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Exploring Young Black/ African Canadian Women's Practices

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Exploring Young Black/ African Canadian Women's Practices Exploring Young Black/ African Canadian Women’s Practices of Engagement and Resistance: Towards an Anticolonial Solidarity Building by Thashika Pillay A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in SOCIAL JUSTICE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES IN EDUCATION Department of Educational Policy Studies University of Alberta © Thashika Pillay, 2018 ii Abstract The experiences of young women of Black/ African descent living in Edmonton/ Amiskwaciwaskahikan – in what is currently Canada – are mediated by relations and structures of power as constructed through settler colonialism, patriarchy, capitalism, imperialism, and neoliberalism. These political, economic, social, and cultural structures and systems organize the world and influence young women’s responses, both as individuals and as collectives. Young women of African descent are also influenced by African Indigenous Knowledge Systems (AIKS), a philosophy rooted in a relational worldview and culture in which knowledge is collectively and community oriented. A critical analysis of these interlocking structures and worldviews is integral to understanding the process through which the emergence and formation of subjects and selves as well as the collective occurs. This study is positioned within an Indigenous hermeneutics and draws on the work of Manulani Aluli Meyer as well as Desmond Tutu’s conceptualization of Ubuntu. Using a critical qualitative research design that included focus group and semi-structured interviews with nine young women participants and analysis of relevant documents, I explored the following research questions: 1.! What challenges, barriers, and marginalizations do young African Canadian women face as they understand and enact their agency and citizenship? 1a.! How are these challenges and subsequent responses, resistances, and subversions communicated among and between young African Canadian women? 2.! How do African Indigenous systems of knowing, seeing, and being influence young African Canadian’s women’s practices of understanding, engagement, and resistance iii in their local, national, and extra-local communities? 3.! What educational and activist platforms are needed to construct new possibilities for individual and collective resistances? My analysis and discussion revealed the emergence of a shared collective consciousness, an African Canadian onto-epistemology of justice, and has illustrated that young Black/ African Canadian women’s systems of knowing, seeing, and being in this world and of how they respond to their experiences and lives are drawn, in part, from their understandings of indigeneity, culture, and traditional ways of being, knowing, and seeing. This shared vision is also influenced by shared experiences of colonial, capitalist, and patriarchal subjugations that unify women in their resistance to economic, political, social, and cultural exploitation. I also assert that this shared onto-epistemology requires spaces of engagement. Community, then, becomes an emergent space for decolonial and anti-colonial resistance that must be engaged for educative purposes through a pedagogy of critical anticolonial feminism. I suggest that these revisioned spaces of engagement, education, resistance, solidarity, and activism as well as the processes of engagement can produce an agenda to resist patriarchy, capitalism, (settler)colonialism, and neoliberalism. Within the context of this research project, AIK represents a distinctive knowledge system that can be understood as a collective philosophical consciousness, as embodied though a shared epistemology and ontology rooted in the collective ethic of young women. This collective sense of responsibility women displayed for each other is rooted in a distinctive cultural philosophy that encompasses a shared historical consciousness, collective experiences of marginalization, oppression, and resistance, and, therefore, a collective vision of justice that is feminist and anticolonial. iv Preface This thesis is an original work by Thashika Pillay. The research project, of which this thesis is a part, received research ethics approval from the University of Alberta Research Ethics Board, Project Name “EXPLORING AFRICAN CANADIAN WOMEN’S AGENCY AND ENGAGEMENT: THE CREATION OF THE DECOLONIZING/ DECOLONIZED SUBJECT”, No. 54178, MARCH 3, 2015. v Acknowledgments I would like to acknowledge the incredible support, guidance, and mentorship I have received from my supervisors, Dr. Lynette Shultz and Dr. Ali A. Abdi. Dr. Shultz’s unwavering support, advice, and openness over the course of my graduate program has facilitated my development as a critical scholar. I am deeply grateful to Dr. Abdi who first suggested I do a PhD and whose thoughtful encouragement, friendship, and mentorship has guided me on this journey. Dr. Shultz and Dr. Abdi’s support and kindness have been essential for completing this project. I must also express my profound gratitude to Dr. Jennifer Kelly who has been an integral member of my supervisory committee. Dr. Kelly’s insightful comments and willingness to engage in thoughtful conversations challenged me to think more deeply and critically, enabling me to complete this project. I am also very thankful to Dr. Rebecca Sockbeson and Dr. Njoki Wane for their thoughtful feedback. Dr. Sockbeson’s critical insights have strengthened my own understandings profoundly. I must also express my gratitude to Dr. Dip Kapoor and Dr. Sara Carpenter for their continued support, mentorship, and friendship. I have been fortunate to have wonderful colleagues and friends alongside me on this journey. One of the greatest gifts of this PhD has been meeting a group of women who have become my dearest friends. I extend my heartful thanks to Dr. Neda Asadi, Michelle Hawks, Stella Johnson, Danielle Lorenz, Dr. Karen Pashby, Belen Samuel, Rochelle Starr, Misty Underwood, and Dr. Melody Viczko for their friendship, support, and encouragement. I am especially thankful to my dearest friend, Nav Kaur, for her unfailing emotional support during difficult times and for always being there to celebrate the accomplishments. I am ever so appreciative of the relationships and community vi created with such wonderous women over the course of this endeavour. They continue to inspire me, and I am grateful to know, learn from, and love them. I am grateful to my extraordinary family for their abounding love and support. I am thankful to my parents, Manni and Vanitha, for raising a feminist daughter, for giving me the space to explore the world, and for always encouraging me to speak, whether it be at the dinner table, the classroom, or the larger world. My brother, Fonzi, can always be counted on to challenge me, forcing me to think deeply about how I view the world. I am especially thankful for the presence and exuberance of my niece, Katerina, who brings so much joy to our lives. I am also extremely appreciative of the support extended by my cousin, Premi. This study would not have been possible without the invaluable contributions of my participants, all of whom graciously shared their time, knowledges, and experiences. I am extremely grateful for their openness, willingness to reveal difficult experiences, and their insightful introspections of their diverse experiences and practices of resistance. Finally, I am incredibly appreciative for the financial support I received from the Department of Educational Policy Studies, University of Alberta, Government of Alberta, and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. vii Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 Situating and Explaining the Research Project ................................................................... 1 Locating Myself..................................................................................................................... 4 Context of the Study ............................................................................................................. 5 Purpose: The Development of the Decolonizing Subject and the Potential of an Anticolonial Solidarity Building ........................................................................................... 8 Significance ........................................................................................................................... 9 Limitations & De-limitations .............................................................................................. 10 Chapter 2: Setting the Stage – A Critical Review of the Literature .............................. 12 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 12 Contextualizing the African Diaspora in Canada .............................................................. 13 Connecting African Indigenous Knowledges (AIK) and the Experiences of African Canadian Women ............................................................................................................... 15 AIK: The epistemological and ontological ...................................................................................... 17 AIK and feminist knowledges.................................................................................................... 19 Process of AIK construction and transmission ................................................................................ 21 Stories as knowledge ................................................................................................................
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