Leisure as a Context for Justice: Experiences of Ceremony for Aboriginal Women in Prison

Leisure researchers are increasingly encouraged to question invisible assumptions that have shaped our current understanding and facilitation of leisure (Shaw, 2000). Researchers have limited understandings of leisure and perhaps it is time to allow others to define leisure within the context of their experiences (Allison, Schneider & Valentine, 2000). According to Henderson (1998), "if we want to understand the meanings of leisure in society, then we must do our best to acknowledge that social, cultural, and historical differences do exist among people whom we research" (p. 160).The purpose of this paper is to examine the leisure experiences of Aboriginal women in a Canadian federal prison as they engaged in traditional ceremony. Conceptualized as leisure, these ceremonies were examined in the context of justice by exploring the women's resistance to oppression and loss of identity rooted in colonization. Through ceremony, their identities and understanding of being Aboriginal evolved. The study predominantly focused on, though was not limited to, traditional cultural ceremonies such as the annual Pow Wow and Sweat Lodge ceremonies held in the prison.The epistemological roots of this research are grounded in critical race theory (CRT) which questions the effect of white supremacy over people of racial minority (Parker & Lynn, 2002). This research is, therefore, concerned with making visible the injustices of race and racism that are embedded within society. Particularly relevant here is that CRT has been criticized by researchers, such as Lawrence and Dua (2005), for its exclusion of Aboriginal considerations, notably the colonized experiences of the past and present. Colonization refers to discursive or political suppression of heterogeneity (Mohanty, 2003). Accordingly, colonization, in the experiences of Aboriginal peoples in Canada, was directed towards the elimination of their race and cultures (Haig-Brown, 1998). Placing Aboriginal children in residential schools, the Sixties Scoop2, legislation banning the coordination and participation of cultural traditions, and other decrees legislated by Canada" s Indian Act are all a part of the systemic structure that contributed to the genocide of Aboriginal communities (Haig-Brown; Smith, 2005; Spears, 2006). In the 21st Century, Aboriginal peoples continue to be marginalized and oppressed by the systemic structures that represent and reinforce western ideologies. As explained by Spears, "within the framework of institutionalized racism and colonization, members of the dominant group are able to misuse their powers, which they have done in so many ways and for some many years, that it becomes normal for them" (p. 82). Lawrence and Dua contend that ongoing colonization shapes the way in which notions of race and racism are conceptualized. They further point out that CRT research "fail [s] to raise let alone explore the ways in which [Aboriginal] identities have been articulated through colonization" (p. 128).With this criticism of CRT in mind, this study recognized that the experiences of marginalization for Aboriginal women were linked to systemic discrimination and attitudes based on racial and cultural prejudice. The study also recognized that the low socio-economic status and history of substance abuse and violence across generations of Aboriginal peoples were rooted in over 500 years of oppression and control.In this paper, we begin by providing an introduction to Aboriginal women and their presence within Canada's federal corrections system. We consider how leisure contributed to the disintegration of Aboriginal cultures. At the same time, we acknowledge the potential to resist dominant structures and ideologies through ceremony; and in this study, ceremony is conceptualized as leisure. Following the presentation of the study's findings, we posit that ceremony as leisure can play a role in the advancement of Aboriginal justice, which is manifest in harmony and balance. …