Module #4 Weblog #3

Usher, Peter. J. 2003. Environment, race and nation reconsidered: reflections on Aboriginal land claims in Canada. Wiley Lectures. The Canadian Geographer. Vol 47 No 4. Pp. 365-382.

This resource is written from the Geographer’s perspective, in regards to land claims, land title and rights, as well as how the course of development and settlement changed the Aboriginal communities. Usher speaks to common forms of livelihood in modern times in response to Western market economies. He says that the

“model points to one strong reason that people stay in placed that by conventional economic measures do not have much going for them. In this kind of economy, you do not have to go to the grocery store to put food on the table, you do not pay a mortgage, and the kinship-based social support network ensure that everyone’s basic needs are covered by the exchange of food, labour, equipment and personal care” (Usher, Peter, J. 2003. Pp. 372).

What I found to be interesting about this article is Usher’s description of the ways in which settlers would move into areas inhabited by Aboriginal communities, find valuable resources or areas of land and monopolize its value by regulating it, requiring licensing and treating it as though access for Aboriginals was a privilege, rather then a right. Usher provides case study examples where settlers interfered and altered watercourses which in turn impacted valuable lands, spawning grounds, habitats and water resources.  Another example provided was the ‘caribou crisis’ that gave validation for hunting restrictions, increased regulations and spurred sedentarisation and supervision over Inuit and Dene peoples who formerly lived alongside caribou herds for their sources of food, clothing and tools. “Governments saw these measures as critical requirements for both the modernization of the people and the conservation of caribou herds. Thus caribou management became an integral part of a broad program of social engineering” (Usher, Peter, J. 2003. Pp. 372).

I wanted to include this article in the Weblog this week, just to be able to experience a different perspective, I found that being written from a geographer’s perspective, it broadens our understanding of how large the impact was of settlement and colonization and we can compare historical colonization to colonization around the globe today. I think of worldwide projects like the Three Gorges Dam (China) flooding and altering waterways for the lands people in the area, or Serpent River First Nation located in Northern Ontario that is located at the bottom of their Watershed which just so happens to be where tailings drain from the old Elliot Lake Uranium Mines. Just saying…

Module #4 Weblog #4

I wanted to include a few resources, including the Pan Arctic Inuit Logistics Corporation, just because it is an example of many initiatives that have taken place in the sub-Arctic and Arctic Regions of Canada to incorporate land claims beneficiaries into local business initiatives and in receiving the benefits of those industries.

Qikiqtaaluk Medical is another example of an Inuit owned company, who partners with a Quebec-based company, Sirius Wilderness Medicine to expand specialties and services under the umbrella of Inuit-owned, operated and benefited.

It is becoming very common for contracts to be awarded to companies (specifically in the North) that hire and engage with local land claims beneficiaries rather than hiring people from the south – the attempt is to give business to local people, keep money in the community and increase opportunities.

I just wanted to include a couple of examples, as this is the reality in my workplace and I thought that you we should question what the benefits and challenges are with this model?

Also see: Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. regarding gaining beneficiary status.

Module #4 Weblog #5

Looking at all of my Weblogs and tracking my interests as I progressed through this course has been an interesting and very reflective process. I feel like I have made great strides in understanding and acknowledging the complex challenges faced by Aboriginal people today; this I not to say I understand, or can relate or comprehend as if I lived an Aboriginal experience myself. It means that I think in the past, it was easy to always associate with information that is channeled through mainstream media, common stereotypes or my own local community, when in fact Aboriginal communities exist internationally, with unique experiences, histories and struggles that do not need my pity, sympathy or apathy. Rather, there is a need for awareness, acknowledgement and support for the value of Aboriginal people within our communities, for inclusion of their culture and respect for their historical rights.

I am not sure if you have heard of Shannen Koostachin from Attiwapiskat First Nation, in Ontario, but she started the largest movement by children for children in regards to Education for Aboriginal children in Canada. Unfortunately she passed away in 2010 at the age of 15 in a car accident, she went to school in the South as she was unable to access quality education within her own community and it was in her commute home to visit that she was killed.

Anyway, I would like to leave you with some links to her story and her fight to bring both aboriginal and non-aboriginal people together to fight for educational rights and access for all.