Situating hybridity and searching for authenticity in Canadian hip-hop : how do we "keep it real"?

This project explores the language and discourse around hip-hop in Canada. Through ethnographic interviews, I contemplate the narrative of an indigenized Canadian hip-hop, how that narrative is reflective of national and regional identities, the use of slang vernacular and resistance rhetoric, and, how female hip-hop community members articulate the genre's need for authentication. Through the use of critical content/textual analysis, I also explore the intersections of race, gender, sexuality and identity in the lyrics of five of Canada's mainstream rappers to illustrate how the rhetoric of hip-hop and that of the media influences the way we talk about, and consume, hip-hop culture. Ultimately, I draw conclusions related to the current status of hip-hop in Canada, and suggest that the genre's dominant contestations are centred on the lack of definition of the Black, White and Native Canadian identity, ownership, and how corporate annexation impedes the genre's ability to transcend.

Situating hybridity and searching for authenticity in Canadian hip-hop : how do we "keep it real"?

This project explores the language and discourse around hip-hop in Canada. Through ethnographic interviews, I contemplate the narrative of an indigenized Canadian hip-hop, how that narrative is reflective of national and regional identities, the use of slang vernacular and resistance rhetoric, and, how female hip-hop community members articulate the genre's need for authentication. Through the use of critical content/textual analysis, I also explore the intersections of race, gender, sexuality and identity in the lyrics of five of Canada's mainstream rappers to illustrate how the rhetoric of hip-hop and that of the media influences the way we talk about, and consume, hip-hop culture. Ultimately, I draw conclusions related to the current status of hip-hop in Canada, and suggest that the genre's dominant contestations are centred on the lack of definition of the Black, White and Native Canadian identity, ownership, and how corporate annexation impedes the genre's ability to transcend.

O relato de vida indígena e outros (sub)gêneros literários em A queda do céu: palavras de um xamã yanomami, Meu nome é Rigoberta Menchu e assim nasceu minha consciência e Bobbi Lee: Indian Rebel struggles of a Native Canadian woman

Partindo de três obras primárias: A queda do céu: palavras de um xamã yanomami, de Davi Kopenawa e Bruce Albert, Meu nome é Rigoberta Menchú e assim nasceu minha consciência, de Rigoberta Menchú e Elizabeth Burgos, e Bobbi Lee: Indian Rebel Struggles of a Native Canadian Woman, de Lee Maracle e Don Barnett, busco apontar e reforçar algumas das características desses relatos de vida indígena (SALLES, 2020) a partir de uma análise comparativa com outros gêneros (a saber, narrativas de vida étnica, narrativas de exílio, autoetnografia e ecobiografia). Para tal, a “virada etnográfica” ocorrida no campo das ciências sociais, que trouxe maior fluidez para a classificação de trabalhos como relatos de vida indígena, assim como a discussão sobre gêneros literários nos são bastante caras nesse artigo.

Physiological Response of Populus balsamifera and Salix eriocephala to Salinity and Hydraulic Fracturing Wastewater: Potential for Phytoremediation Applications

Natural and anthropogenic soil degradation is resulting in a substantial rise in the extension of saline and industrially-polluted soils. Phytoremediation offers an environmentally and economically advantageous solution to soil contamination. Three growth trials were conducted to assess the stress tolerance of native Canadian genotypes of Populus balsamifera L., Salix eriocephala Michx., and one hybrid willow (S. discolor × S. dasyclados) to salinity and hydraulic fracturing (fracking) wastewater. Thirty-three genotypes were grown in NaCl or fracking wastewater solutions between 0 and 7 mS−1 over a period of 3–4 months. P. balsamifera was observed to be relatively salt-intolerant compared to S. eriocephala and hybrid willow, which is likely caused by an inability of P. balsamifera to restrict Na+ translocation. Photosynthesis and transpiration decreased with salinity treatments, and severe reductions occurred with exposure to fracking solutions. Raffinose and stachyose content was tripled in leaf and root tissues. In willows, Na+ was primarily confined to root tissues, Cl− accumulated up to 5% dry weight in leaves, and K+ was translocated from roots to leaves. Willow genotypes CAM-2 and STL-2 displayed the greatest maintenance of growth and resistance to necrotic symptoms in all trials, suggesting that these genotypes may be useful for practical application and further field study.

First record of Crithidia expoeki (Trypanosomatida: Trypanosomatidae) from native Canadian bumble bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Bombus)

Bumble bees (Bombus Latrielle: Apidae) are important pollinators; however, declines of several species have been documented worldwide. Although pathogens have been linked to some declines, the biology, distribution, and impacts of most pathogens are poorly understood. Here, we report the first record of a recently characterized protozoan pathogen, Crithidia expoeki Schmid-Hempel & Tognazzo (Trypanosomatida: Trypanosomatidae), from bumble bees in Canada. This provides further insight on its global distribution and importance as a threat to bumble bees in Canada.

Gender Perspectives in Lee Maracle’s I am Woman

Lee Maracle is a prolific Native Canadian woman writer, whose memoir I Am Woman abounds with gender perspectives. In I Am Woman Maracle discusses about the oppression of Native women and the anti-woman attitude of the Native men. Violence over Native women are expounded with incidents from Native women’s lives in some of the remarkable chapters like Rusty. In I Am Woman Lee Maracle also discusses about the violence within and outside Native women’s home. The paper also tells us how Native women are doubly oppressed and how their contribution towards society goes unrecognized. It also discusses how Native women are considered as subhuman. The paper at its conclusion points out how Native women attempt to reconstruct their society inspite of oppression.

One Indigenous Academic’s Evolution: A Personal Narrative of Native Health Research and Competing Ways of Knowing

Indigenous health research should reflect the needs and benefits of the participants and their community as well as academic and practitioner interests. The research relationship can be viewed as co-constructed by researchers, participants, and communities, but this nature often goes unrecognized because it is confined by the limits of Western epistemology. Dominant Western knowledge systems assume an objective reality or truth that does not support multiple or subjective realities, especially knowledge in which culture or context is important, such as in Indigenous ways of knowing. Alternatives and critiques of the current academic system of research could come from Native conceptualizations and philosophies, such as Indigenous ways of knowing and Indigenous protocols, which are increasingly becoming more prominent both Native and non-Native societies. This paper contains a narrative account by an Indigenous researcher of her personal experience of the significant events of her doctoral research, which examined the narratives of Native Canadian counselors’ understanding of traditional and contemporary mental health and healing. As a result of this narrative, it is understood that research with Indigenous communities requires a different paradigm than has been historically offered by academic researchers. Research methodologies employed in Native contexts must come from Indigenous values and philosophies for a number of important reasons and with consequences that impact both the practice of research itself and the general validity of research results. In conclusion, Indigenous ways of knowing can form a new basis for understanding contemporary health research with Indigenous peoples and contribute to the evolution of Indigenous academics and research methodologies in both Western academic and Native community contexts.

If We Show Them Will They Come? Attitudes of Native American Youth Towards Higher Education

Indigenous health research should reflect the needs and benefits of the participants and their community as well as academic and practitioner interests. The research relationship can be viewed as co-constructed by researchers, participants, and communities, but this nature often goes unrecognized because it is confined by the limits of Western epistemology. Dominant Western knowledge systems assume an objective reality or truth that does not support multiple or subjective realities, especially knowledge in which culture or context is important, such as in Indigenous ways of knowing. Alternatives and critiques of the current academic system of research could come from Native conceptualizations and philosophies, such as Indigenous ways of knowing and Indigenous protocols, which are increasingly becoming more prominent both Native and non-Native societies. This paper contains a narrative account by an Indigenous researcher of her personal experience of the significant events of her doctoral research, which examined the narratives of Native Canadian counselors’ understanding of traditional and contemporary mental health and healing. As a result of this narrative, it is understood that research with Indigenous communities requires a different paradigm than has been historically offered by academic researchers. Research methodologies employed in Native contexts must come from Indigenous values and philosophies for a number of important reasons and with consequences that impact both the practice of research itself and the general validity of research results. In conclusion, Indigenous ways of knowing can form a new basis for understanding contemporary health research with Indigenous peoples and contribute to the evolution of Indigenous academics and research methodologies in both Western academic and Native community contexts.

‘The worst loups-garous that one can meet’: Reading the Werewolf in the Canadian ‘Wilderness’

Ginger Snaps (2000) has been recognised as a significant example of feminist horror. This article analyses the final film in the trilogy, Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning (2004). On first appearance, Ginger Snaps Back reacts to the ending of the first film, in which Brigitte kills her lupine sister Ginger. Set in the nineteenth century, the film draws on Canadian Gothic tropes with the two sisters trapped in an isolated fort, surrounded by frozen forest. In doing so, it echoes another Canadian werewolf narrative, Henry Beaugrand's ‘The Werwolves' (1898). Beaugrand's story opens with a group of settler-colonisers spending the Christmas period in Fort Richelieu, Quebec. This location evokes North American fears, and the representation of the wooded wilderness as full of wild beasts and wild men. Beaugrand collapses the ‘wild beasts’ and ‘wild men’ into one hybrid monster. By comparing the depiction of werewolves in Ginger Snaps Back and Beaugrand's story, this article uncovers the implications of ignoring and appropriating Native Canadian folklore.