This study of the eight Metis settlements in northern Alberta examines their history, legal status, government and politics, external and internal organizations, the issue of self-government and the opinions and attitudes of residents on a number of topics, and presents an unconventional approach to native self government.
In the last twenty years, there has been a growing interest in alternative dispute resolution (ADR), as scholars and practitioners seek more effective, context-sensitive approaches to conflict. Where formerly conflict was tackled and “resolved” in formal legal settings and with an adversarial spirit, more conciliatory approaches – negotiation, mediation, problem-solving, and arbitration – are now gaining favour. These new methods are proving especially appropriate in intercultural contexts, particularly for Aboriginal land claims, self-government, and community-based disputes. The essays collected here by Catherine Bell and David Kahane provide a balanced view of ADR, exploring its opportunities and effectiveness alongside its challenges and limits. The essays are international in scope, with examples of efforts at dispute resolution involving Inuit and Arctic peoples, Dene, Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en, Tsuu T’ina, Cree, Metis, Navajo, Maori, Aboriginal Australians, and Torres Strait Islanders. With contributions from Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal theorists and practitioners, Intercultural Dispute Resolution in Aboriginal Contexts presents an array of insightful perspectives. This book will appeal to students and scholars of Aboriginal law and alternative dispute resolution; legal and political theorists; dispute resolution practitioners; and anyone involved in struggles around land claims, treaty, and self-government agreements in Canada or abroad.
During the last decade, Alberta municipalities have endured hardships they have not faced since the Great Depression. Changes in the province's political structures appear to have been made primarily to transfer a greater share of the costs of local government to the municipalities, yet surprisingly few municipal politicians have resisted the province's financial policies.
This study examines the historical context of aboriginal (Indian, Métis, Inuit) socio-economic development in Canada, depicts current trends and future developments, offers models for the formulation of successful development strategies and looks at longterm prospects, and serves as a text for those studying the field for the purpose of professional training.
An examination of federal and provincial government responsibilities with respect to native peoples, these essays deal with the most appalling "political football" in Canadian politics. Specially commissioned experts in the field write on topics such as fiscal, legal and constitutional issues, and examine the circumstances of specific native groups in Canada.
The Spaces In Between examines prospects for the enhanced practice of Indigenous political sovereignty within the Canadian state. As Indigenous rights include the right to self-determination, the book contends that restored practices of Indigenous sovereignty constitute important steps forward in securing better relationships between Indigenous peoples and the Canadian state. While the Canadian state maintains its position of dominance with respect to the exercise of state sovereignty, Tim Schouls reveals how Indigenous nations are nevertheless carving out and reclaiming areas of significant political power as their own. By means of strategically acquired legal concessions, through hard-fought political negotiations, and sometimes through simple declarations of intent, Indigenous nations have repeatedly compelled the Canadian state to roll back its jurisdiction over them. In doing so, they have enhanced their prospects for political sovereignty within Canada. As such, they now increasingly occupy what Schouls refers to metaphorically as “the spaces in between.” The book asserts that occupation of these jurisdictional “spaces in between” not only goes some distance in meeting the requirements of Indigenous rights but also contributes to Indigenous community autonomy and well-being, enhancing prospects for reconciliation between Indigenous peoples and the Canadian state.
Historically, Aboriginal People have had little influence on the development of Native policy from within government. As a result, national, provincial, and regional Native political organizations have developed to lobby government on Native Peoples issues. Joe Sawchuk defines the various native groups in Canada and examines the origins of the organizations that represent them. He examines the structure of the organizations, their relationship with government, how the organizations fit within the context of the larger society, and the way in which power is consolidated within the organizations themselves. Many non-Native structures pervade Native, and especially Metis, political organizations. Using examples from his experience as director of land claims for the Metis Association of Alberta in the early 1980's, Sawchuk illustrates how Aboriginal organizations set their political agendas, and how federal and provincial funding and internal politics influence those agendas. The record of Native political organizations in Canada has been impressive. The questions continue to be are how their structures affect their ability to represent an Aboriginal point of view, whether government funding blunts their effectiveness, and how decreases in funding might affect them in the future.
Research on Indigenous issues rarely focuses on life in major metropolitan centres. Instead, there is a tendency to frame rural locations as emblematic of authentic or “real” Indigeneity. While such a perspective may support Indigenous struggles for territory and recognition, it fails to account for large swaths of contemporary Indigenous realities, including the increased presence of Indigenous people in cities. The contributors to this volume explore the implications of urbanization on the production of distinctive Indigenous identities in Canada, the US, New Zealand, and Australia. In doing so, they demonstrate the resilience, creativity, and complexity of the urban Indigenous presence, both in Canada and internationally.
Exploring the relationship between the role of education and Indigenous survival, Digital Storytelling in Indigenous Education is an ethnographic exploration of how digital storytelling can be part of a broader project of decolonization of individuals, their families, and communities. By recounting how a remote Indigenous (Métis) community were able to collectively imagine, plan and produce numerous unique digital stories representing counter-narratives to the dominant version of Canadian history, Poitras Pratt provides frameworks, approaches and strategies for the use of digital media and arts for the purpose of cultural memory, community empowerment, and mobilization. The volume provides a valuable example of how a community-based educational project can create and restore intergenerational exchanges through modern media, and covers topics such as: Introducing the Métis and their community; decolonizing education through a Métis approach to research; the ethnographic journey; and translating the work of decolonizing to education. Digital Storytelling in Indigenous Education is the perfect resource for researchers, academics, and postgraduate students in the fields of Indigenous education, comparative education, and technology education, or those looking to explore the role of modern media in facilitating healing and decolonization in a marginalized community. .
In A People and a Nation, the authors, most of whom are Métis, offer readers a set of lenses through which to consider the complexity of historical and contemporary Métis nationhood and peoplehood. The field of Métis Studies has been afflicted by a longstanding tendency to situate Métis within deeply racialized contexts, and/or by an overwhelming focus on the nineteenth century. This volume challenges the pervasive racialization of Métis studies with multidisciplinary chapters on identity, history, politics, literature, spirituality, religion, and kinship networks, reorienting the conversation toward Métis experiences today.
