Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 9-27-2019 12:00 PM Excavating Feminist Phenomenology: Lived-Experiences and Wellbeing of Indigenous Students at Western University Eva Lynn Cupchik The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Regna Darnell The University of Western Ontario Helen Fielding The University of Western Ontario Janice Forsyth The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Theory and Criticism A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Doctor of Philosophy © Eva Lynn Cupchik 2019 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Continental Philosophy Commons, Feminist Philosophy Commons, and the Gender and Sexuality Commons Recommended Citation Cupchik, Eva Lynn, "Excavating Feminist Phenomenology: Lived-Experiences and Wellbeing of Indigenous Students at Western University" (2019). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 6556. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/6556 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Excavating Feminist Phenomenology: Lived-Experiences and Wellbeing of Indigenous Students at Western University Abstract The Truth and Reconciliation Commission underscores the need to incorporate narrative accounts of Indigenous students’ experiences as part of wide-scale de-colonizing efforts. This dissertation asks: how do Indigenous students experience their identities at Western University? What is at stake for phenomenology, feminist methods, and Indigenous theory in the post Truth and Reconciliation era? There is a gap between theories centering on reflective cognition in philosophy and the embodiment of land prevalent across Indigenous cultures. However, phenomenology can provide a method to facilitate dialogues with discourses outside Eurocentric domains that empathize with marginalized communities’ struggles, through an understanding of location-based knowledge. Echoing phenomenology’s goals, I facilitate dialogues between participants’ life narratives and theory. I explore how Indigenous learners’ experiences inform concepts in phenomenology, Haudenosaunee, Cree, and Anishinaabe thinking before they become marked literary categories. I undertake a ‘two-eyed seeing’ approach, from Eurocentric and Indigenous perspectives, to connect non-hierarchal epistemologies across nation-specific expressions. In Chapter Two, I discuss relational, land-based methods, through Dolleen Manning’s Anishinaabe ‘mnidoo’ concept, Merleau-Pontian phenomenology, and feminist epistemologies in terms of dialogues with Indigenous students and Elders. In our discussions, I explore concepts about community, health, and belonging in relation to lived theories of embodiment, places, and being, within an interpretive circle. Chapter Three discusses the impacts of language, reflexivity, emotion, oppression, environmental repossession, and experience within feminist research methods and Indigenous i paradigms, through anthropology’s ontological turn. Chapter Four discusses how experiences influence Indigenous artists in their efforts to create work that is emergent from and reflexive of culture and identity. Chapter Five surveys concepts that include: citizenship, human rights, and freedom through Indigenous scholars’ episodes of wellbeing and theories about emergent governance. I conclude, by offering Indigenous students’ reflections about education, ally-ship, and reconciliation. Indigenous subjectivities are unique, not homogenously categorized. This project’s interviews bring forth information missing from research involving community-based wellness services without statistical representation in government and university strategic plan reports. Hearing individuals articulate desires to instigate healing in their communities is a powerful gesture and offers teachable moments for the listener. I hope that when interviewees speak their gifts and insights, in our interactions, it inspires continued activist incentives that foster community-wide changes. ii Lay Summary The Truth and Reconciliation Commission underscores the need to incorporate narrative accounts of Indigenous students’ experiences as part of wide-scale de-colonizing efforts. This dissertation asks: how do Indigenous students experience their identities at Western University? I undertake a ‘two-eyed seeing’ approach, from Eurocentric and Indigenous perspectives, to connect ways of knowing across nation-specific expressions. In discussions with Indigenous students, I explore concepts about community, home, health, and belonging in relation to lived theories of land-based knowledge, within an interpretive circle. It is clear through dialogues with Indigenous students and Elders how the interpretive flow of interviews can mirror affective medicine wheel components, holistic embodiments of health, and relationships with living beings. Chapter three discusses the impacts of language, reflexivity, emotion, oppression, environmental repossession, and experience within feminist research methods and Indigenous paradigms, through anthropology’s ontological turn. Chapter four discusses how experiences influence Indigenous artists in their efforts to create work that is emergent from and reflexive of culture and identity. Art forms can be a process of healing for many Indigenous students. I discuss Indigenous artwork as resisting, speaking back to objectification within institutional structures. Chapter five surveys concepts that include: citizenship, human rights, and freedom, through Indigenous scholars’ episodes of wellbeing and theories about emergent governance. Resisting top-down institutions, through non-hierarchal government structures among Indigenous nations contradicts state measures for control. I conclude, by offering Indigenous students’ reflections about education, ally-ship, and reconciliation. Indigenous voices can influence change. iii Keywords: Identity; Traditional knowledge; Transnational feminism; Phenomenology; Epistemologies; Land-based ontologies; Indigenous students, Flesh, Lived-experiences, Reconciliation, Being, Culture iv Acknowledgements Land Acknowledgment Western University is situated on the traditional territories of the Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Lunaapeewak, and Attawandaron peoples, who have longstanding relationships to the land and region of southwestern Ontario and the City of London. Dedications I dedicate this dissertation to shared values of kindness and caring, in honor of my late Aunt Zelda, Uncle Will, dear friend and colleague Brianna, and my late Grandmother. I complete this work in the spirit of my late Great-grandparents and relatives- you will be remembered. Part of me is of their minds. They taught me about the phenomenology of existence and embodiment. This project is an exercise in healing from grief. I feel grounded in the land-based truths of life and loss. It is key to recognize all bodies, our women and trans persons in both pedagogy and practice. Thank you to Professors Marieme Lo, Mari Ruti, and Michelle Murphy for your mentorship at the University of Toronto. Marieme, you changed the course of my life, proving that critical thinking is possible through rigorous scholarship and teaching. Thank you to staff and professors at The Women and Gender Studies Institute and Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies. You kindly accepted my MA work, continuing to support radical pedagogy and transnational feminist research, at the intersections of gender, sexuality, and marginalized identities. Thank you, Mary Bunch and Dolleen Manning for introducing me to The Theory Centre. There is a place for reflexive thinking in the academy. Thank you to Melanie Caldwell, Dr. Alan Pero, Dr. Jan Plug, and Dr. Tilottama Rajan at Theory and Criticism. You accepted me into this v groundbreaking program and fostered a wonderful education. Thank you to all the professors whose courses I had the pleasure of taking over these four years, in Women’s Studies and Theory and Criticism. The Theory Centre is a transgressive place, where interdisciplinary scholars can spread their wings. A community is transient and fluid. I am blessed to partake in several. Thank you to my cohort at Western. I have learned more from you than any program can offer. We survived our comprehensive exams together and continually support each other on our respective journeys. Love to my Women’s Studies cohort at UofT. Collegial support is the anti-thesis of bureaucracy. Thank you to my committee, Professors Regna Darnell, Janice Forsyth, and Helen Fielding. Regna, you brought me into your beautiful family of students. The non-class is a support group of diversified knowledge. Thank you, Nathan for your tutelage about maintaining sanity for draft revisions. Thanks to Helen’s Merleau-Ponty reading group; it is nothing less than a pure joy, discussing phenomenology, across disciplines and subject-positions. Thank you, Janice, and First Nations Studies for supporting this project and providing a safe, restful space to conduct interviews. Thank you to Anthropology department staff for kindly allowing me resource access. Equally, thanks to Dan and Mary Lou Smoke, Bimadoshka [Annya] Pucan, Prof. Chantelle Richmond, Prof. Pauline Wakeham, Dr. Maureen Matthews, and Prof. Gerald McKinley for their wisdom, honesty,