Community Development with Indigenous Communities: Facilitating the Creation of Appropriate Environments [Collections Canada]

"This thesis proposes an integrated framework for organizing information and subsequently acting as a diagnostic and predictive tool for those working in the area of community development with indigenous peoples, but with potential universal scope. Discussion within the thesis utilizes examples and information from work with indigenous peoples in Australia, Canada and New Zealand. The framework is composed of a hierarchy of community development (derived from Maslow's hierarchy of human needs) integrated within a value system, and a hierarchy of cultural influence. Discussion of the Framework is divided into three areas: 1) essential needs and the ethics of crisis-control, 2) community function and planning paradigms, and 3) community actualization and how design theory applies to developing meaning in the landscape. Theoretical and practical support are given for this framework, and operationalization of the framework is offered within a paradigm of community development through participatory self determination. "