Michaela Louie

Topic

A Woven Approach: Decolonizing my Praxis

School of Child and Youth Care

Date & location

• Thursday, August 22, 2024
• 1:00 P.M.
• First Peoples House, Room 162

Examining Committee

Supervisory Committee

• Dr. Sandrina Carere, School of Child and Youth Care, University of Victoria (Supervisor)
• Dr. Mandeep Kaur Mucina, School of Child and Youth Care, UVic (Member)

External Examiner

• Ms. Monique Auger, School of Public Health and Social Policy, UVic

Chair of Oral Examination

• Dr. Amanda LaVallee, School of Social Work, UVic

Abstract

In my thesis, I explore the development and embodiment of my decolonial praxis as an urban Indigenous Child and Youth Care front line practitioner with white privilege. My approach to storywork inquiry weaves together five thematic strands to emphasize the complexities of navigating both white privilege and my responsibility to my Nuu-chah-nulth identity and culture reclamation. My research was conducted through Kinship Rising, a community-led Indigenous research project focused on reclaiming Indigenous resurgence and wellbeing through arts- and land-based storytelling methodologies. Through a methodological cedar weaving process that draws on Nuu-chah-nulth teachings, storywork, a critical review of published and grey literature, and photographic collages, I explore five interrelated thematic strands: colonial disconnection and the impact on Indigenous people in what is now colonially called Canada; my own identity as a Nuu-Chah-Nulth urban Indigenous woman with white privilege; my academic experiences; the development of my front line, decolonial praxis ethics, and; my personal process of reclaiming my Nuu-chah-nulth identity and culture. In weaving critical literature, storywork and photographic collages together, I acknowledge the political, practice, and personal dimensions of being an urban Indigenous Child and Youth Care front line practitioner with white privilege, and how this relates to supporting advocacy, justice, and decolonization in front line praxis. My thesis concludes with a discussion of implications that contribute to Indigenous knowledge about the complexities of Indigenous praxis, education and reclamation for a growing population of urban, mixed-race Indigenous young people with white privilege.