First Nations, Inuit and Metis Research Papers (original) (raw)

(Cet exposé n'est qu'une esquisse sans pretention) (This presentation is simply an unpretentious sketch) Unions Métis et réclamations au Québec; est une analyse de recherche conduite de 2006 à 2009 contenant les résultats de recherche... more

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- Sociology, Demography, Québec History, Metis Studies

The Arctic is a global hotspot of climate change, which is impacting the livelihoods of remote Inuit communities. We conduct a longitudinal assessment of climate change vulnerability drawing upon fieldwork conducted in 2004 and 2015 in Ikpiarjuk (Arctic Bay), Nunavut, and focusing on risks associated with subsistence harvesting activities. Specifically, we employ the same conceptual and methodological approach to identify and characterize who is vulnerable, to what stresses, and why, assessing how this has changed over time, including re-interviewing individuals involved in the original study. We find similarities between the two periods, with many of the observed environmental changes documented in 2004 having accelerated over the last decade, exacerbating risks of land use: changing sea ice regimes and wind patterns are the most widely documented at both times, with new observations reporting more frequent sighting of polar bear and orca. Socioeconomic and technological changes have altered the context in climate change impacts are being experienced and responded to, both exacerbating and moderating vulnerabilities compared to 2004. The adoption of new technology, including GPS and widespread use of the internet, has helped land users manage changing conditions while sharing networks remain strong, despite concern noted in the 2004 study that they were weakening. Challenges around access to financial resources and concern over the incomplete transmission of some environmental knowledge and land skills to younger generations continue to increase sensitivity and limit adaptive capacity to changing climatic conditions.

- by Lewis Archer and +1
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- Climate Change Adaptation, Indigenous Knowledge, Nunavut, Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment

Indigenous Business in Canada: Principles and Practices provides business education
students and business professionals a four-part textbook that bridge together historic and modern day policies and practices, struggles and success stories, and potential Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal business partnerships in Canada. This review provides an overview and commentary of chapters of Indigenous Business in Canada.

- by Melanie Nelson and +1
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- Business, Indigenous Studies, Indigenous or Aboriginal Studies, Canadian Law
- by Clara Morgan
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- First Nations, Inuit and Metis

Using an ethnography of speaking approach, this article discusses the ideological aspects of language practices, as they are played out in a traditional Yupik (Eskimo) village in Chukotka, in the Far East of the Russian Federation. The article shows how local linguistic practices and language choices of individual speakers intersect with purist language ideologies, which frame certain beliefs about languages and ways of speaking, making them appear more normal and appropriate than others. Placing the " work of speaking " within the context of cross-cultural dynamics and purist language economies, this article challenges the basic assumption of linguistic purism about language and identity being intertwined.

- by Daria M Schwalbe
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- Cultural History, Cultural Studies, Native American Studies, Russian Studies
- by Anne Lederman
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- Metis Studies, First Nations, Inuit and Metis, Scottish fiddling, Fiddling

The scars left by the death of Siasi Tullaugak and Sharon Barron, two Inuuk women, are still deep. They were part of the homeless Montreal Inuit community who gathered for a vigil in September 2017 to remember the young women . Their cases are not isolated, as the death of Indigenous women happens unfortunately too often. They are 12 times more likely to be murdered than any other women in Canada . Thus, it is important to recognize the origins of the issue by listening to Inuit voices. In this paper, it is argued that the prevalence of Inuit homelessness is rooted in historical and ongoing colonialism and must be addressed with the community members by honoring the stolen lives and following Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit . The research will begin by drawing a portrait of the situation with a focus on Montreal and Nunavik realities in reference to academic research and institutions’ reports. The diversity of social realities lived by people impacted by homelessness will be considered and contextualized. The Nunavik history of colonialism will be related to the question: Why is an Inuk more likely to experience homelessness? Both risk factors and ongoing colonialism will be addressed in association with community organizations’ actions in Nunavik and Montreal.

- by Philippe Boucher
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- Sociology, Indigenous Studies, Indigenous or Aboriginal Studies, Homelessness

This paper introduces the phenomenon of inter-generational trauma in Indigenous individuals, families, and communities as a product of ongoing colonialism. Explored here, are some of the manifestations of inter-generational trauma as well as some of the mechanisms by which it is inherited. Inter-generational trauma is a form of inequality that especially affects Indigenous peoples globally that may be easily overlooked. Thus it is imperative in Indigenous-related research that inter-generational trauma be further accounted for and explored.

- by Tony Masiuk
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- Anthropology, Indigenous Studies, Race and Racism, Metis Studies
- by Heather Devine
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- Indigenous Studies, Metis Studies, Indigenous Peoples, Metis identity

This research explores key themes emerging from the question of the meaning Anishinaabe individuals attach to utilizing traditional practices and ceremonies to address their own trauma. The contributors share their stories, which are deeply rooted in relationships. The methodology of this research is also rooted within an Indigenous paradigm; storytelling is a core feature of relationships and knowledge transmission through its ability to weave together and across generations. Indigenous cultures have had a long history of both verbal and visual storytelling, in the forms of pictographs and petroglyphs, wampum belts, bead and quill work, and so on. While stories are often entertaining, they are at their core, the most human of activities. Anishinaabe approaches to ceremony, spirit and the sacred are woven into the language, attitudes and practices that people still engage in, despite the depredations of colonization. The findings of this research explore how identity, found through love, caring, self-awareness, and the (re)claiming of wellness and wholeness, permeates the stories of healing and is rooted in ceremonies. This is relationship with self and self-in-relation to all things: niwiikaniginaa. Land-as-home, culture, family, and love ground people in their sense of self and wellness. Language and thought emerge from the land, the source of well-being or mino bimaadsiwin in the most profound ways. It is through home – land, family, culture, spiritual connection – that healing occurs in ways that cannot be found in clinical systems.

This research is an ethnography of 30 people on Indigenous experiences, place-making and the cultural practices that are used to construct meaning and cultural renewal that leads to healing and decolonization in the Ottawa, Ontario area. The research explores the lives of those who reside in the city and have never lived in traditional territories, and those who continue to have roots there. These practices are observed through the lens of the three bodies of the individual, social, and body politic. Identity has moved beyond legacies of essentialized and bounded notions which in actuality are multiple and fluid. The study revealed themes of a continuum of experiences and practices including: territorialists who reside in the homeland; returners who have the Indigenous diasporic experience of longing for a homeland; learners who have been displaced from Indigenous communities for various reasons but have initiated cultural renewal; adaptors who have little to no connection to a homeland or Indigenous groups in the city; and urbanites who accept the city-as-home, often with multiple generations of residence in the city. The social body is enacted by Indigenous people who construct communities in cities through social practices such as welcoming others through physical places like Friendship Centres, universities, and social service organizations. Connections also occur in urbans hubs of activity through various practices such as cultural and arts events, ceremonies, and conferences. Cultural renewal is fundamental for the well-being of Indigenous people who have experienced decades of oppression as a result of the regulation of bodies, social actions, land and self-determination by the body politic. The cultural renewal of Indigenous people in cities creates space for healing, decolonization, reclamation, restoration, reconciliation and renewal.

Bibliography related to a Masters of Education examining the NAC and post-secondary education for Inuit in Nunavut

- by Trevor M Landers
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- Inuit, Nunavut, Inuit Knowledge and Ecology, First Nations, Inuit and Metis

While the AMC broadcast adaptation of Dan Simmons’ horror novel The Terror is largely faithful to the book, key differences in the portrayal of the Inuit, the British colonial forces and the supernatural Tuunbaq creature, as well as in the fates of certain characters, lead to contrasting messages about colonialism and resistance from each text. Broadly speaking, the book has a less sympathetic and nuanced portrayal of native people and their resistance to colonialism, but ultimately a more optimistic view of the sustainability of their relationship with the environment; the broadcast series, in contrast, provides ample space for the native perspective on colonisation and a more complex exploration of the relationship between colonizer and colonized, but is ultimately pessimistic about the outcomes of resistance against colonialism. This paper will analyse the source work and adaptation in comparison with each other, and, finally, will explore what the differences say about the authors’ different perspectives on the subject of colonialism and resistance, and about changes in the social environment between the writing of the book and the production of the broadcast series.

- by Fiona Moore
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- Colonialism, Post-Colonialism, Historical Fiction, Horror

The Red River Métis are a distinct and often misunderstood population in nineteenth-century Canadian history. They are also the producers of a rich art style in the medium of beadwork. However, despite reference to their influence on the art of other Amerindian populations little is said about the factors which influenced their own unique style. The purpose of my research was twofold: to establish the historical context which

- by SHARON BLADY
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- Art History, Indigenous or Aboriginal Studies, Metis Studies, Métis women
- by Heather Devine
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- Indigenous Studies, Metis Studies, Indigenous Peoples, Metis
- by George Nicholas
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- Archaeology, Intellectual Property, Cultural Heritage, Heritage Studies
- by Anne Lederman
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- Metis Studies, First Nations, Inuit and Metis, Scottish fiddling, Fiddling
- by Heather Devine
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- Metis Studies, Metis Literature, Metis identity, Metis History

This paper considers the century-old question of Inuit presence south of Hamilton Inlet and the contention that it was a short-term presence for the purpose of trading with Europeans. A summary of archival sources largely unavailable in English in conjunction with known and previously unreported archaeological evidence are the basis for a reexamination of the NATURE and EXTENT of Inuit presence in the southern region. A discussion of the Inuit hunting and gathering way of life alongside the archival and archaeological evidence suggests that there is reasonable evidence of winter and summer presence, of family groups rather than trade parties, of extended habitation rather than short-term trade forays, and of a way of life that incorporated European goods but remained based on traditional seasonal foraging patterns.

- by M. Stopp
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- Culture Contact, Inuit, Archaeology in Labrador/Northern Quebec, History of Labrador

Among the most iconic images from Manitoba history is a photograph of Louis Riel and thirteen men thought to be “councillors” in his Provisional Government. This article questions conventional interpretations of the group portrait, revealing that not all the men surrounding Riel supported his cause and that using the image in a celebratory way masks violations of Métis people's rights in the aftermath of Manitoba's entry into Canadian Confederation.

- by Derrick M Nault
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- Canadian History, Metis Studies, Metis History, Western Canadian History

While acknowledging the disempowering colonial-structures within the education systems of Canada’s Arctic regions, this study seeks to understand how youth volunteer abroad programs may serve as a tool of empowerment by which Northern Indigenous young people are given opportunities to experience and observe potential possibilities and alternatives to their future. Since the 1950s, youth volunteer abroad programs have been a growing phenomenon that has allowed young people in North American and European societies to engage with cultures in the developing world. This case study examines the before and after experiences of five Indigenous youth from Nunavut and the Northwest Territories that took part in an eight week volunteer program in Costa Rica in the summer of 2017. This paper argues that such programs provide Northern Indigenous students with a means to enlarge their personal capacity to aspire towards alternative futures that were once unknown to them.

- by Alasdair McCaskill
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- Development Studies, International Studies, Nationalism, Colonialism

An examination of the issue of defining 'the Metis people' in s.35 of Canada's Constitution Act 1982, including analysis of current Metis organisations' membership codes, and an argument for designing policy for just relations between... more

- by Paul Chartrand
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- Constitutional Law, Metis Studies, Indigenous Peoples Rights, Indigenous Peoples

Taking the animadversions of Samuel Johnson as its starting point, this essay explores an eighteenth-century skepticism regarding the possibility of exchanges of knowledge between metropolitan and peripheral societies. It suggests that encounters with Inuit and Oceanic traveller-savants in the streets and salons of London lead both members of the Royal Society and patrons of the arts to question the translatability of ideas across cultural boundaries, and to articulate a distinction between ethnographic and practical knowledge. It argues that this meta-critical dimension to the dialogues between Europeans and visitors from the peripheries of Empire ultimately constituted one of the most nuanced intellectual exchanges instigated by Enlightenment travel.

Cancer incidence is increasing more rapidly and cancer survival is worse among Ontario's First Nations, Inuit and Métis (FNIM) populations than among other Ontarians. Cancer Care Ontario's Aboriginal Cancer Strategy II aims to reduce this health inequity and to improve the cancer journey and experience for FNIM people in Ontario. This comprehensive, multi-faceted strategy was developed and is being implemented with and for Aboriginal Peoples in Ontario in a way that honours the Aboriginal Path of Well-being.

- by Joseph Imre and +2
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- Aboriginal Health, Aboriginal history in Canada, First Nations of Canada, First Nations, Inuit and Metis

RGS-IBG Field Research Programme Grant Application Attachment

This paper explores the North American Arctic as a setting for Indigenous science fiction literature; more specifically, the postapocalyptic thriller and/or horror. The use of the Arctic as an eerie, foreboding, or stark location and/or literary device to embody characters’ fears and anxieties is certainly not unique to Indigenous fiction. During the 19th century, for example, the allure of Arctic exploration gripped European and North American scholars, explorers, and authors with a fervor, resulting in many published works labeled under the sub-category of “Polar Gothic.” The penned articulations of poets and fantasist authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Mary Shelley lent themselves to a popular construal of the Arctic as a space eerie beyond knowledge or experience, where the colonialist dream of man’s mastery over nature was catastrophically disrupted. Contrariwise, for the Indigenous peoples of the Arctic, the North is neither unknowable nor barren. Instead, the landscape is lavishly occupied by spirits, legends, life, and culture, and the obstacles presented by the Arctic are deftly navigated by Indigenous denizens who are armed with complex systems of traditional local knowledges. In Indigenous postapocalyptic fiction set in the Arctic, the Native perspective of the North is foregrounded, and Indigenous characters are presented as survivors and navigators, rather than arcane figures to be feared or loathed by non-Indigenous characters. I will conduct a literary analysis of three Indigenous postapocalyptic texts set in the Arctic and near-Arctic: Moon of the Crusted Snow (2018) by Waubgeshig Rice (Wasauksing Nation) and two short stories from Taaqtumi: An Anthology of Arctic Horror Stories (2019), Utiqtuq by Gayle Kabloona (Ukkusiksalingmiut Nation) and Wheetago War II: Summoners by Richard Van Camp (Tłı̨chǫ Nation). While all these tales contain horror elements as the characters grapple with colonialism, disease, isolation, and enigmatic creatures, they also present narratives of Indigenous resilience, hope, and ingenuity.

Drawing an extensive primary and secondary information, including interviews, focus groups, and household surveys, this report provides a comprehensive assessment of the potential cultural impacts of the Teck Frontier Oil Sands Mine, located in Alberta, Canada, on the McMurray Métis community. The study develops a unique set of tools to assess and characterize cultural effects based on the principles of Indigenous knowledge, interrelatedness, and cumulativeness. The report concludes the project is likely to have significant cumulative cultural impacts on the McMurray Métis community.

- by Timothy David Clark
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- Cultural History, Cultural Studies, Anthropology, Indigenous Studies
- by Nicole Blackwood
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- Art History, Canadian History, Colonialism, Portraiture

Both traditional and contemporary Inuit views of mental well-being, mental illness, trauma and healing are consolidated and presented in this paper. Looking forward to future opportunities to heal the effects of trauma and intergenerational trauma and to build a self-sufficient Inuit-led mental health practitioner workforce, the paper presents consolidated recommendations from Inuit Elders and organizations regarding what mental health education and trainings should be made available to Inuit. The paper also evaluates traditional Inuit philosophical concepts and cultural practices through the lens of holistic mental health, identifying the aspects of Inuit culture that have always been naturally supportive of mental and emotional well-being and that are also curative in nature. The paper acknowledges that many traditional Inuit views were rooted in traditional spirituality and that many modern Inuit have diverse belief systems and no longer ascribe to those old beliefs. In service to that acknowledgment, the paper evaluates which traditional cultural practices and elements continue to be compatible, feasible, and applicable to contemporary Inuit. The paper serves as a foundation for the development of Inuit-specific mental health programming, including that of training programs of Inuit Mental Health Practitioners.

In 2007, the Ontario Ministry of Education released the Ontario First Nation, Métis, and Inuit Education Policy Framework. The policy set forth a vision to significantly improve the levels of achievement for Indigenous students attending Ontario's public schools, and to increase awareness and knowledge of Indigenous cultures and perspectives for all students by the year 2016. Drawing upon critical pedagogy, theories of decolonizing education, and policy enactment, we engaged with the Framework and a set of related documents to a critical discourse analysis. Four discourses were revealed: achievement; increasing capacities; incorporating "cultures, histories, and perspectives"; and absence. In tracing the presence of these discourses across the documents we found that, while well-intentioned, the policy has yielded problematic outcomes. In turn, this undermines the ability of Ontario's education system to not only reach the aforementioned goals but also to take an active role in reconciliation and efforts towards the decolonization of education.

First Nations in British Columbia (BC), Canada, have historically been—and largely continue to be—excluded from colonial governments’ decision-making and management frameworks for fresh water. However, in light of recent legal and legislative changes, and also changes in water governance and policy, there is growing emphasis in scholarship and among legal, policy and advocacy communities on shifting water governance away from a centralized single authority towards an approach that is watershed-based, collaborative, and involves First Nations as central to decision-making processes. Drawing on community-based research, interviews with First Nations natural resource staff and community members, and document review, the paper analyzes the tensions in collaborative water governance, by identifying First Nations’ concerns within the current water governance system and exploring how a move towards collaborative watershed governance may serve to either address, or further entrench, these concerns. This paper concludes with recommendations for collaborative water governance frameworks which are specifically focused on British Columbia, but which have relevance to broader debates over Indigenous water governance.

- by Leila Harris and +1
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- Indigenous Studies, Indigenous or Aboriginal Studies, Water, Environmental Studies
- by Sarah Quick
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- Metis Studies, Fiddle Studies, First Nations, Inuit and Metis
- by Nikolay Karbainov and +1
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- Russian Studies, Intercultural Communication, Metis Studies, Siberia

According to recent media reports, a biotech entrepreneur and a Harvard geneticist have started a company called Colossal which seeks, through woolly mammoth DNA manipulation, to "make a coldresistant elephant that will look and behave like a mammoth." Furthermore, they hope to release the genetic de-extinction species into the Canadian Arctic. While science has many good uses, to what extent should we mess with mother nature and ecological balance? Would it be cute to see an ancient mammoth brought back to life-via elephants? Or would it be dangerous if they set the de-extinction mammoth experiment free into the Canadian Arctic which is a vastly changed environment from the one the mammoths roamed thousands of years ago? While intriguing, shouldn't there be caution? Should we have faith in science, or should we be worried about ecological risks? Also, whereas the Canadian Arctic is the homeland (Nunangat) of the Inuit, have they been consulted on this?

When the 'new' world across the Atlantic began to appear and take shape on the (mental) maps of Europeans in the 16th century, illustrations depicting Indians (as imagined by Europeans) had a significant impact on what and how people in the 'old' world thought of the Americas and its inhabitants. Lately, in historical research about the Americas, there has been a strong interest in these illustrations; they are now recognized as a major element in information circulation about the new found lands. Most of these documents have, in the past, already been of interest to historians or ethnologists, but certain aspects, such as the means of the circulation of iconographic material or its importance in certain communicational contexts, have been rather neglected. The following analyses will focus on the Inuit corpus of the 16th century, which is only known to a few specialists of Canadian history but deserves greater attention because of its importance and its singularly wide-spread distribution at the time.

The majority of the 65,030 Inuit in Canada live in 51 communities in Inuit Nunangat, the Inuit homeland encompassing the Inuvialuit Settlement Region in the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Nunavik in northern Quebec and Nunatsiavut in northern Labrador.
Comprehensive Inuit-Crown land claims agreements shape the political contours of each of the four Inuit regions. Through these constitutionally protected agreements, Inuit representative organisations and governments co-manage, with the federal government, nearly one-third of Canada’s landmass and 50% of its coastline. Inuit are represented at the national level by Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK) and at the international level by the Inuit Circumpolar Council-Canada. ITK’s board of directors is made up of the leaders of the four regional Inuit representational organizations and governments: Inuvia- luit Regional Corp., Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., Makivik Corp. and the Nunatsiavut Government. In addition to voting members, the presidents of the following non-voting permanent participant representatives also sit on the board: Inuit Circumpolar Council-Canada; Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada; and the National Inuit Youth Council.

À partir de l’analyse de mythes autochtones de la création du monde et de recherches anthropologiques, vous serez amenés à mieux comprendre les rôles et l’importance des femmes dans les sociétés du territoire québécois avant les premiers contacts avec les Européens. Ensuite, vous découvrirez les différents facteurs d’influences et les transformations du statut qu’ils ont amené à travers les époques jusqu’à la modernité canadienne. Enfin, les mouvements de revendication récents et les enjeux actuels seront mis en relation avec l’héritage historique et les perspectives d’avenir tant au niveau politique et économique qu’artistique et culturelle. Le tout permettra de mettre en relief l’impact indéniable des femmes amérindiennes sur la société moderne et la place grandissante des femmes dans le monde occidental." Extrait du communiqué de presse. Conférence destinée au grand public, intégrée à la programmation régulière du service éducatif de l’organisme et présentée à plusieurs groupes scolaires (14-17 ans), collégiaux et néo-québécois.

- by Matthew Ryan Smith
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- Art History, Indigenous Studies, Art, Art Theory