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Topic

Revitalizing Hupač̓asatḥ Navigational Knowledge: Mapping the Waters of Settler-Colonialism Using a Critical, Coastal, Community-Based Consciousness

Department of English

Date & location

• Wednesday, April 15, 2026
• 10:30 A.M.
• First Peoples House, Ceremonial Hall

Examining Committee

Supervisory Committee

• Dr. Jentery Sayers, Department of English, ̽��ϵ�� (Supervisor)
• Dr. Christine O’Bonsawin, Department of History, UVic (Co-Supervisor)
• Dr. Iain Higgins, Department of English, UVic (Member)
• Dr. Sheila Rabillard, Department of English, UVic (Outside Member)

External Examiner

• Dr. David Gaertner, Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies, University of British Columbia

Chair of Oral Examination

• Dr. Georgia Sitara, Department of History, UVic

Abstract

I’m the great granddaughter of a hereditary chief, the granddaughter of a residential school survivor, the daughter of a residential school survivor, and the daughter of a mother who was part of the first wave of native women lawyers in the country as well as an elected Indian Act Band Council Chief. In my life, I carry the things that have been passed down to me throughout the generations, and I also carry the emptiness and pain of the things that weren’t. Growing up on the Hupač̓asatḥ, I witnessed multiple forms of governance, leaders, and chiefs. I saw our hereditary governance in practice alongside my mother as the elected chief of our nation. I was at meetings for modern-day treaty negotiations with other Nuučaańuł Nations; I saw native nationalism shift and change through attending native political meetings at the AFN, BC, and First Nations Summit meetings. And one of the places where I learned the most was at family dinner tables. I grew up in a really special family of strong, vocal, passionate folks who have immense love for our people. My entire life, I’ve watched most members of my family spend their lives working for the continuation of our nations and the strength of our people in lots of different ways. Things in our lives at every level were talked about: last week’s band meeting, the upcoming AFN AGM, Delgamuukw, the Haida Case, UNDRIP. Something was always going on somewhere, and my family was discussing it in depth around dinner tables.

My lived experience and academic training have provided me with the foundation for the creation of the Critical Coastal Community-based Consciousness which I designed to help me better understand how settler-colonialism functions specific to myself. To do this, I attempt to map out Hupač̓asatḥ and Hupač̓asatḥ First Nation in an ocean of settler colonialism by revitalizing our navigational knowledge to guide my decolonial praxis.

Or

The author views this dissertation as a curation of knowledges (generational, lived experience, and academic) designed to reveal how Hupač̓asatḥ First Nation has been racialized, one of the foundations of settler-colonialism, by the Canadian state. To view these knowledges and guide the curation of them, the author developed a Critical, Coastal, Community-Based, Consciousness which she uses to present specific instances of how she has experienced colonization in the form of an intergenerational mapping space.