In Search of the Aboriginal Self

Abstract

Notions of aboriginal cultural reclamation and healing presuppose the existence of distinctly aboriginal selves that were damaged or lost in a process of colonization and that those selves can be "restored" in some meaningful way. Such aboriginal healing has been done without a detailed examination of the selves of individuals to be assisted in this manner. This article examines the selves of four contemporary individuals with varying relationships to the concept of aboriginality using a method of mapping the self with elemental units of culture called "memes." It is suggested that a spectrum of healthy selves is possible for people who either identify with aboriginality culturally or satisfy a racial definition of the concept. The coevolution of the self and culture is discussed along with the utility of various definitions of what it means to be aboriginal in a North American context.

Coaching for continuous improvement in collaborative, interdisciplinary early childhood teams

“…Partnerships with professionals is a practice principle embedded in the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework (Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, 2016) that supports educators ‘to develop and refine their expertise’ and ‘work in partnership to improve the quality of children’s learning experiences and advance children’s learning and development’ (p. 16). The literature on coaching in the early childhood context notes multiple benefits of collaborative interdisciplinary partnerships that include alleviating the isolation that educators in early childhood education and care services experience, building educators’ skills in reflecting on their practices with children and examining the values and assumptions underpinning teaching experiences (Robertson, 2008; Twigg et al, 2013).…”

Graphing the Self: An application of graph theory to memetic self-mapping in psychotherapy

“…Since connotative and affective meaning may also serve to repel discordant ideas and concepts, a dynamic is thereby created allowing for the development of discreet and stable complexes of memes existent in individual minds. The self as mapped by Robertson (2010Robertson ( , 2011aRobertson ( , 2014Robertson ( , 2016 is such an interlocking complex of mutually attractive memes with such complexes exhibiting persistence and stability coupled with a capacity to change or evolve over time. Repellant memes may either exemplify "what the self is not" or introduce instability into the self.…”

“…Emotions, when triggered, could in turn activate specific clusters of her self-definition centered on themes such as "empowered", "family person", "love" or "anxious" (Robertson, 2014). Such emotions, in turn, could be triggered by internal factors such as memories, or by external contextual cues.…”

The infected self: Revisiting the metaphor of the mind virus

“…Such change was observed with respect to a young Chinese woman who, on moving to Canada to attend university, converted to an authoritarian Christian religious sect that served as a replacement for the parental direction she had experienced in China (Robertson, 2010). Incremental self-change was also tracked with respect to a young aboriginal man who assimilated memes associated with Amerindian and Asian spirituality (Robertson, 2014a).…”