Indigenous or Aboriginal Studies

Intégration profesionnelle des immigrants francophones dans le secteur des nouvelles technologies : une étude de cas au Manitoba

by Thibault Martin

Vers la fin du contrat colonial moderne ? Le cas des ententes hydroélectriques au Québec et au Manitoba

by Thibault Martin

Beyond the conflict, The reconstruction of the O-Pipon-Na-Piwin First Nation community in Manitoba

by Thibault Martin

Le Plan Nord : simple projet de relance économique ou nouvelle vision du développement ?

by Thibault Martin

Screening culture, Constructing Image and Identity

by Thibault Martin

Le modèle québécois de développement régional à l'épreuve de la crise forestière

by Thibault Martin

Politiques publiques et santé des Autochtones résidant en milieu urbain: l'autonomie gouvernementale, une condition de la redéfinition d'un partenariat équitable entre l'État et les Autochtones

by Thibault Martin

Aboriginal Pastoralism, Social Embeddedness and Cultural Continuity in Central Australia

by Nicholas Gill

2005, Society and Natural Resources, 18, 1-16.

Aboriginal people are involved in pastoral enterprises throughout the inland and north of Australia. This has... more Aboriginal people are involved in pastoral enterprises throughout the inland and north of Australia. This has generated difficulties as landowners and policymakers struggled with conflicts between Aboriginal social structures and the demands of running commercial businesses. Problems often arose due to imposition of nonindigenous norms regarding land use. It has been suggested that pastoralism can generate social and cultural benefits for Aboriginal landowners, but these have not been investigated in any detail. Drawing on the concept of social embeddedness and fieldwork with Aboriginal pastoralists, this article identifies, describes, and ranks sociocultural benefits arising from Aboriginal pastoralism. Pastoralism fulfilled uniquely Aboriginal aims and was most important for its role in Aboriginal social and cultural and reproduction. In the Aboriginal context, pastoralism should be conceived in terms that include these Aboriginal motivations and that recognize the social embeddedness of pastoralism.

Engaging with the (un)familiar: Field teaching in a multi-campus teaching environment

by Nicholas Gill

With Michael Adams and Christine Eriksen, 2012, Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 36(2), 259-275.

Field trips have long been central to geography, but have been subject to assessment of the role of the ‘field’ in... more Field trips have long been central to geography, but have been subject to assessment of the role of the ‘field’ in teaching. At the same time, academics face barriers to running field trips. Distance education and enhanced educational access for non-metropolitan students represented such an obstacle at an Australian university. These obstacles were taken as an opportunity to draw on the regional nature of the students and staff to enhance teaching goals, run critically informed field trips by and manage academic workloads. We evaluate the field trips by conducting surveys and interviews with students and tutors, and as an example of innovation within constraints.

Low Cost TV Based Messaging from Remote Desert Communities

by Maurice McGinley

Tony Eyers, Daniel Franklin, Andrew Turk, Maurice McGinley

Abstract—In recent years telecommunications services in remote Australia have received considerable attention, with... more Abstract—In recent years telecommunications services in remote Australia have received considerable attention, with services for indigenous desert communities a key focus. This project, known as Desert Interactive Remote Television (DIRT), uses existing community rebroadcast TV infrastructure to provide low cost multimedia messaging services for remote desert communities. The system architecture, key applications, and field trial outcomes are described

Goddess Communities in Australia by Patricia Rose

by Feminism and Religion

Originally published on the Feminism and Religion project

Australia has a very diverse and rapidly expanding number of people for whom the Goddess, however She is understood,... more Australia has a very diverse and rapidly expanding number of people for whom the Goddess, however She is understood, is significant. The 2006 census revealed that there were over 30,000 Pagans or followers of other earth-based religious traditions in Australia and, given the way in which religions are classified in the census, this is undoubtedly a serious underestimation. We await the findings of the 2011 census with great interest.

Prior to European settlement in Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples followed their own rich spiritual beliefs, which were based on the forces of nature, a reverence for the land and its creatures, and the influence of ancestral spiritual beings. Recently, non-indigenous Australians have become increasingly interested in the indigenous connection to the land and indigenous spirituality.

While it is important not to appropriate indigenous culture, Goddess women and men in Australia are keen to express their spirituality in ways that are relevant to this land and to the Australian culture. We recognize the need to become more attuned to the ways of Australia, to her seasons and her natural cycles, and we can learn from the experiences of indigenous peoples, garnered from millennia of living on and with this land.

Leveraging Photovoltaic Technology for Sustainable Development in Ontario's First Nations Communities

by Joshua Pearce

Dirk V. P. McLaughlin, Nicole C. McDonald, Ha T. Nguyen and J. M. Pearce, “Leveraging Photovoltaic Technology for Sustainable Development in Ontario's First Nations Communities”, Journal of Sustainable Development 3(3), pp. 3-13, 2010.

The Ontario feed-in tariff (FIT) for solar photovoltaic (PV) technology has provided Ontario's Aboriginal communities... more The Ontario feed-in tariff (FIT) for solar photovoltaic (PV) technology has provided Ontario's Aboriginal communities with an opportunity to i) weaken the cycle of poverty; ii) directly counteract climate change by producing renewable energy; and iii) become more self-sufficient. This paper critically analyzes the technical, cultural, and economic viability of leveraging the FIT for PV to provide green electricity and revenue to assist First Nations communities in sustainable development. A generalized free GIS-energy-based protocol was developed to determine the PV potential for Aboriginal communities. This model was applied to a case study of the Constance Lake First Nations community and an economic analysis showed financially-viable rates of return over 20 years. By generalizing these findings to Ontario, the potential PV deployment on First Nation rooftops alone is over 200MW, which clearly provides an opportunity for developing pride associated with owning a community-led, environmentally beneficial, local energy project.

Networks of Advantage: Urban Indigenous Entrepreneurship and the Importance of Social Capital

by Rochelle R. Côté

Côté, Rochelle R. 2012. Edited by D. Newhouse, K. Fitzmaurice, T. McGuire-Adams & D. Jette in Well-Being in the Urban Aboriginal Community. Toronto, Canada: Thompson Educational Publishing.

As a way of gaining independence, encouraging prosperity and fostering opportunity, economic development has... more As a way of gaining independence, encouraging prosperity and fostering opportunity, economic development has increasingly become a focus of Indigenous communities across Canada. While job creation is important, Indigenous entrepreneurship is another important driver of economic prosperity. Recent data suggests that since 1996, Indigenous entrepreneurship continues to grow at a rate five to nine times the pace of the general population in Canada. Yet even with this rapid growth and increasing popularity, many business fail. Past work has focused on access to funding and education as main reasons why entrepreneurs succeed or fail. Recent work has determined that a third mechanism, social capital, provides advantages over and above money and education – the people you know matter. Drawing on interviews with eighty entrepreneurs living and/or doing business in Toronto, this paper provides a rich narrative of Indigenous entrepreneurship by incorporating social capital alongside social status predictors and participation in voluntary associations as predictors of entrepreneurial performance.

Australia: William Blandowski's Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia

by Alison Clark

2011, Autochthony as Capital in a Global Age, in Theory, Culture & Society , vol. 28 no. 1 34-54

by Mathieu Hilgers

For a little over a decade we have been witnessing a profusion of discourses on autochthony — that is, an original... more For a little over a decade we have been witnessing a profusion of discourses on autochthony — that is, an original belonging to a group or territory — in many parts of the world. A global approach to this question first requires a look at the principle of autochthony and its genealogy. Starting from African examples, places of prolific expression of the phenomenon, this article shows how autochthony plays the role of capital that can be invested, valued and profited from. The structure of this capital carries within itself the seeds of conflict. The article analyses how the stabilization of its value requires the execution of specific strategies. Among these strategies, I will focus in greater depth on voting. The relationship between capital, autochthony and elections will thus bring us back to debates that animate political science: in new municipalities, autochthony as capital is at the heart of candidate selection, suffrage, political participation and citizenship.

Illegal evictions? Overwriting possession and orality with law’s violence in Cambodia

by Simon Springer

Springer, S. Forthcoming. Illegal evictions? Overwriting possession and orality with law’s violence in Cambodia. Journal of Agrarian Change.

The unfolding of a juridico-cadastral system in present-day Cambodia is at odds with local understandings of... more The unfolding of a juridico-cadastral system in present-day Cambodia is at odds with local understandings of landholding, which are entrenched in notions of community consensus and existing occupation. The discrepancy between such orally recognized antecedents and the written word of law have been at the heart of the recent wave of dispossessions that have swept across the country. Contra the standard critique that corruption has set the tone, this paper argues that evictions in Cambodia are often literally underwritten by the articles of law. Whereas ‘possession’ is a well-understood and accepted concept in Cambodia, a cultural basis rooted in what James C. Scott refers to as ‘orality’, coupled with a long history of subsistence agriculture, semi-nomadic lifestyles, barter economies, and–until recently–widespread land availability have all ensured that notions of ‘property’ are vague among the country’s majority rural poor. In drawing a firm distinction between possessions and property, where the former is premised upon actual use and the latter is embedded in exploitation, this article examines how proprietorship is inextricably bound to the violence of law.

Privilege vs. Complicity: People of Colour and Settler Colonialism

by Beenash Jafri

Published on FEDCan's Equity Matters Blog

Modernité Réflexive au Nunavik

by Thibault Martin

MARTIN, Thibault, Published in Globe revue internationale d’étude québécoise, Vol. 8 (1) : 175-206. 2005.

Dans cet article l’auteur suggère que les Inuit définissent une modernité unique, en ceci qu’elle fait coexister... more Dans cet article l’auteur suggère que les Inuit définissent une modernité unique, en ceci qu’elle fait coexister institutions modernes et traditionnelles. L'étude de la chasse présentée dans ce texte suggère que les Inuit ont maintenu le don du gibier parce qu’ils ont réussi à combiner le mode traditionnel de réciprocité avec un système de redistribution moderne. Le symbole et l’agent de ce partage moderne est le « congélateur communautaire » que l'on trouve dans les villages du Nunavik et dont on verra qu'il est la pierre angulaire d'un système où solidarités communale et associative s'imbriquent.
Dans un second temps, l’auteur se demande si cette combinaison entre modernité et tradition n’est qu’une situation transitoire, une étape dans le long processus d’acculturation auquel font face les sociétés traditionnelles ou si, au contraire, cette hybridation entre institutions modernes et traditionnelles est en train de s’institutionnaliser pour donner naissance à une société parfaitement unique et originale dans sa construction de la modernité.

Le territoire matrice de culture

by Thibault Martin

MARTIN, Thibault  et Amélie GIRARD,

Cet article présente une analyse des mémoires déposés par les Premières Nations du Québec à la « Commission d’étude... more Cet article présente une analyse des mémoires déposés par les Premières Nations du Québec à la « Commission d’étude sur la gestion de la forêt publique québécoise » (2004). Le mandat principal de cette Commission, lancée en pleine crise forestière, qui s’est toutefois intensifiée depuis, était de dresser l’état de la situation en ce qui à trait à la gestion des forêts publiques du Québec et recommander des améliorations du régime forestier. Cette commission servit de forum à plusieurs groupes d’acteurs, notamment aux Autochtones qui saisirent cette occasion pour présenter leur vision du développement durable de la forêt. Les mémoires et les présentations faites par ceux-ci révèlent une pluralité d’approches au sein et entre les communautés autochtones. Cependant, par delà cette pluralité on peut déceler une vision commune de la forêt qui est érigée en matrice de civilisation, comme l’avait été lors de la crise hydroélectrique des années 1975-80 les lacs et les rivières. Ce changement d’ancrage physique de la culture ― de l’eau vers la forêt ― s’accompagne d’une nouvelle attitude face aux autres acteurs du développement, notamment l’État et l’industrie. En effet, alors que les projets hydroélectriques avaient entraîné les groupes autochtones à articuler leurs revendications autour d’une résistance au développement et un retour à une gouvernance exclusivement autochtone sur leurs territoires ancestraux, face aux développements forestiers les Premières Nations du Québec demandent, certes, une plus grande autonomie et le respect de leurs droits ancestraux mais ils ne réclament plus systématiquement l’arrêt du développement industriel de leurs territoire mais demandent plutôt à être intégrés de plein droit dans la gouvernance de celui-ci.

“Indigeneity and Diversity in Eden Robinson’s Work.” Canadian Literature 201 (2009): 54-67.

by Kit Dobson