How do different discourses lead to changes in understandings of the world, identity, meaning and practice in Indigenous politics in Canada? This article introduces the poststructuralist theory of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe to Canadian Indigenous studies and demonstrates that it is a unique and effective theory for understanding this question. It finds that in the last few decades, two principal discourses regarding Indigenous peoples and colonialism have circulated in the Canadian body politic—namely, (1) “reconciliation” and (2) “Idle No More.” These discourses shape the identities of both Indigenous peoples and settlers, construct understandings of the world, and determine the meaning of related political struggle, leading to real world practice and politics. The reconciliation discourse has at times been effective at becoming a dominant discourse and has often been able to constitute the meaning of important terms such as ‘decolonization.’ It serves to pacify Indigenous resistance to colonialism. Counter-hegemonic discourses on reconciliation such as ‘Idle No More’ have been able to challenge that discourse. Academic literature, newspaper articles, YouTube videos, podcasts developed by Indigenous scholars, public letters and speeches delivered by Canadian politicians are analyzed to examine the utterances and enunciations of the two discourses.
{"title":"From Reconciliation to ‘Idle No More’: ‘Articulation’ and Indigenous Struggle in Canada","authors":"M. Robertson","doi":"10.5663/aps.v10i2.29412","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5663/aps.v10i2.29412","url":null,"abstract":"How do different discourses lead to changes in understandings of the world, identity, meaning and practice in Indigenous politics in Canada? This article introduces the poststructuralist theory of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe to Canadian Indigenous studies and demonstrates that it is a unique and effective theory for understanding this question. It finds that in the last few decades, two principal discourses regarding Indigenous peoples and colonialism have circulated in the Canadian body politic—namely, (1) “reconciliation” and (2) “Idle No More.” These discourses shape the identities of both Indigenous peoples and settlers, construct understandings of the world, and determine the meaning of related political struggle, leading to real world practice and politics. The reconciliation discourse has at times been effective at becoming a dominant discourse and has often been able to constitute the meaning of important terms such as ‘decolonization.’ It serves to pacify Indigenous resistance to colonialism. Counter-hegemonic discourses on reconciliation such as ‘Idle No More’ have been able to challenge that discourse. Academic literature, newspaper articles, YouTube videos, podcasts developed by Indigenous scholars, public letters and speeches delivered by Canadian politicians are analyzed to examine the utterances and enunciations of the two discourses.","PeriodicalId":42043,"journal":{"name":"Aboriginal Policy Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46296169","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book Review: Indigenous women and street gangs: Survivance narratives","authors":"J. Koch","doi":"10.5663/aps.v10i2.29422","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5663/aps.v10i2.29422","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42043,"journal":{"name":"Aboriginal Policy Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48140830","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study investigated involved a review of trends from five Statistics Canada databases on criminality, victimization, custody in correctional services, adult admissions to community services, and general labour force levels in the 6 years following the release of the December 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report. Although there did not appear to be a general decline in criminality, victimization, or overall custody of Indigenous persons in Canada from 2015 to 2021, minor improvements in the nature of intra-community victimization, admissions to community services to serve sentences, and increased employment among Indigenous persons in Canada were observed. Discussion focuses on the short- and long-term implications of the TRC report with respect to meaningful impacts on the lives of indigenous people in Canada.
{"title":"Analysis of Crime, Incarceration, Victimization and Employment of Indigenous Persons in Canada from 2015 to 2021","authors":"Jordyn Laird, Philip G. Laird","doi":"10.5663/aps.v10i2.29414","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5663/aps.v10i2.29414","url":null,"abstract":"This study investigated involved a review of trends from five Statistics Canada databases on criminality, victimization, custody in correctional services, adult admissions to community services, and general labour force levels in the 6 years following the release of the December 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report. Although there did not appear to be a general decline in criminality, victimization, or overall custody of Indigenous persons in Canada from 2015 to 2021, minor improvements in the nature of intra-community victimization, admissions to community services to serve sentences, and increased employment among Indigenous persons in Canada were observed. Discussion focuses on the short- and long-term implications of the TRC report with respect to meaningful impacts on the lives of indigenous people in Canada.","PeriodicalId":42043,"journal":{"name":"Aboriginal Policy Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45192477","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Native American and Indigenous Studies Association
{"title":"NAISA Council Statement on Indigenous Identity Fraud","authors":"Native American and Indigenous Studies Association","doi":"10.5663/aps.v10i2.29426","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5663/aps.v10i2.29426","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42043,"journal":{"name":"Aboriginal Policy Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45232499","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
While the Income Tax Act provides structure to philanthropic activity in Canada, an Indigenist reading of it shows that it is also a part of state-building at the expense of inherent Indigenous governance systems. By shaping philanthropic gift giving, this paper shows, the act plays a role in precluding inherent Indigenous leaders from accessing fiscal support based on their own political authority.
{"title":"Remaining Unreconciled: Philanthropy and Indigenous Governance in Canada","authors":"Damien Lee","doi":"10.5663/aps.v10i2.29419","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5663/aps.v10i2.29419","url":null,"abstract":"While the Income Tax Act provides structure to philanthropic activity in Canada, an Indigenist reading of it shows that it is also a part of state-building at the expense of inherent Indigenous governance systems. By shaping philanthropic gift giving, this paper shows, the act plays a role in precluding inherent Indigenous leaders from accessing fiscal support based on their own political authority.","PeriodicalId":42043,"journal":{"name":"Aboriginal Policy Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47716603","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Adam R. King, V. Coburn, Leah F. Vosko, Rebecca Hall, O. Lyubchenko, A. Noack
In light of Bill C-92, which establishes a framework for delegating child and family service provision to Indigenous communities, this article addresses the contested regulation of employment and labour relations in Indigenous social service workplaces. It approaches this subject by looking back at NIL/TU,O Child and Family Services Society v. B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union, a case in which employees at a First Nations child and family services provider attempted to unionize. NIL/TU,O set in motion a legal battle over the jurisdiction of Indigenous labour relations that ultimately reached the Supreme Court of Canada in 2010. The SCC’s determined that the labours of the Indigenous workers at NIȽ TU,O Child and Family Services are a matter of provincial jurisdiction because they fall outside of the “core of Indianness,“ a contested legal concept used to designate federal legislative power over First Nations peoples. Using Indigenous feminisms and a feminist political economy approach, we argue that this decision rests on gendered appraisals – and, indeed, obfuscations – of social reproduction labour. Bill C-92 necessitates revisiting the case history in NIL/TU,O because of the ways in which it seems to conflict with the new Act. We suggest that the uncertainty surrounding jurisdiction over Indigenous labour has the dual potential of, on the one hand, being used strategically for exploitative or dis-possessive purposes, or, on the other hand, taken up as a opening for increased self-determination by Indigenous peoples.
{"title":"Determining the “Core of Indianness:” A Feminist Political Economy of NIL/TU,O v. BCGEU","authors":"Adam R. King, V. Coburn, Leah F. Vosko, Rebecca Hall, O. Lyubchenko, A. Noack","doi":"10.5663/aps.v10i1.29399","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5663/aps.v10i1.29399","url":null,"abstract":"In light of Bill C-92, which establishes a framework for delegating child and family service provision to Indigenous communities, this article addresses the contested regulation of employment and labour relations in Indigenous social service workplaces. It approaches this subject by looking back at NIL/TU,O Child and Family Services Society v. B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union, a case in which employees at a First Nations child and family services provider attempted to unionize. NIL/TU,O set in motion a legal battle over the jurisdiction of Indigenous labour relations that ultimately reached the Supreme Court of Canada in 2010. The SCC’s determined that the labours of the Indigenous workers at NIȽ TU,O Child and Family Services are a matter of provincial jurisdiction because they fall outside of the “core of Indianness,“ a contested legal concept used to designate federal legislative power over First Nations peoples. Using Indigenous feminisms and a feminist political economy approach, we argue that this decision rests on gendered appraisals – and, indeed, obfuscations – of social reproduction labour. Bill C-92 necessitates revisiting the case history in NIL/TU,O because of the ways in which it seems to conflict with the new Act. We suggest that the uncertainty surrounding jurisdiction over Indigenous labour has the dual potential of, on the one hand, being used strategically for exploitative or dis-possessive purposes, or, on the other hand, taken up as a opening for increased self-determination by Indigenous peoples.","PeriodicalId":42043,"journal":{"name":"Aboriginal Policy Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47854930","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Why Race Still Matters by Alana Lentin","authors":"Leah Hrycun","doi":"10.5663/aps.v10i1.29391","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5663/aps.v10i1.29391","url":null,"abstract":"<jats:p>n/a</jats:p>","PeriodicalId":42043,"journal":{"name":"Aboriginal Policy Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49354521","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}