| This thesis offers a literature review toward the issues of how non-indigenous knowledges, discourses, and legal systems seek to regulate the boundaries of indigenous self-definition in Canada. It will sketch the framework of an interdisciplinary theoretical analysis in hopes of interrogating issues around kinship, intimacy, identity and colonization. The project will examine relevant epistemologies, discursive tools, jurisprudence, legislation and case law to analyze issues of family and belonging in consideration of how the intimate grid contracts and restricts to legitimate certain forms of social affectivity over others.;By analyzing the emphasis on paternity and normative familial structures the state has benchmarked for the apportioning of Indian status, this project hopes to more closely scrutinize the investments in 'appropriate' social formation held by the Canadian judicial and legislative apparatus, consider the systematic impact exerted upon Aboriginal peoples, and take stock of the material rights and benefits extended or withheld as a result. |
