As a Social Worker in Northern First Nations, am I also a Peacebuilder?

• Main Author: Clarke, Mary Anne
• Other Authors: Senehi, Jessica (Peace and Conflict Studies), Byrne, Sean (Peace and Conflict Studies) Funk-Unrau, Neil (University of Winnipeg) Thompson, Shirley (Natural Resources Institute)
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: Peacebuilding; Social Work; First Nations; Manitoba; Aboriginal Justice Inquiry; Indian Residential Schools; Child and Family Services; Colonization; Genocide; Autoethnography; Indian
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1993/30229

Through this Peace and Conflict Studies autoethnography, I relate my stories in relationship to the First Nations lands and peoples of Northern Manitoba within the context of Child and Family Services. The stories identify relationships between social work interventions and peace-building interventions with examples of my contributions to the structural violence of colonization through assimilation, and my interventions that are consistent with peace-building to reverse the assimilation of colonization. The theories of structural violence, colonization, assimilation and genocide provide the framework to tell the anecdotal stories to identify the complex relationships. My stories describe my emotions of inner conflict and turmoil as I identify the day-to-day challenges ingrained within the system to build peace by reversing the tide of removing children from their families, communities, cultures and identities. The stories also identify some successes of peace-building by strengthening and unifying families and communities in response to experiences of colonization. February 2015