Collaborative approaches to governance for water and Indigenous peoples: A case study from British Columbia, Canada

Geoforum ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 50 ◽  
pp. 149-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne von der Porten ◽  
Robert C. de Loë
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Indigenous Peoples

“This Is Going to Affect Our Lives”: Exploring Huu-ay-aht First Nations, the Government of Canada and British Columbia’s New Relationship Through the Implementation of the Maa-nulth Treaty

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 309-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanessa Sloan Morgan ◽  
Heather Castleden ◽  
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
First Nations ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
150Th Anniversary ◽  
Canadian Provinces ◽  
The Government ◽  
Government Of Canada

AbstractCanada celebrated its 150th anniversary since Confederation in 2017. At the same time, Canada is also entering an era of reconciliation that emphasizes mutually respectful and just relationships between Indigenous Peoples and the Crown. British Columbia (BC) is uniquely situated socially, politically, and economically as compared to other Canadian provinces, with few historic treaties signed. As a result, provincial, federal, and Indigenous governments are attempting to define ‘new relationships’ through modern treaties. What new relationships look like under treaties remains unclear though. Drawing from a comprehensive case study, we explore Huu-ay-aht First Nations—a signatory of the Maa-nulth Treaty, implemented in 2011—BC and Canada’s new relationship by analysing 26 interviews with treaty negotiators and Indigenous leaders. A disconnect between obligations outlined in the treaty and how Indigenous signatories experience changing relations is revealed, pointing to an asymmetrical dynamic remaining in the first years of implementation despite new relationships of modern treaty.

scholarly journals One Pipeline and Two Impact Assessments: Coproduction, Legal Pluralism, and the Trans Mountain Expansion Project

2021 ◽  
pp. 016224392110573
Author(s):  
Ian G. Stewart ◽  
Moira E. Harding
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Scientific Practice ◽  
Legal Pluralism ◽  
The Other ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
Pipeline Project

Canada’s Trans Mountain Expansion Pipeline project is one of the country’s most controversial in recent history. At the heart of the controversy lie questions about how to conduct impact assessments (IAs) of oil spills in marine and coastal ecosystems. This paper offers an analysis of two such IAs: one carried out by Canada through its National Energy Board and the other by Tsleil-Waututh Nation, whose unceded ancestral territory encompasses the last twenty-eight kilometers of the project’s terminus in the Burrard Inlet, British Columbia. The comparison is informed by a science and technology studies approach to coproduction, displaying the close relationship between IA law and applied scientific practice on both sides of the dispute. By attending to differing perspectives on concepts central to IA such as significance and mitigation, this case study illustrates how coproduction supports legal pluralism’s attention to diverse forms of world making inherent in IA. We close by reflecting on how such attention is relevant to Canada’s ongoing commitments, including those under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Controlling Land: Historical Representations of News Discourse in British Columbia

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 65-92
Author(s):  
Robert Harding
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
First Nations ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
The Political ◽  
Special Interest Groups ◽  
News Discourse ◽  
First Case ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Will

News discourse about treaty issues privileges postcolonial discourses about ownership and governance of land and excludes a wide range of indigenous voices. this paper explores how news items interweave the frame “indigenous peoples as a threat” into their coverage of two events, analyzed as separate case studies, that have significant implications for the control of land in British Columbia. The first case study event is the Nisga'a's 1998 referendum on the Nisga'a Treaty and the second is the 2002 British Columbia Treaty Referendum. Reportage of both events was highly racialized and organized around the presumed threat that indigenous peoples pose to settler values. Discourse orbits around several rhetorical arguments, including “‘our’ government is colluding with First Nations to impose race-based governments on British Columbians; and “the will of the majority must prevail over the political maneuverings of minorities and other ‘special interest groups.'” While news discourse focused on the potentially destructive impact of treaties on settler interests, any discussion of the enormous risks treaties represent for indigenous peoples was completely absent.

Northern Environmental Justice: A Case Study of Place, Indigenous Peoples, and Industrial Development in Northeastern British Columbia, Canada

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Annie L. Booth
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Industrial Development ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Oil And Gas Development ◽  
Indigenous Nations ◽  
Canadian Context ◽  
Indigenous Sovereignty

This case study introduces the concepts of place-based and Indigenous environmental justice as well as the theory of Indigenous sovereignty, as articulated within a Canadian context and considers their application with respect to the Indigenous peoples with traditional territories within the borders of Canada. The specific legal and industrial contexts affecting Indigenous peoples in Canada are briefly examined to frame two cases of environmental justice issues in the northeastern corner of British Columbia. The two cases are oil and gas development and the proposed development of a new dam which will represent the largest industrial development in Canada in the last several decades. The perspectives of British Columbia Treaty 8 Indigenous Nations on the impacts of these industrial developments are presented.

Culture, Identity and Actor Training: Indigeneity in New Zealand's National Drama School

2021 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-88
Author(s):  
PETER ZAZZALI
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Actor Training ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
Fulbright Scholar ◽  
Ethnographic Methodology

How can indigeneity be understood through training actors in a colonial context? Do ‘Western’ acting schools misrepresent and exploit indigenous practices and cultural traditions towards reinforcing the settler state? Or does a given school's integration of such praxis and customs demonstrate inclusivity, equity and progressivism? At what point does incorporating indigeneity in actor training become a tokenistic appropriation of marginalized cultures? Drawn from fieldwork as a 2019 Fulbright scholar at Toi Whakaari, New Zealand's National Drama School, I intersect training with culture and society. Using the Acting Program as a case study, I deploy an ethnographic methodology to address the aforementioned questions by investigating Toi Whakaari's bicultural pedagogy while positioning it as a reflection of New Zealand's national identity. I especially explore the school's implementation of Tikanga Māori, the practices and beliefs of the country's indigenous peoples. I argue that while some questions remain, Toi Whakaari integrates Māori forms in a manner that is culturally responsible and pedagogically effective, thereby providing a model from which other drama schools can learn.

Ignoring evidence, producing inequities: public policies, disability and the case of Kaiowá and Guarani Indigenous children with disabilities in Brazil

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rayanne de Sales Lima ◽  
Andréa Borghi Moreira Jacinto ◽  
Rodrigo Arthuso Arantes Faria
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Children With Disabilities ◽  
Task Force ◽  
Public Policies ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Intersectoral Collaboration ◽  
Situational Analysis ◽  
Culturally Appropriate ◽  
Indigenous Children

Backround: An inter-institutional task force was brought together in 2018 to evaluate the irregular institutionalisation of Guarani and Kaiowá Indigenous children with disabilities in Dourados, in central-western Brazil.Aims and objectives: We draw on this case study to undertake a ‘situational analysis’ on the existence/absence and the use/non-use of evidence in the evaluation of public policies regarding Indigenous children with disabilities. By critically analysing concrete practices in the context of multilevel intersectoral dialogue and joint action of state bodies and civil society, we aim to highlight the effective and potential gains from using Culturally Appropriate Evidence (CAE) at the intersection of policies on children, Indigenous peoples and people with disabilities.Methods: We used a case study approach to analyse the precedents, development and ramifications of the task force, examine the legal framework regulating the rights of Indigenous children with disabilities, and describe the process of institutionalisation of Indigenous children in the Dourados region in the first two decades of the 21st century.Findings: We identified that inter-institutional and intersectoral collaboration enhances the development of CAE and the instrumentalisation of intersectoral alternatives.Discussion and conclusions: Although entrenched institutional bureaucratic culture, and the absence of mechanisms for participation and consultation with Indigenous peoples, can create obstacles to the formulation and use of these kinds of evidence in public policies, the production of evidence through the articulated and collaborative effort of agents can offer, when there are political conditions for it, the necessary conditions to develop culturally appropriate solutions for complex scenarios.<br />Key messages<br /><ul><li>The participation of policy beneficiaries is a necessary condition for the production of culturally qualified evidence;</li><br /><li>Institutional racism is an obstacle to the formulation and implementation of public policies based on culturally appropriate evidence;</li><br /><li>Intersector and inter-institutional links help to improve public service delivery and public policy implementation.</li></ul>

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