Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Social Work (DSW)

Department

Social Work

Program Name/Specialization

Aboriginal Social Work

Faculty/School

Faculty of Arts

First Advisor

Dr. Kathy Absolon

Advisor Role

Supervisor

Second Advisor

Dr. Shoshana Pollack

Advisor Role

Advisor

Third Advisor

Dr. Timothy Leduc

Advisor Role

Advisor

Abstract

As a queer Métis, activist and organizer in the field of prisoners’ rights, penal abolition, and transformative justice, I have been interested in learning about how Indigenous peoples’ relationship with Aki (Land) grounds abolition theory and guides the ways that I and other Indigenous abolitionists engage in abolition. As part of this process, I wanted to speak to other Indigenous queer, Two-Spirit, trans, non-binary, and/or Indigiqueer (Q2STNBI) people about their visions of abolition and abolitionist futures through a relational Land-based lens. Therefore, I used a methodology that centres Métis worldviews and community organizing and is grounded in the ethics of relational accountability, relevance, respect, reciprocity, and responsibility. Métis methodologies and worldviews include visiting, Circle Work, food sharing, kinship, and Land. For my search, I spoke with 10 Q2STNBI friends, kin, and colleagues who had each had at least three years of experience in abolition organizing at the time of our conversations. I also had four conversations with Aki near Grand Valley Prison for Women, on the traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee peoples (also known as Kitchener–Waterloo, Ontario). Throughout this process, I have considered myself to be a participant-researcher because of my longstanding work as an abolitionist organizer and because I was actively engaged in all conversations.

My meaning-making process involved ceremony and more time with Aki, which deepened my relationship with myself, my friends, kin, and colleagues, and my re-search.[1] I used a Land-based lens throughout my dissertation which included a wholistic framework: Spirit, relationship, knowledge, and action. The findings of my search included abolitionist themes that are grounded in the Spirit of Aki, which includes: Indigenous knowledges, belonging to Aki, and Aki as Teacher. In the Relationship quadrant, themes of Natural Laws, Our Bodies as Land, and relationships with humans/Creation emerged. A broader definition of abolition and transformative justice started to develop within the Knowledge quadrant and finally, movements on climate justice and Land Back emerged within the Action/Doing quadrant. All of these together represent an emerging Indigenous Wholistic Abolition, which is grounded in our relationship with Creation. Indigenous Wholistic Abolition honours the foundation and principles of Indigenous knowledges, grounding Indigenous identities, love of Aki, space and place, biidaaban, Aki as teacher, Aki as healing, body and land sovereignty, sovereign erotic, consent, Indigiqueer anti-carceral feminism and Land Back as an Indigenous queer, two-spirit, Indigiqueer movement.

In the end, this dissertation is a series of love letters. It expresses the Spirit in which I engaged in abolition work for the past 30 years. It also reflects my relationships with activists working on abolition and the collective knowledge we have built. Finally, I want to honour the love I have for people dreaming and engaging in Indigenous Q2STNBI abolitionist futures.

[1] I used the language of ‘re-search’ and ‘search’ based on the work of Dr. Kathy Absolon (2022). She explains that Indigenous re-search is about ‘looking again’ at how re-search restores Indigeneity and Indigenous epistemologies.

Convocation Year

2024

Convocation Season

Fall

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