Public Policy

"The James Bay Cree lived in relative isolation until 1970, when Northern Quebec was swept up in the political and cultural changes of the Quiet Revolution. The ensuing years have brought immense change for the Cree, who now live with the consequences of Quebec’s massive development of hydroelectricity, timber, and mineral resources in the North.

"Despite the billions of dollars devoted to aboriginal causes, Native people in Canada continue to suffer all the symptoms of a marginalized existence - high rates of substance abuse, violence, poverty. Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry argues that the policies proposed to address these problems - land claims and self government - are in fact contributing to their entrenchment.

"Since many of us still picture anthropologists as people in khaki-coloured safari clothes peering at fossils or scribbling notes on kinship theory, it is fair to say that public perception of anthropology lags a little behind in times. In facet anthropologists have much to say about a range of contemporary issues but are themselves often reluctant to present their research in wider social context.

"The North is an increasingly important focal point of public policy. The impact of climate change on the environment and community life underlines the urgent need for measures to slow this trend and facilitate adaptation to uncertain conditions. International events have underlined the importance of safeguarding Canada's sovereignty in its Arctic regions, and the federal government has announced a series of measures to further this objective.

“Encounters between aboriginal peoples, European colonists, Chinese migrants, and mixed-race populations produced racial anxieties that underwrote cross racial interactions in the salmon canneries, the illicit liquor trade, and the (white) slavery scare in late-nineteenth- and – early- twentieth – century British Columbia. Colonial Proximities explores these contacts as politically charged sites of racial knowledge production in need of colonial governance.

"Despite the enormous resources and thought that has been put into improving our educational systems, there has been little success in reducing the gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal educational success. This book reviews the actual situation in terms of Métis, Inuit, and First Nations peoples in Canada using the most recent data available.

"Dialogue about Land Justice comprises a selection of papers presented to the national Native Title Conference, among them, Australia’s leading thinkers, senior jurists and Indigenous leaders. Dialogue about Land Justice encapsulates the key issues that have been at the forefront of discussions about native title for a decade. The papers clearly place native title within a broader discussion of land justice and the place of Indigenous peoples in relation to the Australian political and legal framework.

"While land claims made by Canada's aboriginal peoples continue to attract attention and controversy, there has been almost no discussion of the ways in which First Nations lands are managed and the property rights that have been in place since the Indian Act of 1876. Beyond the Indian Act looks at these issues and questions whether present land practices have benefited Canada's aboriginal peoples.

"Fostering State-Tribal Collaboration: An Indian Law Primer surveys federal Indian law in order to facilitate collaborative policy development between the states and Native American tribes. Wilkins addresses civil and criminal jurisdiction, taxation, the Indian Child Welfare Act and other human services issues, environmental regulation, Indian gaming and revenue sharing, intergovernmental agreements and limited waivers of sovereign immunity, encouraging a move away from conflict and litigation and towards communication and collaboration.

"Near the Ontario-Michigan border, Canada's densest concentration of chemical manufacturing surrounds the Aamjiwnaang First Nation. Living in the polluted heart of Chemical Valley, members of this Indigenous community report a declining rate of male births in addition to abnormal rates of miscarriage, asthma, cancer, and cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses.