Aboriginal Autonomy And Development In Northern Quebec And Labrador

The Canadian North is witness to some of the most innovative efforts by Aboriginal peoples to reshape their relations with "mainstream" political and economic structures. Northern Quebec and Labrador are particularly dynamic examples of these efforts, composed of First Nations territories that until the 1970s had never been subject to treaty but are subject to escalating industrial demands for natural resources. The essays in this volume illuminate key conditions for autonomy and development: the definition and redefinition of national territories as cultural orders clash and mix; control of resource bases upon which northern economies depend; and renewal and reworking of cultural identity.

It is from the land that the Native peoples of Canada draw their strength.If the people of Quebec claim a right to sovereignty, Inuit of Quebec argue their right of self-determination empowers them with the choice to remain part of Quebec, of Canada or to secede on their own.The James Bay Cree consider Hydro Quebec’s "mad plans to engineer and dam the vast ecosystem" where they have lived for centuries an affront to their own right to control their land.The Labrador Innu are struggling with both the federal and provincial governments to protect their traditional hunting territories from threats imposed by military training flights and mineral exploration.All of these are challenges. As the Native peoples of Canada are meeting them, asserting their right to make choices for themselves, they stand steadfastly "on the land" from which flow their inherent rights to self-determination."We are not willing to be bystanders and spectators. We are not willing to have our political status once again determined by others."– Zebedee Nungak, President of Makivik, representing Inuit of Northern Quebec"Great Whale is only a symptom. The attempted dispossession of my people, and the purported extinguishment of our rights, is the cause."– Matthew Coon Come, Grand Chief of the Grand Council of the Cree"The real solution to the problems that face the Innu people is recognition by Canada and Newfoundland of our rights, rights to our land and our way of life. We can not and will not settle for anything less."– Daniel Ashini, Director of Innu Rights and Environment for the Innu Nation.

Inuit of Quebec argue their right of self-determination empowers them with the choice to remain part of Quebec or of Canada or to secede on their own.

It is from the land that the Native peoples of Canada draw their strength. If the people of Quebec claim a right to sovereignty, Inuit of Quebec argue their right of self-determination empowers them with the choice to remain part of Quebec, of Canada or to secede on their own. The James Bay Cree consider Hydro Quebec’s "mad plans to engineer and dam the vast ecosystem" where they have lived for centuries an affront to their own right to control their land. The Labrador Innu are struggling with both the federal and provincial governments to protect their traditional hunting territories from threats imposed by military training flights and mineral exploration. All of these are challenges. As the Native peoples of Canada are meeting them, asserting their right to make choices for themselves, they stand steadfastly "on the land" from which flow their inherent rights to self-determination. "We are not willing to be bystanders and spectators. We are not willing to have our political status once again determined by others." – Zebedee Nungak, President of Makivik, representing Inuit of Northern Quebec "Great Whale is only a symptom. The attempted dispossession of my people, and the purported extinguishment of our rights, is the cause." – Matthew Coon Come, Grand Chief of the Grand Council of the Cree "The real solution to the problems that face the Innu people is recognition by Canada and Newfoundland of our rights, rights to our land and our way of life. We can not and will not settle for anything less." – Daniel Ashini, Director of Innu Rights and Environment for the Innu Nation

Transcontinental Dialogues brings together Indigenous and non-Indigenous anthropologists from Mexico, Canada, and Australia who work at the intersections of Indigenous rights, advocacy, and action research. These engaged anthropologists explore how obligations manifest in differently situated alliances, how they respond to such obligations, and the consequences for anthropological practice and action. This volume presents a set of pieces that do not take the usual political or geographic paradigms as their starting point; instead, the particular dialogues from the margins presented in this book arise from a rejection of the geographic hierarchization of knowledge in which the Global South continues to be the space for fieldwork while the Global North is the place for its systematization and theorization. Instead, contributors in Transcontinental Dialogues delve into the interactions between anthropologists and the people they work with in Canada, Australia, and Mexico. This framework allows the contributors to explore the often unintended but sometimes devastating impacts of government policies (such as land rights legislation or justice initiatives for women) on Indigenous people’s lives. Each chapter’s author reflects critically on their own work as activist-scholars. They offer examples of the efforts and challenges that anthropologists—Indigenous and non-Indigenous—confront when producing knowledge in alliances with Indigenous peoples. Mi’kmaq land rights, pan-Maya social movements, and Aboriginal title claims in rural and urban areas are just some of the cases that provide useful ground for reflection on and critique of challenges and opportunities for scholars, policy-makers, activists, allies, and community members. This volume is timely and innovative for using the disparate anthropological traditions of three regions to explore how the interactions between anthropologists and Indigenous peoples in supporting Indigenous activism have the potential to transform the production of knowledge within the historical colonial traditions of anthropology.

All cultures are concerned with the business of childbirth, so much so that it can never be described as a purely physiological or even psychological event. This volume draws together work from a range of anthropologists and midwives who have found anthropological approaches useful in their work. Using case studies from a variety of cultural settings, the writers explore the centrality of the way time is conceptualized, marked and measured to the ways of perceiving and managing childbirth: how women, midwives and other birth attendants are affected by issues of power and control, but also actively attempt to change established forms of thinking and practice. The stories are engaging as well as critical and invite the reader to think afresh about time, and about reproduction.

Indigenous knowledges are the subject of much discussion and debate in many contemporary academic fields. This is no less true in the fields of education and development studies—two fields with long histories of interaction with indigenous knowledges and peoples. Yet, despite this similar level of interest and interaction, there has yet to emerge a book that draws together the two fields as they interact with and learn from indigenous epistemologies.

Human Rights and the Third World: Issues and Discourses deals with the controversial questions on the universalistic notions of human rights. It finds Third World perspectives on human rights and seeks to open up a discursive space in the human rights discourse to address unresolved questions, citing issues and problems from different countries in the Third World: Whether alternative perspectives should be taken as the standard for human rights in the Third World countries? Should there be a universalistic notion of rights for Homo sapiens or are we talking about two diametrically opposite trends and standards of human rights for the same species? How far these Third World perspectives of human rights can ensure the protection of the minorities and the vulnerable sections of population, particularly the women and children within the Third World? Can these alternative perspectives help in fighting the Third World problems like poverty, hunger, corruption, despotism, social exclusion like the caste system in India, communalism, and the like? Can there be reconciliation between the Third World perspectives and the Western perspective of human rights?