L08(a) - Spaces and Bodies of Indigenous Governance in Canada
Date: Jun 3 | Time: 08:45am to 10:15am | Location:
Chair/Président/Présidente : Meaghan Williams (University of Toronto)
Confronting Urban Indigenous Governance Divides: Joanne Heritz (Brock University)
Abstract: Urban Indigenous Peoples are under represented in municipal government in Canada. When the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples reported 25 years ago, it proposed structures of self-determination within local government that have yet to be realized. The recent Supreme Court of Canada Daniels decision affirmed federal government responsibility for non-status Indians and Métis, most of whom reside in urban centres. Despite these lapses by the federal government, coupled with inaction by provincial governments, some municipalities are moving toward relations with urban Indigenous Peoples.
Using a place-based approach this paper will asses how selected municipalities are bridging political, social and economic divides with Indigenous Peoples at the local level. While each municipality has its unique approach to Municipal-Indigenous relations, there are commonalities. Preliminary research indicates that larger municipalities with significant Indigenous populations have formalized some aspects of Municipal-Indigenous relations when compared to smaller municipalities with proportionately larger Indigenous populations. Also, larger municipalities have responded to the Calls to Action by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission compared to smaller municipalities. Ultimately, this paper aims to disclose where and how selected municipalities are bridging relations with urban Indigenous Peoples.
Reserves and the Dark Ghetto: An Inquiry in the Political Ethics of the Oppressed: Teddy Harrison (University of Toronto)
Abstract: Tommie Shelby argues that persistent structural injustice can alter the ethical obligations of individuals. Specifically, systematic exclusion from the benefits of the basic structure of society frees to oppressed from the obligation of reciprocity. Because so many ethical obligations are based in reciprocal arrangements, this means that the duties of individuals living under unjust conditions differ greatly from those who are not oppressed. Working from these insights, I examine two case studies of structural racism: the “dark ghettoes” Shelby describes (in both the US and Canada) and Indigenous reserves. In both cases, structural injustice is constructed spatially through a racialized paradigm. I argue that this severely alters the political obligations of oppressed individuals and groups toward the state. However, the two cases differ significantly in their attitude to abolition. Shelby argues for ghetto abolitionism, while Indigenous resist the abolition of reserves as assimilatory. There is a commonality in wanting to abolish the disadvantage and oppression associated with these spaces, but major differences on the relative merits of integration and collective autonomy in achieving that. Drawing on this comparison, I make two major arguments. First, we must be attentive to the spatial construction of racialized injustice in order to understanding these political struggles. Second, a political ethics of the oppressed in not determinative of particular political strategies or approaches, even where the dominant society constructs injustice in similar ways the justice sought by oppressed groups may differ radically.
Life Against Emergency: Spenceʻs Hunger Strike, Grounded Normativity and the Emergence of Decolonial Life in Canada: Sarah Wiebe (University of Hawaii, Manoa)
Abstract: In the snowy Winter of December 2012, from Victoria Island – just across the river from Canada’s federal Parliament buildings – then Attawapiskat Chief Theresa began a hunger strike, willing to die while demanding the renewal of a treaty relationship between the Canadian Crown and Indigenous peoples. Her hunger strike contests the foundational, colonial, sovereign grounds of Canada. Informed by Indigenous and Western feminist scholars i.e. Leanne Betasomasake Simpson, Dian Million, Noelani Goodyear-Kaʻōpua, Sarah Hunt, Wendy Brown, Judith Butler, Elizabeth Povinelli, Krista Lynes and Chantal Mouffe, and drawing from sensory ethnographic methods including community-engagement through mixed media storytelling, the feminist kaleidescopic lens advanced here examines the body as a radical agent for change. This lens draws inspiration from what Glen Coulthard and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson refer to as “grounded normativity” (Coulthard 2014; Simpson 2017; Coulthard & Simpson 2016). The core question motivating this paper is as follows: What does it mean to enact a corporeal relational treaty politics and how does it contend with a colonial and patriarchal liberal body politic? This paper takes Spence’s refusal of Indigenous erasure seriously while seeking to amplify Indigenous jurisdictions, laws and governance systems.
Indigenous Electoral Systems in Canada: Jerald Sabin (Bishop's University)
Abstract: This paper analyzes the development of Indigenous electoral systems in Canada. It addresses three research questions: 1) How have Indigenous governments designed their electoral systems? 2) How do these systems compare with settler Canadian practice? And 3) What methodological opportunities and challenges exist in studying Indigenous electoral systems and voting behaviour?
Indigenous governments that choose to operate within the liberal democratic and constitutional framework of Canada have developed executive, legislative, and judicial institutions through negotiation with the Crown. These institutions reflect both the political and philosophical commitments of Indigenous nations and the constraints placed on those nations by the settler colonial state. For example, diverse and longstanding leadership selection practices have been displaced within Indigenous nations by competitive elections and a universal franchise among that nation’s citizens. This paper uses the electoral system of the Tłı̨chǫ Government in Canada’s Northwest Territories to illustrate the structure, operation, and outcomes of an Indigenous electoral system.
The research presented in this paper was developed and directed in collaboration with the Tłı̨chǫ Government and in consultation with Tłı̨chǫ knowledge keepers. This project is a background paper for the Consortium on Electoral Democracy/ Consortium de la démocratie électorale and will serve as a starting point for conducting future research on voting behaviour in partnership with the Tłı̨chǫ Government.