Mining and Communities in Northern Canada: History, Politics, and Memory

Mining and Communities in Northern Canada: History, Politics, and Memory

This award-winning collection examines historical and contemporary impacts of mining on Aboriginal communities in northern Canada.

Keeling, Arn and Sandlos, John (eds) (2015). Mining and Communities in Northern Canada: History, Politics, and Memory. Calgary: University of Calgary Press

This book edited by REXSAC researchers based on their earlier work was in 2017 awarded the Canadian Studies Network Prize for Best Edited Collection for its significant level of interdisciplinarity and successful coverage of a range of historical topics and methods.

Link to free pdf: http://press.ucalgary.ca/books/9781552388044

Abstract

For indigenous communities throughout the globe, mining has been a historical forerunner of colonialism, introducing new, and often disruptive, settlement patterns and economic arrangements. Although indigenous communities may benefit from and adapt to the wage labour and training opportunities provided by new mining operations, they are also often left to navigate the complicated process of remediating the long-term ecological changes associated with industrial mining. In this regard, the mining often inscribes colonialism as a broad set of physical and ecological changes to indigenous lands.

This collection examines historical and contemporary social, economic, and environmental impacts of mining on Aboriginal communities in northern Canada. Combining oral history research with intensive archival study, this work juxtaposes the perspectives of government and industry with the perspectives of local communities. The oral history and ethnographic material provides an extremely significant record of local Aboriginal perspectives on histories of mining and development in their regions.

Link to free pdf: http://press.ucalgary.ca/books/9781552388044

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