Education for Reconciliation: TRC Library Guide

Vanegas, Farid. (2012). “Indigenous Resistance and the Law.”  Latin American Perspectives 39(1): 61-77.

“The indigenous peoples of Colombia have used various forms of resistance to attempt to change their identities and appropriate their lands. Over time the emphasis has shifted from law and legal titles to marches and land occupations to armed resistance and back again to the law. The legal liberalism that emerged with the 1991 Constitution in Colombia led to the demobilization of the indigenous movement of the time as marches and land occupations were abandoned in favor of lawsuits that identified violations of rights. Success in the courts did not result in any change in the government's policies or its model of development. As the focus shifted from the local to the national level, indigenous peoples' problems on the ground remained unresolved. In recent years, however, local organizations have rediscovered old forms of resistance and use the law as just one tool among many for protecting their rights” (Vanegas 2012: 61).

Tennant, P. (1982). Native Indian political organization in British Columbia, 1900-1969: A response to internal colonialism. B.C. Studies, 55, 3-49.

The utility of the concept of internal colonialism lies initially in its opening a perspective upon the contemporary place of indigenous peoples which is different from the perspective which is commonly maintained, in its own interest, by the non-indigenous ruling group. In the context of an English-speaking new world country the concept delineates not only the indigenous minority but also the immigrant majority — that is, the ruling society composed of persons who are either immigrants or descended from immigrants. The values and incentives associated with voluntary individual emigration to a new land, and the ideologies and policies associated with building a nation where none existed before, not unnaturally result in perceptions which are intolerant of non-assimilating minorities and inimical towards special claims of indigenous peoples.                                            

Wilkes, Rima. (20016). “The Protest Actions of Indigenous Peoples: A Canada-US Comparison of Social Movement Emergence.” American Behavioral Scientist 50: 510-525.

Abstract: Indigenous peoples in both Canada and the United States have engaged in numerous protests. Nevertheless, although these protests led to an ongoing national social movement in the United States, this has not been the case in Canada. This article draws on the sociological literature of social movements to explain this difference. Both cases have some key factors necessary for the formation of national social movements. These common factors include making purposeful political challenges and using noninstitutional tactics of protest. However, other necessary factors—strong leadership by social movement organizations, well-developed political networks, and the development of a strong national collective identity—are much weaker in Canada than they are in the United States.                                    

Wilkes, Rima and Micheal Kehl. (2014). “Nationalism and Iconic Imagery: Face to Face and the Siege at Kanehsatà:ke.” Nations and Nationalism 20: 481-502.

Abstract: Iconic news photographs, particularly those taken during wars and national crises, provide visual synopses of important historical events – events about which stories of triumph and tragedy are superimposed. In this paper, we systematically trace the appearances and discussions of a single, iconic image, given the moniker Face to Face, over time. In the twenty plus years since its initial publication, media discourses around the image referenced Kanien'kehaka /Mohawk, Indigenous, Quebecois and Canadian nationalisms. We conclude that discourses surrounding war and conflict imagery can be read as reflecting plural nationalisms and that while a dominant meaning can be projected onto such imagery, this is neither singular nor fixed.

Wilkes, Rima, Corrigall-Brown, Catherine and Danielle Ricard. (2010).  “Nationalism and Media Coverage of Indigenous People’s Collective Action in Canada.” American Indian Culture and Research Journal 34: 41-59.

Abstract: Indigenous peoples in Canada have engaged in hundreds of collective action events. The media are the key means through which the general public learns about these actions. However, the media do not simply mirror events. Instead, coverage tends to emphasize certain aspects of indigenous peoples’ collective action events while overlooking others. While early research emphasized the tendency of the mainstream media to portray these events as violent and militant, more recent scholarship has focused on nationalism and the ways that coverage of these actions creates an “us” vs. “them” binary. In this paper we build on this latter work by identifying the specific characteristics associated with each side of this binary. We analyze several hundred Canadian newspaper articles about a key set of events that took place during the 1990s. We find that the media repeatedly draws on frames that portray Indigenous peoples’ protest as criminal, divisive, and expensive. These assessments are made in implicit contrast with non-Indigenous people, or “good” citizens, as law- abiding, peaceful, and tax paying. Media stories therefore frame Indigenous challengers in a way that make them appear to be less deserving citizens of the nation.

Wilkes, Rima, Corrigall-Brown, Catherine and Daniel Myers. (2010).  “Packaging Protest: Media Coverage of Indigenous People’s Collective Action” Canadian Review of Sociology 47: 349- 379.

Abstract: Indigenous peoples in Canada have engaged in hundreds of collective action events. Drawing on the news as organization and collective action literatures, we conduct a systematic examination of coverage across events, and we assess the factors associated with the number of articles, front page placement, and the inclusion of photographs. We find that increasing the size and the length of an event does not improve coverage. The latter is determined exclusively by the form of the event, and it is disruptive tactics alone that increase front page coverage. The inclusion of pictures, however, is largely determined by media news routines rather than by activists tactics.

Graveline, F. J. (2012). [Forum invited papers]: IDLE NO MORE: Enough is enough! Canadian Social Work Review, 29(2), 293-300. 

IDLE NO MORE emerged as a grassroots, Indigenous-led social movement in late November 2012, and quickly spread through community-based and social media networks, to be the largest transformative movement for Indigenous rights in Canada since Oka in 2002. The movement began when four women in Saskatchewan-Nina Wilson, Sylvia McAdam, Jessica Gordon and Sheelah McLean-organized a workshop focused on the impacts of Bill C-45, a 457-page omnibus bill containing changes to 64 different acts and regulations, including the Indian Act, the Navigable Waters Protection Act, the Environmental Assessment Act, and the Fisheries Act (McGregor, 2012). In McAdam's view, if Aboriginal people did not speak out, it would mean that we "comply with our silence." So she and her friends decided to speak out. They would be "Idle No More." Co-organizer Tanya Kappo sent off a tweet with the hashtag "#IdleNoMore" (McSheffrey, 2013). And the Indigenous Rights movement in Canada was reborn (Graveline, 2013, p. 293).

Gilio-Whitaker, D. (2015). Idle No More and Fourth World Social Movements in the New Millennium. South Atlantic Quarterly, 114(4), 866-877.

Idle No More (INM) has emerged as the most significant fourth world social movement of the twenty-first century so far. Responding to Draconian and regressive legislation affecting Canadian First Nations' sovereignty, INM was quickly embraced as a movement for all fourth world and Indigenous peoples. This essay examines some of INM's inflections as a fourth world movement, looking at both its resemblances to and differences from earlier Indigenous social movements, and focusing on the United States. Even though INM emerged as a protest movement specific to attacks against Canadian First Nations' peoples, its concerns mirror the concerns of Indigenous peoples globally. But confusing media messaging has consistently misconstrued the self-determination demands in fourth world social movements since the civil rights era, more recently conflating them with environmentalism. Modeling the life cycle of a social movement, the earlier Red Power movement in the United States is seen as having become institutionalized, albeit within contested conceptions of self-determination. Since the passage of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in 2007, Indigenous peoples have a new protection framework to draw from, and the article examines how UNDRIP is being deployed by fourth world peoples, by INM, and in other local contexts, identifying its possibilities and shortcomings (Publication Abstract).

McMillan, L. J. & Young, J. & Peters, M. (2013). Commentary: The “Idle No More” Movement in Eastern Canada. Canadian Journal of Law and Society 28(3), 429-431. Cambridge University Press.

This brief article outlines the political context of the Idle No More movement and how it has spread globally. 

Welsh, C. (2007). Keepers of the fire [DVD]. Omni Film Productions.

An aboriginal proverb says that no people is broken until the hearts of its women are on the ground. Presents the stories of aboriginal women who have participated in important aboriginal struggles in Canada. Mohawk women tell of their role in the 1990 crisis at Oka. Haida women reminisce about their stand on the picket lines and their arrests in the action that stopped logging on Lyell Island in the Queen Charlottes. Maliseet women recall their campaign, lasting eight years, that changed the Indian Act to accord status and rights to all Indian women. Native women in Toronto who run a native women's shelter speak of their roles and what they have learned helping urban native women (Production abstract).

LXS7NDN. (2013, April 19). Idle No More (Documentary).

Exploring the emergence of the Idle No More movement across Canada, this video provides an introductory understanding to the legal and social issues associated with Bill C45, an omnibus budget bill that was created with a lack of consultation with First Peoples.