Provenance of Holocene Calcareous Aeolianites, Eastern South Australia

The southeastern coast of South Australia contains a spectacular and world-renown suite of Quaternary calcareous aeolianites. This study is focused on the provenance of components in the Holocene sector of this carbonate breach-dune succession. Research was carried out along seven transects from ~30 meters water depth offshore across the beach and into the dunes. Offshore sediments were acquired via grab sampling and SCUBA. Results indicate that dunes of the southern Lacepede and Otway coasts in particular are mostly composed of modern invertebrate and calcareous algal allochems. The most numerous grains are from molluscs, benthic foraminifera, coralline algae, echinoids, and bryozoans. These particles originate in carbonate factories such as macroalgal forests, rocky reefs, seagrass meadows, and low-relief seafloor rockgrounds. The incorporation of carbonate skeletons into coastal dunes, however, depends on a combination of; 1) the infauna within intertidal and nearshore environments, 2) the physical characteristics of different allochems and their ability to withstand fragmentation and abrasion, 3) the wave and swell climate, and 4) the nature of aeolian transport. Most aeolian dune sediment is derived from nearshore and intertidal carbonate factories. This is particularly well illustrated by the abundance of robust infaunal bivalves that inhabit the nearshore sands and virtual absence of bryozoans that are common as sediment particles in water depths > 10mwd. Thus, the calcareous aeolianites in this cool-water carbonate region are not a reflection of the offshore marine shelf factories, but more a product of shallow nearshore-intertidal biomes.

Performing Resistance/Negotiating Sovereignty: Indigenous Women's Perofrmance Art in Canada

Performing Resistance/ Negotiating Sovereignty: Indigenous Women’s Performance Art In Canada investigates the contemporary production of Indigenous performance and video art in Canada in terms of cultural continuance, survivance and resistance. Drawing on critical Indigenous methodology, which foregrounds the necessity of privileging multiple Indigenous systems of knowledge, it explores these themes through the lenses of storytelling, decolonization, activism, and agency. With specific reference to performances by Rebecca Belmore, Lori Blondeau, Cheryl L'Hirondelle, Skeena Reece and Dana Claxton, as well as others, it argues that Indigenous performance art should be understood in terms of i) its enduring relationship to activism and resistance ii) its ongoing use as a tool for interventions in colonially entrenched spaces, and iii) its longstanding role in maintaining self-determination and cultural sovereignty.

Breaking New Ground: The First Generation of Women to Work as Professional Authors in English Canada (1880-1920)

In the later decades of the nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth, large numbers of Canadian women were stepping out of the shadows of private life and into the public world of work and political action. Among them, both a cause and an effect of these sweeping social changes, was the first generation of Canadian women to work as professional authors. Although these women were not unified by ideology, genre, or date of birth, they are studied here as a generation defined by their time and place in history, by their material circumstances, and by their collective accomplishment. Chapters which focus on E. Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake), the Eaton sisters (Sui Sin Far and Onoto Watanna), Joanna E. Wood, and Sara Jeannette Duncan explore some of the many commonalities and interrelationships among the members of this generation as a whole. This project combines archival research with analytical bibliography in order to clarify and extend our knowledge of Johnson’s and Duncan’s professional lives and publishing histories, and to recover some of Wood’s “lost” stories. This research offers a preliminary sketch of the long tradition of the platform performance (both Native and non-Native) with which Johnson and others engaged. It explores the uniquely innovative ethnographic writings of Johnson, Duncan, and the Eaton sisters, among others, and it explores thematic concerns which relate directly to the experiences of working women. Whether or not I convince other scholars to treat these authors as a generation, with more in common than has previously been supposed, the strong parallels revealed in these pages will help to clarify and contextualize some of their most interesting work.

Finding Common Ground: A Critical Review of Land Use and Resource Management Policies in Ontario, Canada and their Intersection with First Nations

This article provides an in-depth analysis of selective land use and resource management policies in the Province of Ontario, Canada. It examines their relative capacity to recognize the rights of First Nations and Aboriginal peoples and their treaty rights, as well as their embodiment of past Crown–First Nations relationships. An analytical framework was developed to evaluate the manifest and latent content of 337 provincial texts, including 32 provincial acts, 269 regulatory documents, 16 policy statements, and 5 provincial plans. This comprehensive document analysis classified and assessed how current provincial policies address First Nation issues and identified common trends and areas of improvement. The authors conclude that there is an immediate need for guidance on how provincial authorities can improve policy to make relationship-building a priority to enhance and sustain relationships between First Nations and other jurisdictions.

Long-term hydroclimatic change and interannual variability in water sources, Apex River (Iqaluit), Baffin Island, Nunavut

The eastern Canadian Arctic is home to Canada’s largest Indigenous population, which depends on local freshwater sources for drinking water. However, small watersheds have rarely been analyzed for long-term hydrologic response to changing climate. This study aims to address this issue by examining the Apex River, a small watershed with a long hydroclimatic record, near Iqaluit, Nunavut. Particular emphasis was placed on the long-term changes in climate and river discharge, and the seasonal variability of water sources between two snapshots in time, 1983 and 2013. Long-term hydrological data were obtained from gauge station 10UH002, operated by Environment and Climate Change Canada, and long-term meteorological data were acquired from Environment Canada–operated stations near Iqaluit Airport. Breakpoint analysis suggested that long-term mean annual surface air temperatures have increased since 1994. In contrast, no long-term total precipitation or annual discharge changes were observed. However, river flow initiation and cessation analyses of the Apex River flow season indicates that flow extended into the autumn since the 2000s. The 2013 flow season lasted 44 days longer than the 1983 flow season. Systematic river sampling was undertaken throughout the 2013 thaw season to determine contributing proportions of event (snowmelt or rainfall) and pre-event (baseflow) water to river runoff. Results from the stable isotope hydrograph separation for 2013 were compared to findings for 1983. Snow was the main source of water to the river during the snowmelt period in 1983 and 2013, however baseflow was still an important contributor. Although there was high similarity of water sources early in the season in 1983 and 2013, the two years differed during the autumn. In 2013 there was a high rainfall runoff response that was not present in 1983, suggesting high release of late-season sub-surface water storage and an increased sensitivity to late-season rainfall events in 2013. This research provides insights into the hydrologic response of the Apex River to long-term climatic change, and highlights the need for high-quality precipitation and discharge data for effective long-term hydrological assessment.

The Genetics of Postglacial Colonization and Peripherality in Northwestern Populations of the Spring Peeper, Pseudacris crucifer

Glaciation over the Pleistocene induced dramatic range fluctuations for species across North America such that postglacial recolonization by southern refugial lineages has characterized the genetic structure of northern North American species. Based on the leading edge model of postglacial range expansion, dispersal and rapid population growth in these northern taxa is expected to produce vast areas of genetic homogeneity. Previous work on the widely distributed spring peeper (Pseudacris crucifer) revealed six distinct mitochondrial lineages that diverged between 3-11 mya, expanding and contracting with glacial cycles. Beginning 16,000 yBP, receding glaciers permitted Eastern lineage refugia residing in the southern Appalachians to migrate northward into the St. Lawrence Valley then westward through most of central Canada. Peripheral populations at the northwestern range limit of P. crucifer in central Manitoba are likely descended from this westward expanding Eastern lineage. According to the central-marginal hypothesis, founder effects from colonization as well as limited gene flow is expected to reveal genetic differentiation and lower genetic diversity in peripheral populations. The goal of my study is to further our understanding of peripheral range dynamics in peripheral Manitoba populations of P. crucifer by determining their genetic affinity and diversity relative to more central populations in Ontario and Minnesota. In this study I amplified and aligned cytochrome b sequences from sample sites across central Manitoba to reconstruct a Bayesian phylogeny for P. crucifer; additionally, microsatellite loci were genotyped to estimate genetic diversity. Results from this study affirmed Eastern lineage descent for peripheral Manitoba sites by aligning with Ontario. Initial colonization by the Interior lineage between glacial retreat and the appearance of arid vicariance events may explain the apparent introgression of non-Eastern lineages in Manitoba. However, genetic diversity measured in expected heterozygosity (H¬e) was not found to be significantly different in Manitoba genotypes. Greater isolation by distance and inbreeding relative to Ontario and Minnesota is likely the primary driver of genetic variation in these sites. Further sampling is necessary to generate a more complete genetic population structure for P. crucifer.