Qwul'sih'yah'maht Robina Thomas

Qwul'sih'yah'maht, Dr. Robina Thomas is Lyackson of the Coast Salish Nation. She holds a BSW, MSW, and a PhD in Indigenous Governance.

Robina is committed to Indigenous education and her research interests include storytelling, residential schools and Uy'skwuluwun: on being Indigenous. She is dedicated to understanding anti-racism and anti-oppression and how these can be 'lived'.

Research interests

• Residential schools
• Indigenous ways of knowing and being
• Indigenous women and children
• Social work education
• Storytelling

Selected publications

Books & Book Sections

• Kundouqk (Jacquie Green) and Qwul’sih’yah’maht (Robina Thomas). (2015). Children in the Centre: Indigenous Perspectives on Anti-Oppressive Child Welfare Practice. In Susan Strega and Sohki Aski Esquao (Jeannine Carriere) (Eds.) (2nd Ed.) Walking This Path Together: Anti-Racist and Anti-Oppressive Child Welfare Practice. Fernwood Publishing.
• Thomas, R. (2015) Honouring the Oral Traditions of my Ancestors through Storytelling. Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press. In Brown, L. and Strega, S. (Eds) (2nd Ed.) Research as Resistance: Critical, Indigenous and Anti-Oppressive Approaches, Canadian Scholars’ Press: Toronto.
• Charbonneau S., Thomas, R., Janzen, C., Carriére, J., Strega, S. (2014) Storying the untold. In Dawn Memee Lavell-Harvard and Kim Anderson (eds.). Mothers of the Nations: Indigenous Mothering as Global Resistance, Reclaiming and Recovery. Demeter Press.
• Thomas, R. (2013). Violence and Terror in a Colonized Country: Canada’s Indian Residential School System. In Perera, S. & Razack, S. (Eds.) At the Limits of Justice: Women of Colour Theorize Terror. University of Toronto Press.
• Carriere, J. and Thomas, R. (2013). Indigenous Children and State Care: The Dark Underside of Citizenship. In Lena Dominelli and Mehmoona Moosa-Mitha (Eds.) Reconfiguring Citizenship. Ashgate Publishing Ltd.
• Thomas, Robina. (2013). Xwulmuxw Slheni and Peoplehood. In Jeff Corntassel and Tom Holm (Eds.) The Power Of Peoplehood: Contemporary Indigenous Community-Building. University of Texas Press (in press).
• Kundouqk (Jacquie Green) and Qwul’sih’yah’maht (Robina Thomas). (2009). Children in the Centre: Indigenous Perspectives on Anti-Oppressive Child Welfare Practice. In Susan Strega and Sohki Aski Esquao (Jeannine Carriere) (Eds.) Walking This Path Together: Anti-Racist and Anti-Oppressive Child Welfare Practice. Fernwood Publishing.
• Thomas, Robina. (2009). For Kayla John. In Monture, P. & McGuire, P. (Eds.). First Voices: an aboriginal women’s reader. Toronto: ON. Inanna Publications and Education Inc. (pp.325-332).
• Green, J. and Thomas, R. (2007) Learning Through Our Children, Healing For Our Children: Best Practice In First Nations Communities. In Dominelli, L. (ed) Communities in a Globalising World: Theory and Practice for Community Empowerment. Ashgate Pub.: U.K.
• Green, J., Kovach, K., Montgomery, H., Thomas, R. and Brown, L. (2007) Witnessing Wild Woman: Resistance and Resilience in Aboriginal Child Welfare. In Foster, L. and Wharf, B. (eds.) Politics, People, and Child Welfare in British Columbia. Vancouver: BC:UBC Press.
• Thomas, R. (2005) Honouring the Oral Traditions of my Ancestors through Storytelling. Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press. In Brown, L. and Strega, S. (Eds) Research as Resistance: Critical, Indigenous and Anti-Oppressive Approaches, Canadian Scholars’ Press: Toronto

Journal Articles

• Strega, S., Janzen, C., Brown, L., Carriere, J., Morgan, N.J., & Thomas, R. (2013). Never innocent victims: Street sex workers in Canadian print media (VAW-11-07-0011) accepted to Violence Against Women January 9, 2013.
• Richardson, C., Thomas, R., Green, J. & Ormiston, T. (2012). Indigenous Specializations: Dreams, Developments, Delivery and Vision. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education. JIE 41(2).
• Thomas, R. (2008). For Kayla. In K. Anderson, et al. (Guest Eds.) Indigenous Women in Canada: The Voices of First Nations, Inuit and Métis Women. Canadian Woman Studies. 26(3,4) 208-212.
• Thomas, R. & Green, J. (2007) A way of life: Indigenous perspectives on anti oppressive living. First Peoples Child & Family Review: A Journal on Innovation and Best Practices in Aboriginal Child Welfare Administration, Research, Policy & Practice. Volume 3, Number 1, 2006, pp.91-104.
• Thomas, R. (2004) Laayksen Mustimuhw and Snuw’uy’ul. Celanen: A Journal of Indigenous Governance. Volume one, issue one. Indigenous Governance Program, University of Victoria.

Courses taught

• SOCW 354 - Indigenous Perspectives on Practice Issues
• SOCW 516 - Research Methodologies
• SOCW 304/402 - Social Work Practicum
• SOCW 521 - Indigenous Perspectives to Knowledge and Research
• SOCW 491 - Integration of Indigenous Approaches to Healing and Helping

Selected grants & awards

• "Someone’s mother, sister or daughter: Street sex workers, their families and transitioning out of street sex work". Susan Strega (PI), Leslie Brown, Jeannine Carriere, Robina Thomas. SSHRC
• "Learning Through our Children, Healing for our Children: Best Practice in First Nations Communities". Ministry of Children and Family Development. (2002).