Where the Rivers Meet: Pipelines, Participatory Resource Management, and Aboriginal-State Relations in the Northwest Territories

Carly A. Dokis

Book

Where the Rivers Meet

Pipelines, Participatory Resource Management, and Aboriginal-State Relations in the Northwest Territories

Carly A. Dokis

Language: English

Published/Copyright: 2015

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About this book

Oil and gas companies now recognize that industrial projects in the Canadian North can only succeed if Aboriginal communities are involved in decision-making processes. Are Aboriginal concerns appropriately addressed through current consultation and participatory processes?

Where the Rivers Meet is an ethnographic account of Sahtu Dene involvement in the environmental assessment of the Mackenzie Gas Project, a massive pipeline that, if completed, would have unprecedented effects on Aboriginal communities in the North.

Carly A. Dokis reveals that while there has been some progress in establishing avenues for Dene participation in decision making, the structure of participatory and consultation processes fails to meet the expectations of local people by requiring them to participate in ways that are incommensurable with their experiential knowledge and understandings of the environment. Ultimately, Dokis finds that the evaluation of such projects remains rooted in non-local beliefs about the nature of the environment, the commodification of land, and the inevitability of a hydrocarbon-based economy.

Author / Editor information

Carly A. Dokis is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Nipissing University. Her research interests include political ecology, anthropology of development, collaborative research methodologies, and the ethnology of northern Canada. She has worked with communities in northern Ontario and the Northwest Territories with a broad focus on the social, economic, and political consequences of participatory environmental management.

Reviews

This book represents a significant contribution to our understanding of barriers to procedural justice in Aboriginal communities, and it offers important lessons for regulators, policy makers, and rights advocates well beyond the Northwest Territories. Senior undergraduate or graduate students interested in anthropology, indigenous studies, or political ecology will find the work accessible and very relevant to the contemporary history of development on aboriginal lands.

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Front Matter
i

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Contents
v

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Illustrations
vi

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Foreword
vii
Graeme Wynn

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Preface
xxi

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Acknowledgments
xxv

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Abbreviations
xxvii

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Introduction
3
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“Very Nice Talk in a Very Beautiful Way” The Community Hearing Process
32
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“A Billion Dollars Cannot Create a Moose” Perceptions of Industrial Impacts
63
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Life under the Comprehensive Claim Agreement
91
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Consultation and Other Legitimating Practices
130
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Conclusion
161
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Notes
175
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References
188
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Index
196
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Nature History Society
209

Publishing information

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

eBook published on:

August 3, 2023

eBook ISBN:

9780774828475

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

Main content:

240

https://doi.org/10.59962/9780774828475

eBook ISBN: 9780774828475

Audience(s) for this book

For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research

Where the Rivers Meet

Overview

About this book

Author / Editor information

Reviews

Topics

Table of contents

Front Matter

Contents

Illustrations

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Introduction

“Very Nice Talk in a Very Beautiful Way” The Community Hearing Process

“A Billion Dollars Cannot Create a Moose” Perceptions of Industrial Impacts

Life under the Comprehensive Claim Agreement

Consultation and Other Legitimating Practices

Conclusion

Notes

References

Index

Nature History Society

Bibliographic data