Wta'tukwaqanm - herstory

Darrigan, Sara Leah (2025) Wta'tukwaqanm - herstory. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

[English] PDF - Accepted Version Available under License - The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission. Download (15MB)

Abstract

In Wta'tukwaqanm², meaning her story, I explore the tension between Western, Eurocentric education systems and Indigenous pedagogy through Indigenous autoethnography. Privileging the role of storytelling as a means of intergenerational knowledge transmission, Wta'tukwaqanm presents a collection of reflective writing that weaves through a circle of seven interconnected elements of learning—spirituality, identity, land, people, language, story, and relationships. Each element draws inspiration from the “Mi’kmaq Creation Story³,” told by Mi’kmaw Elder Stephen Augustine, as it is interpreted and retold through the perspective of Crow. Crow flies into the data presented within the seven chapters of this thesis and helps me to decolonize my thinking by drawing connections between Mi’kmaw values held in the seven levels of creation and the fundamental elements of learning. In response to the dominant discourse of Western, Eurocentric education, the seven chapters presented in Wta'tukwaqanm provide a model of learning that, while tied to the core of my own identity, can also support the non-assimilative coexistence of differing worldviews. Learning framed in the interconnected aspects of self, and what it means to be human in relation to all of creation, offers an alternative model of learning rooted in relationships and responsibilities.

Actions (login required)

View Item