationship between human and more-than-human life. McFague proposes the notion of subject-subjects relations, which encompasses a radical and life-affirming way of transforming this hierarchical relationship. According to this model, human subjects must relate to nature as a subject. While recognizing their own intrinsic relation to Other subjects, grounded in their interconnection within the web of life, human subjects must recognize morethan- human subjects’ own intrinsic value and right to live, quite apart from human interests and lives. In other words, we must recognize the otherness of morethan- humans, yet simultaneously feel a connection and recognize an affinity with such subjects. This connection “underscores both radical unity and radical individuality. It suggests a different, basic sensibility for all our knowing and doing and a different kind of know-ink and doing… It says: ‘I am a subject and live in a world of many other different subjects’” (McFague, 1997: 38). According to McFague, this will involve “the loving eye [as well as] the other senses, for it moves the eye from the mind (and the heavens) to the body (and the earth). It will result in an embodied kind of knowledge of other subjects who, like ourselves, occupy specific bodies in specific locations on this messy, muddy, wonderful, complex, mysterious earth” (Mc Fague, 1997: 36). Practicing this type of relationship will implicitly and explicitly embody a radical challenge to what it has historically meant to be both a human and nonhuman subject. It will require an erosion of the imagined boundary, grounded in the perception of difference, between human and nature, and the other, interconnected dichotomies within the European, colonial, historical imagination. It will also involve re-valuing the both sides of classic western dualisms as significant and worthy in and of themselves. This type of relationship will necessitate the erosion of concepts such as intrinsic inferiority and superiority, and potentially end the embodied and lived power relations that such concepts sanction. Perhaps most importantly, the subject-subjects relationship will allow a new understanding of the relations between all beings within the web of life to emerge; the human, that is, the normative, white, European man of the (neo)colonial imagination, and the human of the human/nature dichotomy, and his wellbeing, subjectivity, knowledge and mode of being, will be displaced of from the dominant center. Beginning to recognize and relate to more-thanhumans as subjects will inevitably represent a strong challenge to the coherence of the traditional, anthropocentric, colonial paradigm. The fantasy of humans as the sole, normative subjects within the universe has historically, and continues to provide powerful senses of security and identity to many of us; we are therefore deeply attached to this conception of humanness. However, in order for a more life affirming, harmonious relationship between the natural world and human beings to emerge, we must begin to practice such models within all of our relationships, including relationships with more-than-human beings and other human subjects. Such an endeavor is crucial for the flourishing, and ultimately, the survival of all beings within the web of life. Bibliography Christ, Carol P (1997). Rebirth of the Goddess: Finding Meaning in Feminist Spirituality. California, Massachusetts and New York: Addison-Wesley Publishing. Gebara, Ivone (1999). Longing for Running Water: Ecofeminism and Liberation. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. Hewitt Suchocki, Marjorie (1982). “Why a Relational Theology?” In God, Christ, Church: A Practical Guide to Process Theology. New York: Crossroad Publishing, 3-11. McFague, Sallie (1997). Super, Natural Christians: How We Should Love Nature. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. Primavesi, Anne (1991). From Apocalypse to Genesis: Ecology, Feminism and Christianity. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. i The term, ‘more-than-human’ will be used in place of the term, ‘nonhuman’ in certain areas within this paper. For a number of reasons, I believe the former term is more appropriate. Firstly, nonhuman carries connotations of difference from an explicitly human norm, and a related sense of deficiency and deviance. For this reason, I will employ nonhuman in areas in which I describe traditional, colonial human perceptions of more-than-humans. However, I believe that more-than-human conveys a sense that there literally exists significantly more than simply human realities in the world. More-than-human is also more comprehensive than related terms, such as animals or nature, as it can encompass many diverse expressions of realities, experiences and subject(ivitie)s that transcend traditional constructions of humanness.

The co-authors discuss their experiences of developing and facilitating an eight-week holistic arts-based group for a small group of Aboriginal women. The literature in spirituality and social work includes some written work that examines the convergences between Aboriginal cultural/spiritual perspectives and spirituality and social work but this could be expanded on. To this end, we describe the use of holistic arts-based methods with Aboriginal women, provide a brief description of the group, and explore how spirituality was evident in the arts-based and experiential methods. We also discuss some of the issues that arose in the process of establishing and facilitating the group including challenges related to group composition; the relevance of process; and attrition from the group.

Inter-cultural religious development is an ongoing phenomenon that continues to provide relevant examples in today's world. As a result of this dynamic, many Aboriginal cultures known to have adopted the religion of the colonial state have retained much of their traditional spirituality, in both thought and practice. Aboriginal Christianity draws on traditional indigenous interpretations of time, place and space, which functions to separate it from classic European modes of Christianity. Time, place, and space, as fundamental dynamics of environment, are generally viewed by modern Europeanized society as indisputable, empirical expressions, or more specifically as the quantifying constructions of a secularized world. In actuality, much of our mainstream understanding of these dynamics has roots in Christian theology; ideas of time, place, and space in an Aboriginal context have been and continue to be seen as inextricably tied to the spiritual order of the universe. This presentation analyzes the extent to which time, place, and space implicate themselves as demarcations of relationship between the spiritual and the physical in Aboriginal traditions and European Christianity, with emphasis upon the intersection of belief found within Aboriginal Christianity. In addition, an analysis will be made of the role that the “spirituality of the relational environment” plays in refining Western colonial ideology.

This article uses a Medicine Wheel model, a structural social work framework and an anti-oppression stance, to practice culturally sensitive social work with Aboriginal peoples. The Medicine Wheel model is appropriate when working with many Aboriginal peoples because it considers spirituality important to healing. Using the Medicine Wheel guides the social worker to holistic, balanced practice. The recommendation of respectful social work practice tailored to the treatment of the client’s belief systems encourages healthy identity development. The Medicine Wheel model is used as an analytic tool used to illustrate the client’s states of being, location, and analyze various roles of, and form action plans for, social work practice.