Indigenous Governance

Reclaiming Indigenous Governance examines the efforts of Indigenous peoples in four important countries to reclaim their right to self-govern. Showcasing Native nations, this timely book presents diverse perspectives of both practitioners and researchers involved in Indigenous governance in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States (the CANZUS states). Indigenous governance is dynamic, an ongoing relationship between Indigenous peoples and settler-states.

This ground-breaking Handbook explores the key legal, political and policy questions concerning the implementation of Indigenous rights across the world. An exciting mix of expert Indigenous and non-Indigenous contributors analyse the complex dynamics of contestation, engagement, advocacy and refusal between governments and Indigenous peoples, presenting a profound challenge to mainstream policy scholarship. Chapters employ both country-level case studies as well as global analyses, covering key themes such as self-determination, sovereignty, culture, land and territory. They showcase the extensive evidence that policy imposed on Indigenous peoples without their involvement is at best ineffective and at worst harmful. Through examining the ongoing impacts of colonisation, contributors identify future pathways for Indigenous public policy, including truth-telling processes, resurgence movements, and international human rights law. Ultimately, the Handbook highlights the vital importance and extensive policy benefits of treating Indigenous people as rights-bearing members of sovereign and self-determining Indigenous nations.

This book poses questions about what community is, how to reclaim community, and how to embark on the process of envisioning what and where the community can be. Geographer Laura Harjo demonstrates that Mvskoke communities have what they need to dream, imagine, speculate, and activate the wishes of ancestors, contemporary kin, and future relatives--all in a present temporality--­which is Indigenous futurity. Organized around four methodologies--radical sovereignty, community knowledge, collective power, and emergence geographies--Spiral to the Stars provides a path that departs from traditional community-making strategies, which are often extensions of the settler state.

Western philosophy has long held scientific rationalism in a place of honour. Reason, that particularly exalted human quality, has become steadily distanced from the metaphysical aspects of existence, such as spirit, faith, and intuition. In Tsawalk, hereditary chief Umeek introduces us to an alternative indigenous worldview -- an ontology drawn from the Nuu-chah-nulth origin stories. Umeek develops a theory of "Tsawalk," meaning "one," that views the nature of existence as an integrated and orderly whole, and thereby recognizes the intrinsic relationship between the physical and spiritual. By retelling and analyzing the origin stories of Son of Raven and Son of Mucus, Umeek demonstrates how Tsawalk provides a viable theoretical alternative that both complements and expands the view of reality presented by Western science. Tsawalk, he argues, allows both Western and indigenous views to be combined in order to advance our understanding of the universe.