Women’s participation in decision making - Environmental and Human Security in the Arctic - page 226

Notes
1 This summary does not include Indigenous political theories and practices that operate at
the level of Indigenous communities and peoples - such theories and practices vary from
people to people and are difficult to make generalizations about and will be discussed in
more detail in the section on Inuit governance in Nunavut. By contrast, strategies directed
towards the Canadian state for achieving Indigenous political goals are more homogenous
in that key practices and discourses are set by the Canadian state itself and by politically
savvy Indigenous leaders.
2 In Canada, the state has pursued the extinguishment of aboriginal rights through treaties
and through the so-called 'modern treaties' - the land claims and self-government
negotiations process, which are discussed in detail in the section on the Indigenous
political process and colonial political systems.
3 See Taiaiake Alfred's Peace, Power, Righteousness (1999) for a discussion on Indigenous
understandings of nationhood.
4 For example, see the extensive and excellent discussion of challenges and difficulties
inherent in an 'integration' approach in Nadasdy (2004).
5 The observations in this section are based on Irlbacher-Fox's participation in political
development processes through over close to a decade of professional work in the NWT
and her anthropological fieldwork conducted in the NWT during 2000/2001.
6 AANDC administers the Indian Act, and various legislative and policy-based responsibilities
for Indigenous peoples in the NWT. These responsibilities are structured and discharged
within a national policy, legislative and political context that promotes uniform treatment of
Indigenous peoples in Canada as much as possible.
7 Indigenous women who serve as elected leaders have emphasized to me that given the fact
of colonial institutions within Indigenous communities, it is important to continually
advocate for women's representation in these and other elected institutions. As stated
elsewhere, this distinction between colonial and Indigenous systems is not intended as
an apology for the exclusion of Indigenous women from electoral politics nor advocacy for
Indigenous women to settle for 'whispering in the ear of power' rather than asserting their
own. Instead, it is to distinguish between the existence of the two types of systems, and
make the case that power and authority is exercised differently within Indigenous political
processes than in colonial ones.
8 See the respective land claim agreements and, in the NWT, the Mackenzie Valley Resource
Management Act mandates the use of 'aboriginal traditional knowledge' in its decision-
making bodies.
9 See for example the Inuvialuit and Gwich'in Self-Government Agreement in Principle
(Government of Canada 2001).
10 Resulting from a November 2003 conference on land claim implementation, the coalition
issued a major policy paper in 2004 and initiated the establishment of a coalition secretariat
based in Ottawa.
11 Prior to Nunavut's establishment, the Eastern Arctic was part of the NWT. Although
the GN is a public one, in which Inuit and non-Inuit alike can participate, the founding
principle of Nunavut was that it was meant to be an Inuit homeland with governmental
structures and political processes reflecting the values and interests of Inuit society.
It is debatable the extent to which the GN is an 'Inuit' government and the effects of
integrating 'Inuit values' into Euro-Canadian governance institutions.
12 See Wilson (2005) for further discussion of the gender parity proposal and debate.
13 This observation stems from interviews with Jack Hicks and John Merritt, which were
conducted by Wilson Rowe in Iqaluit, autumn 2003. Jack Hicks served as a staff member
of the NIC and John Merritt was legal counsel to the NIC from December 1993 to January
1998.