The politics and process of partnership, a case study of the Aboriginal Healing and Wellness Strategy

grantor: University of TorontoThis dissertation explores new Aboriginal-Canadian relations that seek to move beyond colonial social relations and discourses. While both Aboriginal and Canadian societies may desire a just and workable relationship, competing visions and understandings of what constitutes the post-colonial operate as a sub-text in actual policy negotiations between Aboriginal and Canadian governments. Cultural difference, as articulated through Aboriginal epistemology and embodied in the Aboriginal vision of co-existence, emerges as an unexplored terrain in liberal discourse. This helps to explain why many attempts at dialogue fail at the negotiating table. In addressing the issue of difference I argue that while liberal discourses may recognize Aboriginality as part of a pluralistic worldview, the failure to enter into and embrace the content of that difference prevents new, truly bi-cultural relations from emerging. Because the content of difference is not entered into, an important epistemological dimension is left out of most analyses of Aboriginal-Canadian relations. A discussion of Aboriginal epistemology and postmodern positions on the issue of difference offers a partial resolution and way forward. Following Leonard, a move from domination and oppression requires a dual commitment to difference 'and' to solidarity that is based on a different ethic, that of interdependence. To understand the implications of this possibility for Aboriginal-Canadian co-existence, I analyze the development of the Aboriginal Healing and Wellness Strategy as a case study in joint policy-making involving a partnership between Aboriginal organizations and government ministries in Ontario. As a unique exercise, this partnership provides an instructive example of how such relations can be constructed when Aboriginal difference is taken into account and employed. Based on participants' accounts and my own engagement with Aboriginal epistemology, this case study reveals key dynamics in terms of the politics and the processes that can facilitate and impede movement towards an Aboriginal post-colonial vision of co-existence. The journey from the colonial to the post-colonial involves a shift from dichotomous ways of conceptualizing difference in relation to sameness towards a more wholistic, inclusive and dynamic conception that incorporates difference 'and' commonality discovered in the process of co-operating together.Ph.D