Women’s participation in decision making - Environmental and Human Security in the Arctic - page 203

Women's participation in
decision making
Human security in the Canadian Arctic
Stephanie Irlbacher-Fox, Jackie Price and
Elana Wilson Rowe
Human security in the Arctic: a new dialogue?
The concept of human security was developed primarily to assess and ameliorate
dramatic challenges to life and livelihood in the 'Third World'. In this chapter,
we explore the relevance of the concept of human security to political participa-
tion of women in the Northwest Territories (NWT) and Nunavut in Canada. We
start with the assumption that functioning and appropriate political systems and
institutions are fundamental to human security. We also assume that legitimate
and effective Indigenous representation and the creation of political institutions
appropriate to Indigenous peoples' senses of identity, community and culture are
essential to the well-being of Indigenous individuals and communities.
In this introductory section, we explore briefly the vocabulary of rights
that is presently active in the Canadian North and hypothesize about the ways
in which human security may provide a useful way of thinking, through the
rigid juxtaposition of individual versus collective rights that so often char-
acterizes discussions of Indigenous women's rights. Subsequently, we draw
upon and combine our individual research in the NWT and Nunavut to
further explore these issues. First, Stephanie Irlbacher-Fox describes broadly
some ongoing tensions between colonial and Indigenous political systems in
these areas of the Canadian Arctic and the influence this conflict exerts over
the participation of Indigenous women. Second, Elana Wilson Rowe presents
a case study of how institutional reform aimed at ensuring the participa-
tion of Inuit women in formal politics in Nunavut has failed. Finally, Jackie
Price proposes an alternative approach to address the lack of voice that Inuit
women have in politics - a model that inverts more conventional approaches
to involving Indigenous persons in politics. Throughout, we examine how
the concept of human security can contribute to thinking about the issues of
political participation and the appropriateness of political institutions.
Indigenous and/or human rights discourse is one of the primary political
discourses generated by Indigenous leaders engaged in activism and negotia-
tions directed towards the Canadian state . 1 This political activism is based
upon the idea that Indigenous peoples, as peoples colonized by settler states,