Synopses & Reviews
Beginning with the premise that Canada is engaged in the era of treaty implementation, Natives and Settlers discounts the myth of a postcolonial Canada. Informed by a colonial past that remains “refracted” in the current understanding and treatment of Native peoples, this collection reinterprets treaty making, rights, title, and land claims from Aboriginal perspectives. In the spirit of ongoing dialogue, essays by Sharon Venne, Patricia Seed, Harold Cardinal, Frank Tough, and Erin McGregor bring new insights to the interpretations of signed treaties and pre-contact treaty-making processes, examine land claims still under negotiation, and demonstrate the vitality of Aboriginal laws and paradigms in a country new to decolonization and nation building.
Synopsis
"Natives and Settlers provides a beginning to what should be (and should have been) a continuing, respectful discussion." -Blanca Schorcht, Associate Professor, University of Northern British Columbia Is Canada truly postcolonial? Burdened by a past that remains 'refracted' in its understanding and treatment of Indigenous peoples, this collection reinterprets treaty making and land claims from Indigenous perspectives. These five essays not only provide fresh insights to the interpretations of treaties and treaty-making processes, but also examine land claims still under negotiation. Natives and Settlers reclaims the vitality of Indigenous laws and paradigms in Canada, a country new to decolonization.
Synopsis
Is Canada truly postcolonial? Burdened by a past that remains ‘refracted’ in its understanding and treatment of Native peoples, this collection reinterprets treaty making and land claims from Aboriginal perspectives. These five essays not only provide fresh insights to the interpretations of treaties and treaty-making processes, but also examine land claims still under negotiation. Natives and Settlers reclaims the vitality of Aboriginal laws and paradigms in Canada, a country new to decolonization.
About the Author
Paul DePasquale is of Mohawk and European backgrounds and a member of the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory in Ontario. He is Associate Professor of English at the University of Winnipeg where he teaches courses on Aboriginal cultural and literary studies. He is a director of Brandon University’s Summer Institute of Indigenous Humanities and a member of several editorial boards. A former Fulbright visiting scholar at Harvard University, he is currently involved in major research projects funded by Canadian Heritage, SSHRC, and the University of Winnipeg. DePasquale’s recent publications are on subjects such as representations of Aboriginal peoples in early-modern colonial writings; Cree oral literature; Aboriginal pedagogy; Iroquois history; and Aboriginal literatures, including children's literature. He is co-editor of Louis Bird's Telling our Stories: Omushkego Voices from Hudson Bay and co-editor of Contexts in Canadian Aboriginal and Native American Literatures.