Preferential Policies and the Blurring of Ethnic Boundaries: The Case of Aboriginal Australians in the 1980s

2002 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 293-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Hoddie

I argue against the commonly held view that ethnically based preferential policies consistently lead to the construction of well-defined boundaries between collectivities. Using a statistical study of Australia as a case, I demonstrate that preferential programs, under certain conditions, may blur the boundaries between groups. This trend is reflected in the growing number of individuals in the early 1980s who chose to claim an Aboriginal identity in Australian states that increasingly recognized indigenous land claims.

2009 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 417-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christa Scholtz

Abstract. Governments and Indigenous groups bargain under the shadow of the law, and this paper pushes the judicial politics research agenda by examining empirically whether flickers in law's shadow systematically affect the implementation of the Canadian government's negotiation choice in the Indigenous land rights context. Through interviews and a time series analysis of Canada's specific claims policy, I find that judicial uncertainty increases the federal government's propensity to accept specific claims for negotiation. However, there is evidence that Indigenous protest action during the Oka crisis and Elijah Harper's role in scuttling the Meech Lake constitutional accord, more than other factors, greatly impacted the federal budget allocated towards negotiation.Résumé. Les négociations entre les gouvernements et les groupes autochtones se déroulent sous les auspices de la loi, et le présent document examine le programme de recherche sur les politiques légales afin de déterminer de façon empirique si certaines imprécisions dans la loi influent sur les options retenues par le gouvernement du Canada en ce qui concerne les droits sur les terres autochtones. Une analyse statistique de la politique de revendication en vigueur au Canada ainsi qu'un certain nombre d'entrevues m'ont permis de constater l'existence d'un flou juridique qui amène le gouvernement fédéral à accepter d'examiner certaines revendications spécifiques à la table des négociations. Il semble toutefois que certains incidents particuliers, comme les gestes de protestation posés par les autochtones lors de la crise d'Oka, ou le rôle joué par Elijah Harper dans l'échec de l'Accord constitutionnel du lac Meech, aient eu une incidence marquée sur l'importance des sommes allouées par le gouvernement fédéral à ces négociations.


2020 ◽  
pp. 711-734
Author(s):  
Anthony Stocks ◽  
Manuela Ruiz Reyes ◽  
Carlos Andrés Rios-Franco

This paper presents the work of the WCS with the A'i Indigenous people in Colombia as part of a USAID-funded project between 2009 and 2011. The project had several dimensions that make it unusual. Unlike conventional “counter-mapping” attempts to represent Indigenous land claims as a counter to government representations, the project sought to create maps and analyses that represent prior land assignments to the A'i by the Colombian government itself. These land assignments were not supported by geo-referenced maps and, in the case of Indigenous “reserves” the original boundary markers were only known to the oldest of the A'i people. Analysis of forest cover in lands controlled by the A'i reveal that they are highly protective of forests; indeed their collective identity is strongly related to forest cover. The process described also illustrates the difficult position many Indigenous Amazonians face in an era of drug wars, uncontrolled colonization, and in the case of Colombia, the lack of follow-up to the political and social measures envisioned in the 1991 Constitution.


Polar Record ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 422-431 ◽  
Author(s):  
John-Erik Kocho-Schellenberg ◽  
Fikret Berkes

ABSTRACTTo understand the interplay of factors that shape changes in management strategies, we tracked the evolution of beluga whale co-management involving the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the Fisheries Joint Management Committee (FJMC), and the Tuktoyaktuk Hunter and Trapper Committee from its beginnings in the mid-1980s to the present. The objective was to analyse changes over time in the communication network involved in dealing with the Husky Lakes beluga entrapment issue, using social network analysis (SNA). Along with qualitative information, the use of SNA provided quantitative data to document the development of co-management over time. According to both government and indigenous parties, a fully functional problem-solving partnership developed over the course of two decades. Using the beluga case as the illustration, we traced the development of joint management processes, overcoming some of the initial obstacles and accommodating the needs of the various parties. This case demonstrates the importance of legal arrangements (the indigenous land claims agreement), the role of key individuals and the bridging organisation (FJMC) created by the agreement, and the maturation of co-management over time.


2010 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynn Horton

This article examines collective identities as both a resource and constraint in framing processes of social mobilization through a case study of Panama's Kuna Indians, one of Latin America's most effectively organized indigenous peoples. It highlights tensions between movement nurturance of distinct indigenous identity as intrinsically valuable and to a degree counterhegemonic and instrumental use of an environmental frame to advance indigenous land claims. This article also explores shifts in dominant discourse and institutional practices that provide both opportunities for identity-based movements as well as risks. One way identity groups address tensions between appropriation of externally generated frames for instrumental goals and the nurturing of distinct collective identities is to manage multiple frames aimed at distinct audiences with distinct content. errors are the sole responsibility of the author.


Author(s):  
Thalia Anthony

Negotiating Indigenous land rights has become known as the new third way. It is the alternative to native title claims and claims under land rights legislation. Negotiation of land and other customary rights is a source of empowerment in a contemporary political climate that is otherwise paternalistic. It allows Indigenous people to be involved in setting the terms of land claims in terms of compensation, land access, native title rights, conservation and even governance rights. Already, over 3000 voluntary negotiations have led to settled outcomes with governments, mining companies and other stakeholders


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