Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'British Columbia – Social life and customs – Fiction'

This thesis documents the 1989 Washington Centennial Commissions' Native Canoe Project. Seventeen Western Washington tribes participated in a canoe-oriented cultural heritage renewal movement. The ethnographic setting establishes Native dugouts in their historic social context and presents the classic hull forms of representative canoe types. After a hiatus of several generations of canoe use, many tribes began to reconstruct their disappearing canoeing ways. Through the process of carving and using their dugouts, they have addressed current issues. Canoe racing and voyaging has proven to be effective, culturally relevant alternative to drug and alcohol abuse. Native people reaffirmed access to landing beaches and forest resources and created community carving centers. Case studies of the Lummi, Suquamish, Tulalip, Port Gamble Klallam and Quileute tribes reveal continuity, schisms and the reinvention of Native dugout traditions. The culminating "Paddle to Seattle" voyage illuminates the vital role of these canoes to unite communities and legitimize Indian values. Abundant use of Native commentary from collected oral histories substantiate my interpretations and offer authority to Native perspectives. Ethnopoetic transcriptions express an understanding of these cedar canoes in the enduring Native thoughtworld.
Arts, Faculty of
Anthropology, Department of
Graduate

In April 1982, Nishga carver Norman Tait hosted the raising of a fifty-five foot totem pole named Big Beaver at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois. Over the winter of 1981-82 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Tait and five apprentices had carved the pole with images inspired by a story given to Tait by his maternal uncle, Rufus Watts, a man Tait calls grandfather. In the early spring of 1962, Watts had taught dances and songs to Tait, Tait's apprentices and other family members and the dancers created costumes and ceremonial paraphernalia for the pole raising ceremony in Chicago. In Chicago in April, members of the Northwest Coast artistic community and staff and patrons of the Field Museum participated in the contemporary Nishga cultural performance. This thesis is an ethnography of the events leading up to and including the pole raising ceremony. It is a case study of the revival of native Indian traditions, a revival that has been occurring on the Northwest Coast since the 1950's. The work addresses four questions. 1. How are native Indian visual and performance forms created from orally transmitted tradition? It describes how the contemporary native carver and his grandfather brought forward their traditions. It discusses the role of museums, anthropology, media, marketplace and other artists. 2. What is the nature of the communities generated by the artistic activity of a contemporary native carver? Included are descriptions of the Nishga and Northwest Coast artistic communities' participation in an expanded native Indian cultural project. 3. How does a museum contextualize a native Indian cultural performance and what meta-messages are communicated? The Field Museum refers back to the Native American participation in the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago to contextualize their events in 1982. Were the messages that were overtly expressed in 1893 covertly communicated in 1982? 4. What changes occur in traditions that are brought forward in a contemporary cultural performance? There is a simplification of the traditional Nishga system of cultural messages and a shift in emphasis. There are also changes in the types of alliances for the production of the contemporary totem pole and an adaption of the traditional ritual system for the modern pole raising. The thesis concludes with some questions and discussion on how to assess contemporary native Indian cultural performance in non-traditional settings.
Arts, Faculty of
Anthropology, Department of
Graduate

Multicultural education is a nebulous term steeped in cultural assumptions and perhaps political rhetoric. Over time, it has been repeatedly addressed through policy statements and learning materials. In order to move beyond mere rhetoric, the awareness generated from studies and research must be effectively implemented through carefully designed educational programs. Such programs may assume a variety of approaches, however the literature suggests appreciation for cultural diversity is most likely to be achieved through presentation of cultural similarities, insider perspectives, primary materials and cross cultural contact. To this end, Spotlight On Jewish Canadians was designed to foster cross cultural communication and to generate appreciation for living in a multicultural society. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a curriculum premised on the afore-mentioned principles and to report on its findings. A quasi-experimental research design involving four teachers and ninety-six students was developed and implemented. Four methods were used to collect data. Two pencil and paper tests, classroom observations and teacher evaluations were analyzed to see what effect, if any, the unit had on the students involved. The results of the pencil and paper tests indicated that there was as a significant increase in students pride in heritage as a result of the unit, but no significant increase in students preference for to social diversity was evident. It should be noted that the unit focussed on Jewish Canadians but the measure assessed acceptance of social diversity in general. However classroom observations and teacher evaluations contradicted the findings of the preference for social diversity measure. In general the teachers found the unit to be helpful in making their students more accepting of social diversity as well as increasing pride towards students own cultures.
Education, Faculty of
Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of
Graduate

This thesis is an investigation of the gendered, classed and racialized identities associated with living a traditional family life in a suburb of Vancouver, British Columbia in the 1 990s. It has two entry points. The first is a focus on gendered identities that are the result of “old” ideals in a “new” cultural and geographical context: what identities result when traditional ideals of motherhood, fatherhood and homeownership are played out in a context where the ideals are being questioned, the ability to live these ideals limited and the surrounding landscape does not seem to reflect these notions? I use the heuristics of “new traditionalism” and “declining fortunes” to understand this interpretation and reinscription of the “old” within the “new”. The second entry point is a concern with place: how, in the 1990s, are white, middle-class familial identities gendered and experienced in and through place, and specifically suburban environments? Building upon Doreen Massey’s rethinking of the notion of place, I define place as a constellation of social and cultural relations in a particular site and examine some of the ways that places and identities are articulated. The thesis is based on archival work and in-depth interviews with residents in two neighbourhoods in the Municipality of Surrey, an outer suburb of Vancouver, British Columiba. Through an analysis of the planning of Surrey I show how the construction of Surrey as suburban set the limits of possibility and impossibility for identity there, deeming some identities “natural” and others peripheral. An examination of residential location decisions demonstrates that spatially demarcated neighbourhoods were desired and reconstructed and that the meanings of places within Surrey (what I term symbolic geographies) and distancing from a familial and racial other were important in the process. By exploring the multiple linkages between gender, class and home I show how images of place, and especially the house and the neighbourhood, are part of situating the self. Through a focus on the tensions between new traditionalist ideals and practices, I suggest that cultural meanings circulating within specific places influence the experience of gendered subject positions and both exacerbate and smooth over tensions within new traditionalism. In an investigation of the links between religion, gender difference, new traditionalist convictions, and place, I highlight how religious networks involve a different relation to place compared to other residents. I conclude that traditional models of family and gender (new traditionalism) remain pervasive signposts, and underlain by a relation to feminism, but are modified in response to the pressures of homeownership and different economic positionings (understood in terms of the discourse of declining fortunes). This modification is also class and place specific; the ability to live an idealized new traditionalist life is dependent upon the “possibility” of a male breadwinner wage and the meanings circulating within the residential neighbourhood.

Applying the "age" lens, this paper asks: how can intergenerational programming move the current Vancouver Chinatown Revitalization process towards a more ageintegrated and life course-oriented approach? In addition, a meta-question is: How can intergenerational programming assist diverse populations (i.e. younger and older people) collectively search for new meanings for Chinatowns in transition? The qualitative and quantitative methods used in this research include reviewing literature, primary documents, city documents, unpublished works, and conference papers. Basic demographic analyses, community interviews, and surveys were conducted. As a member of the Vancouver Chinatown Revitalization Committee and intern at the City of Vancouver, personal observations were also made between 2002 and 2004. This research adopts the Community for all Ages model to evaluate Vancouver's Chinatown revitalization process and makes recommendations that move it towards intergenerational programming - a mechanism to respond to key challenges from the "age lens": changing age demographics, the diversifying Chinese-Canadian community in Vancouver, and aging institutions in Chinatown. Challenging traditional theories of generations and assimilation, the results of this research illustrate the need for planners, policymakers, and community workers to recognize the diverse stories and experiences along the age continuum and to adopt a life-course approach in moving communities from age-segregation to age-integration. Identifying some key issues for implementation and future research, this study has implications for the application of intergenerational programming in Vancouver's Chinatown but also in other Chinatowns currently facing similar challenges.
Applied Science, Faculty of
Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of
Graduate

For centuries, Western societies thought of wilderness as a barren, desolate place that harboured temptation and sin. Over the last hundred and fifty years, a marked shift has occurred in Western perception of this so-called savage place; it has become revered, protected, and even worshipped. What was once the Devil's playground is now thought to provide a locus of spiritual regeneration and hope for the future. In North America, this pronounced shift is thought to coincide with notions of the sublime and the frontier. This study explores the perceptions of wilderness among Chinese Canadian immigrants in British Columbia, people who have been less influenced by concepts of the sublime and frontier. It examines closely the idea that wilderness today is a self-evident construct that holds across most inhabitants of the province. Instead, ideas about wilderness held by people who have immigrated from China, similar to the ideas held by early immigrants from Europe, are influenced by tradition (especially Confucianism, Taoism, and, more recently, Maoism), space (i.e. coming from densely populated areas), and language. Through this study, it has become apparent that the language and discourse surrounding wilderness in Canada is markedly different from that of Chinese Canadian immigrants. While the language and meaning of wilderness, as referred to in Western society, is assumed relatively easily for interviewees, the identification with moral and aesthetic responses common to discussions of wilderness in North America is much less likely to manifest itself. Wilderness, which represented barrenness and desolation to interviewees when they lived in China, has come to represent forests, mountains, animals, and lack of human influence. What previously had different philosophical meaning, now, in a cognitive sense, represents beauty and, potentially, a locus of spirituality. The results of this study have important consequences for decision-making in cross-cultural environments. Policy surrounding wilderness or environmental preservation may be without meaning or relevance to new immigrants, who bring with them shared meanings and relationships to nature that may or may not be incongruous with Canadian environmental policy. In facing such debates, it is crucial to understand the perceptions of various players and how those ideas are linked to tradition, language, and the geography of the familiar. It is also critical to ask - What is wilderness and why are we protecting it above all else?

Much of the literature on First Nations education is written by Euro- Canadians. However, in recent years, American Indian scholars have initiated research on gifted and talented First Nations children. The purpose of this paper is to present eminent Shuswap womens' perspectives of traditional ways gifted and talented girls were identified and nurtured over their lifetime. Seven eminent Shuswap Elder women from the Interior of British Columbia, whose gifts and talents were identified and nurtured form the nucleus of the study. Because Shuswap people traditionally have an oral culture very little was written of the Shuswap peoples' experiences, therefore, interviewing was deemed the most appropriate research technique. Through the Elder's own words, the experiences of the identification and nurturance of their gifts and talents in the four phases of life (childhood, adolescence, adult, Elder) are presented. The Elders were selected to represent various time periods and several different bands of the Shuswap Nation. All of them have been recognized for their service to the people locally, provincially, or nationally. The most outstanding feature which is revealed by this study is the extent to which the Elders struggled to stay on the path paved for them throughout their lives since their grandparents identified their gifts and talents. Their struggles may be viewed the same way First Nation people continue their fight for their aboriginal rights. The need to continue the work of preserving, recording, perpetuating and enhancing the Shuswap language, history and culture is shown here. Implications for further qualitative research are numerous. From specific aspects of culture such as the Shuswap concept of giftedness and the traditional ways Shuswap people identified and nurtured boys to more general comparisons of finding a national First Nations concept of giftedness or trying to determine how band-operated school are trying to identify and nurture their gifted and talented students, there are many possibilities. What has emerged is strong individuals and cultural group healing, adapting and surviving very well despite the dark ages.

The purpose of this thesis is to put forth a summary of principles that reflect the local knowledge of the people within the Saulteau First Nations Community. This summary of principles is a tool of compiled oral knowledge that reflects community values and mind-sets and which might offer tangible solutions to guide community protocols, program development or to possibly frame future policies. 11 Principles are the highlighted expressions or codes of conduct that express cultural meaning to a people. Principles help make sense of and instill ethics or morals within a community. These cultural belief systems continue to be practiced through hunting techniques and patterns and by exercises based on beliefs that reveal a value system originating in the spiritual relationship with the natural life forms, animals, plants and spirits. Within the practical motions lie the spoken and unspoken codes, principles, values and beliefs of the people. This allows the community to determine its values and articulate important teachings that give expression to notions of cultural identity. The summary of constructed principles of the Saulteau First Nations Community is as follows: 1. wahkowtowin 2. kiyam 3. kisiwatsoon 4. matinawewin 5. nisohkamakewin 6. ka nisohkamowatwan kitotfmak 7. nihiyew tapsinowin "We are all relatives" (Art Napoleon). To let go is a necessary concept in the process of healing. Compassion is a necessary quality that instills harmony connecting the community. An offering of thanks in honor of the provisions of life is necessary to ensure prosperity from the Creator. Somebody that helps is vital for community survival. "You are a servant to the people" (Art Napoleon). "We have to go back to our Indian laws and that is when we will have harmony amongst each other" (Stewart Cameron). The principles link local forms of knowledge necessary that may guide imposed policies and structures. Further research will be beneficial to the people and should also reflect the range of cultures that have formed the community's ancestry within the present day Saulteau First Nations Community.
Graduate

The concern of this thesis is the position of people of alternative genders in Coast Salish culture, not only in the past, but in the present. How were individuals with such a difference treated? What forces constrained them? What factors afforded them opportunity? Were such genders even recognized? With these questions in mind, field work was conducted with the permission of the Std: Id Nation throughout the summer of 1998. This paper is based on interviews conducted then and subsequent interviews with people from other Coast Salish groups. In addition, local ethnographic materials—with reference to field notes whenever possible—and traditional stories were analyzed from the perspective of Coast Salish epistemology. Alternative genders need to be understood foremost in the cultural contexts in which they occur, only then can comparisons proceed from a secure foundation. Research revealed a paradoxical situation. Oral traditions in which the alternately gendered are despised, occur side-by-side with traditions in which such people were honoured for the special powers they possessed. Individuals and families operated in the space generated by this paradox, playing the "serious games" to which Ortner alludes (1996:12-13). The absence of a "master narrative" in Coast Salish culture accounts for some, but not all of these contradictions. Equally relevant are persistent patterns of secrecy, personal autonomy, kin solidarity, differential status, and differential gender flexibility that both restrict the social field and offer stress points that were, and are, manipulated in individual and collective strategies. Given a world view in which transformation was the norm, and in which the disadvantaged could become powerful overnight by revealing the power they had hidden, some alternatively gendered people were able to maximize their potential and become significant forces. No formal roles offered sanction, instead an ad hoc approach marked the response to alternative genders and the outcome rested on the position of the individual and her/his family, and their ability to maneuver within multiple constraints. It was this potential to transform a stigmatized status into an honoured role that made the position of the alternatively gendered paradoxical.

As a step to understand the impact of immigration on urban development in Greater Vancouver, this thesis documents the development processes of "Chinese" Shopping Centres in Vancouver's suburbs over the last decade, examines their roles in the settlement and integration process of Chinese immigrants, and assesses their impact on local communities. "Chinese" Shopping Centres in the Great Vancouver reflected social and physical changes initiated by the Chinese immigration in the Vancouver's suburbs. The developments were driven by dramatic changes in the Chinese-Canadian community in the 1980s and l990s, and boosted by Canada's immigration and integration policy. Overseas investment has also played an important role in making the development possible and more comprehensive. This thesis finds that it is necessary to distinguish "Chinese" Shopping Centre development from traditional forms of ethnic enclaves, such as Chinatown. It is also important to realize the differences between the "Chinese" Shopping Centre and typical shopping centre in North American cities. Socio-economic and land use impacts of the developments call for planning policy changes in order to address the issues related to this new form of development.

This dissertation is a case study of one small segment of what is commonly referred to as the "Indian community" in Vancouver, focusing particularly on its second-generation youth members. The study examines members' constructions of "Indian" identity, "Indian community," and "Indian culture." The first generation members of this population segment are primarily upper to middle class Hindu speaking Hindus from north India who migrated to Canada as students and independent class immigrants between 1955 and 1975 and are currently practicing professional and business people. They represent a minority of the Indian population in Vancouver by virtue of class, urban background, and language-regional-cultural affiliation. I argue, however, that this case study is an important addition to literature about South Asians in Canada both because this population segment is absent from existing literature, and because many of these individuals play leading roles in Vancouver's Indian community. Canadian literature which pertains to second generation South Asian youth emphasizes issues of assimilation, inter-generational conflict and inter-cultural identity confusion. This case study diverges from those issues in order to provide a fuller appreciation of relatively neglected aspects of youth lives. It describes how youth act as agents in the construction of their own lives and documents their experiences, visions, and initiatives. In doing so, the dissertation documents processes by which culture is constructed, conceptually and in practice. The research draws on a number of theoretical perspectives including symbolic interactionism (Blumer 1969), structuration theory (Giddens 1976, 1979, 1984), "conscious models" (Ward 1965) and reference group identification (Merton 1964; Shibutani 1955). Data is derived from participant observation, interviews, and group discussions. Youth respondents express that the challenge for them, a different one from that of their parents whose formative years were spent in South Asia or East Africa, is how to integrate Indian culture into their Canadian lives. My study concludes that active phrases used by respondents, such as, "trying to cope," "having the freedom to choose,” and "integrating Indian culture" are more accurate express-ions of the experiences of youth respondents than the passive metaphor commonly applied to South Asian youth of being “caught between two cultures."

Landscape is a medium of expression and a reflection of the beliefs of the people who inhabit it. It carries symbolic meanings that emerge from the values by which people define themselves; values grounded in culture. These symbols stem from elements of the natural environment, stories passed on through generations, or from experiences interacting with others. The indigenous peoples of Canada have a culture rich in traditional art, ceremony, and sustainable development and holistic integration of landscape. Contemporary First Nation culture draws from this past to inform the future. This phenomenon exemplifies the necessity for cultural expression in First Nation landscapes of today. The Semiahmoo First Nation in Lower Mainland British Columbia is a Coast Salish group occupying approximately 380 acres of land on the Pacific coastline. River and estuarine habitats, significant species richness and dense vegetation characterize the area and identify the primary motive for Semiahmoo traditional encampment on its shores. Changes in the past century have included colonial settlement to the region, periods of industrial and resource economies, a decrease in band population and subsequent decline in cultural practices. Current increasing recreation and development interests have created urgency for the reawakening of cultural expression in the landscape. Initial literature research about First Nations in Northwest Canada and a biophysical analysis provided introductory information, followed by community discussions which provided a deeper understanding of the people and of the place. A design vocabulary of traditional and contemporary elements was composed to guide and unify the program and spatial components of the design. The resulting design focuses on the public realm of the Reserve clearly defining Semiahmoo identity and sense of place. Land use issues were addressed and delineated public and private areas, ecological enhancements and displayed potential for growth on the site. The design respects the bicultural interface of the Reserve while providing cultural and environmental education. The First Nation value system possesses a tangible and spiritual quality; rooted in the creatures and elements of their surroundings. Expression of the Semiahmoo peoples' beliefs and values in the landscape enriches the experiential qualities of the place and reverence for its past and future.

In the late 19th century, an English entrepreneur arrived on the B.C. frontier eager to learn the whereabouts of coal seams in the area. In exchange for this knowledge he courted and promised to marry an "Indian Princess." After receiving the information, he jilted the woman and submitted the first coal syndicate application for the Elk Valley. Indigenous people cast a curse on William Fernie, on the region and its residents. They would suffer from fires, floods and famine. This narrative forms the backbone of my dissertation. It is deeply ingrained in expressions of local identity, tied to personal histories and ideas of social justice. Ktunaxa traditionalists officially lifted the curse in a public ceremony in Fernie in 1964. I trace how participants speak about this event and the legend across generations and within shifting ideological contexts. Cursing is an important theme throughout this work. It implies the power that stories have to carry and construct meanings about who people are. My dissertation is an ethnography of ideas about human difference generated and transmitted through time and through narratives. Fernie, B.C. is currently transforming from a predominantly working-class resource-based town to an internationally recognized destination ski resort. I trace images, legends and theories as powerful narrative resources in the contexts of colonialism, war, immigration, labour strife, natural disaster, treaty-making and development for tourism. Folklore, mass media, scholarly theories and political discourses propagate narratives about human difference shaping the ways that people are imagined. Although rephrased and sometimes disguised, fundamental forms of race, gender, class, nationality, religion, age, locality and sexual preference remain intact. In Part I, I look at ideas of difference perpetuated in hegemonic discourses during three overlapping time periods. More contemporary taxonomies of difference appear in Part II. Ideas are transmitted across generations, they are evident in public performances and in narratives of place and space. Through participants' accounts I examine intersections between personal expressions and official narratives.

This thesis explores the changing meaning of wind dried salmon in contemporary constructions of the culture of the Stó:lō First Nation. Wind drying has been a method of preserving salmon for the Aboriginal peoples of the lower mainland of British Columbia since time immemorial, providing significant winter provisions. However, over the course of the last one hundred years, participation in this fishing activity has been drastically decreased and currently only a handful of Stó:lō families maintain dry racks in the Fraser canyon. As a result, wind dried salmon has gone from being a staple to a delicacy, and is now valued as a cultural tradition, rather than merely as a food product. This change in culturally inscribed meaning is a product of the relationship between Stó:lō fishing activities and fishery regulations imposed by the settler state. Increasing restrictions of Aboriginal fishing rights have resulted in decreased participation and success in the Stó:lō fisheries. Furthermore, regulation has artificially categorized and segregated Stó:lō fishing activities, dislocating the commercialized fresh catch from the "subsistence" dried fish harvest. The response to this regulatory pressure has been the traditionalization of the wind dry fishery, situating the activity as a cultural symbol and a point of resistance to external control. Wind dryers currently refuse to commercialize the wind dry fishery, thus resisting outside control of the management of the fishery and the distribution of the harvest. This situation is discussed in light of anthropological understandings of the construction of traditions, and the issues of Aboriginal rights surrounding contemporary Stó:lōfishing activities.

This ethnographic research project examines the re-creation, performance and dissemination of identity through performance (storytelling, song, and dance) at a tourist site, Hiwus Feasthouse. In general, this thesis examines how the Salish negotiate meaning and significance through performance. The overall objective is to explore what Hiwus, as a site for creating and performing identity, means to the Coast Salish people who work there. This thesis demonstrates how the Salish at Hiwus have a great deal of agency in terms of the content of performances, unlike many other tourist sites where the corporation often controls the program. I suggest that the Salish employees express layers of a "meshed identity" - local, ethnic-tribal, Canadian, and pan-Indian - at different times throughout the performances. I also suggest that the First Nations people at Hiwus deconstruct the "imaginary Indian" via performance and valorize their own re-imagination of history and identity. I propose that they do this by drawing on Salish epistemology and world-views. In particular, I demonstrate how Salish understandings of "place" and the use of a "ceremonial framework" at Hiwus provide the Salish a way of sorting through multiple zones of contact. This thesis contributes to the anthropological literature on tourism in that it focuses on First Nations people's agency, views, and perspectives. I also challenge problematic terms such as authenticity, "staged authenticity," and tradition. The current literature on tourism lacks a workable theoretical framework for examining the dialogical interactions at tourist sites. I attempt to deal with this dilemma by drawing on my own ethnographic data, complemented by the existing ethnographic literature, to examine how the Salish perform identity and culture at Hiwus.