Books - By Faculty - National Indigenous History Month - Online Display - McMaster LibGuides at McMaster University

Humanities & Social Sciences

Canada at a crossroads by Jeffrey S. Denis Drawing on group position theory, settler colonial studies, critical race theory, and Indigenous theorizing, Canada at a Crossroads emphasizes the social psychological barriers to transforming white settler ideologies and practices and working towards decolonization. After tracing settlers’ sense of group superiority and entitlement to historical and ongoing colonial processes, Denis illustrates how contemporary Indigenous and settler residents think about and relate to one another. He highlights how, despite often having close cross-group relationships, residents maintain conflicting perspectives on land, culture, history, and treaties, and Indigenous residents frequently experience interpersonal and systemic racism. Denis then critically assesses the promise and pitfalls of commonly proposed solutions, including intergroup contact, education, apologies, and collective action, and concludes that genuine reconciliation will require radically restructuring Canadian society and perpetually fulfilling treaty responsibilities.
How Should I Read These? by Helen Hoy One of the few books on contemporary Native writing in Canada, Helen Hoy's absorbing and provocative work raises and addresses questions around 'difference' and the locations of cultural insider and outsider in relation to texts by contemporary Native women prose writers in Canada. Drawing on post-colonial, feminist, post-structuralist and First Nations theory, it explores the problems involved in reading and teaching a variety of works by Native women writers from the perspective of a cultural outsider. In each chapter, Hoy examines a particular author and text in order to address some of the basic theoretical questions of reader location, cultural difference, and cultural appropriation, finally concluding that these Native authors have refused to be confined by identity categories such as 'woman' or 'Native,' and have themselves provided a critical voice guiding how their texts might be read and taught. Hoy has written a thoughtful and original work, combining theoretical and textual analysis with insightful and witty personal and pedagogical narratives, as well as poetic and critical epigraphs - the latter of which function as counterpoint to the scholarly argument. The analysis is self-reflexive, making issues of difference and power ongoing subjects of investigation, which interact with the literary texts themselves, and which render the readings more clearly local, partial, and accountable. This highly imaginative volume will appeal to Canadianists, feminists, and the growing number of scholars in the field of Native Studies.
Native Americans on Film by M. Elise Marubbio, ed. The film industry and mainstream popular culture are notorious for promoting stereotypical images of Native Americans: the noble and ignoble savage, the pronoun-challenged sidekick, the ruthless warrior, the female drudge, the princess, the sexualized maiden, the drunk, and others. Over the years, Indigenous filmmakers have both challenged these representations and moved past them, offering their own distinct forms of cinematic expression. Native Americans on Film draws inspiration from the Indigenous film movement, bringing filmmakers into an intertextual conversation with academics from a variety of disciplines. The resulting dialogue opens a myriad of possibilities for engaging students with ongoing debates: What is Indigenous film? Who is an Indigenous filmmaker? What are Native filmmakers saying about Indigenous film and their own work? This thought-provoking text offers theoretical approaches to understanding Native cinema, includes pedagogical strategies for teaching particular films, and validates the different voices, approaches, and worldviews that emerge across the movement.
Therapeutic Nations by Dian Million Self-determination is on the agenda of Indigenous peoples all over the world. This analysis by an Indigenous feminist scholar challenges the United Nations-based human rights agendas and colonial theory that until now have shaped Indigenous models of self-determination. Gender inequality and gender violence, Dian Million argues, are critically important elements in the process of self-determination. Million contends that nation-state relations are influenced by a theory of trauma ascendant with the rise of neoliberalism. Such use of trauma theory regarding human rights corresponds to a therapeutic narrative by Western governments negotiating with Indigenous nations as they seek self-determination. Focusing on Canada and drawing comparisons with the United States and Australia, Million brings a genealogical understanding of trauma against a historical filter. Illustrating how Indigenous people are positioned differently in Canada, Australia, and the United States in their articulation of trauma, the author particularly addresses the violence against women as a language within a greater politic. The book introduces an Indigenous feminist critique of this violence against the medicalized framework of addressing trauma and looks to the larger goals of decolonization. Noting the influence of humanitarian psychiatry, Million goes on to confront the implications of simply dismissing Indigenous healing and storytelling traditions. Therapeutic Nations is the first book to demonstrate affect and trauma's wide-ranging historical origins in an Indigenous setting, offering insights into community healing programs. The author's theoretical sophistication and original research make the book relevant across a range of disciplines as it challenges key concepts of American Indian and Indigenous studies.
What has no place, remains : the challenges for Indigenous religious freedom in Canada today by Nicholas Shrubsole The desire to erase the religions of Indigenous Peoples is an ideological fixture of the colonial project marking the first century of Canada’s nationhood. While the ban on certain Indigenous religious practices was lifted after World War II, it was not until 1982 that Canada recognized Aboriginal rights, constitutionally protecting the diverse cultures of Indigenous Peoples. As former Prime Minister Stephen Harper stated in Canada’s apology for Indian Residential Schools, the desire to destroy Indigenous cultures, including religions, has no place in Canada today. Yet, Indigenous religions remain under threat. Drawing on philosophical, sociological, cultural, and legal theories, What Has No Place, Remains analyzes state actions, responses, and decisions on matters of Indigenous religious freedom. With particular attention to cosmologically significant space, this book provides the first comprehensive assessment of the conceptual, cultural, political, social, and legal reasons why religious freedom for Indigenous Peoples is currently an impossibility in Canada. Framed through a postcolonial lens and eight interrelated challenges for religious freedom, the book examines the impacts of an expanding, yet shallow, interpretation of religious freedom, secularization, and competing legal frameworks. The book is particularly concerned with legal cases, such as Ktunaxa Nation v. British Columbia (2017), but also draws on political negotiations, such as those at Voisey’s Bay, and standoffs such as the one at Gustafsen Lake, to generate a more comprehensive picture of the challenges for Indigenous religious freedom beyond Canada’s courts.

Science

Ancestral Knowledge Meets Computer Science Education by Cueponcaxochitl D. Moreno Sandoval This book illustrates a pathway for knowledge production to benefit from interweaving the seemingly disparate historical experiences of Indigenous Peoples and computer science education. The resulting practice of ancestral computing for sustainability holds the power to mitigate the destructive forces of the field, while extending the potential of traditionally underserved and unheard populations. Reimagining the field of computer science, interwoven with traditional lifeways, presents compelling new discoveries in research and harnesses the rich tapestries that are Indigenous populations. Returning healthy lifeways to a center stage long-occupied by tightly controlled, Eurocentric learning methods opens worlds of opportunity that have felt lost to time.
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer Called the work of "a mesmerizing storyteller with deep compassion and memorable prose" (Publishers Weekly) and the book that, "anyone interested in natural history, botany, protecting nature, or Native American culture will love," by Library Journal, Braiding Sweetgrass is poised to be a classic of nature writing. As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer asks questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces indigenous teachings that consider plants and animals to be our oldest teachers. Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take "us on a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise” (Elizabeth Gilbert). Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, a mother, and a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings offer us gifts and lessons, even if we’ve forgotten how to hear their voices.
Embracing Indigenous Knowledge in Science and Medical Teaching by Mariana G. Hewson The focus of the book is on different ways of knowing: the western scientific way (reductionist, dualistic and materialist) versus the indigenous approach (holistic, non-dualistic, and spiritual). It discusses both science and medicine in the context of the challenges experienced in introducing science and medicine into Africa through imperialism, colonization, and globalization. It looks at selected indigenous African paradigms, the dominant western paradigms, and the practitioners that represent these practices. The book deals with questions concerning compatibility and incompatibility of different ways of knowing and delves into epistemological stances, and the assumptions underlying these epistemologies. The volume investigates whether, and how a person can accommodate different epistemologies, and the nature of such accommodations.
Science, Colonialism, and Indigenous Peoples by Laurelyn Whitt At the intersection of indigenous studies, science studies, and legal studies lies a tense web of political issues of vital concern for the survival of indigenous nations. Numerous historians of science have documented the vital role of late-eighteenth- and nineteenth-century science as a part of statecraft, a means of extending empire. This book follows imperialism into the present, demonstrating how pursuit of knowledge of the natural world impacts, and is impacted by, indigenous peoples rather than nation-states. In extractive biocolonialism, the valued genetic resources, and associated agricultural and medicinal knowledge, of indigenous peoples are sought, legally converted into private intellectual property, transformed into commodities, and then placed for sale in genetic marketplaces. Science, Colonialism, and Indigenous Peoples critically examines these developments, demonstrating how contemporary relations between indigenous and Western knowledge systems continue to be shaped by the dynamics of power, the politics of property, and the apologetics of law.
Science and Sustainability by Joy Hendry Indigenous peoples have passed down vital knowledge for generations from which local plants help cure common ailments, to which parts of the land are unsuitable for buildings because of earthquakes. Here, Hendry examines science through these indigenous roots, problematizing the idea that Western science is the only type that deserves that name.

Business

Decolonizing Employment by Shauna MacKinnon Indigenous North Americans continue to be overrepresented among those who are poor, unemployed, and with low levels of education. This has long been an issue of concern for Indigenous people and their allies and is now drawing the attention of government, business leaders, and others who know that this fast-growing population is a critical source of future labour. Shauna MacKinnon?s Decolonizing Employment: Aboriginal Inclusion in Canada?s Labour Market is a case study with lessons applicable to communities throughout North America. Her examination of Aboriginal labour market participation outlines the deeply damaging, intergenerational effects of colonial policies and describes how a neoliberal political economy serves to further exclude Indigenous North Americans. MacKinnon?s work demonstrates that a fundamental shift in policy is required. Long-term financial support for comprehensive, holistic education and training programs that integrate cultural reclamation and small supportive learning environments is needed if we are to improve social and economic outcomes and support the spiritual and emotional healing that Aboriginal learners tell us is of primary importance.
Engaging indigenous economy : debating diverse approaches by Will Sanders, ed. Native nation economies have long been dominated by public sector activities - government programs and services and tribal government-owned businesses - which do not generate the same long-term benefits for local communities that the private sector does. In this work, editors Robert Miller, Miriam Jorgensen, Daniel Stewart, and a roster of expert authors address the underdevelopment of the private sector on American Indian reservations, with the goal of sustaining and growing Native nation communities, so that Indian Country can thrive on its own terms. Chapter authors provide the language and arguments to make the case to tribal politicians, Native communities, and allies about the importance of private sector development and entrepreneurship in Indigenous economies. This book identifies and addresses key barriers to expanding the sector, provides policy guidance, and describes several successful business models - thus offering students, practitioners, and policymakers the information they need to make change.
In Business for Ourselves by Wanda A. Wuttunee Wuttunee believes that the continued growth and development of a dynamic small business sector is vital to Canada's future economic structure. She has therefore directed her book not only to potential northern entrepreneurs and students interested in the concerns of small businesses in isolated communities but also to those who provide the support services for owners of small businesses.
New Frontiers in the Internationalization of Businesses by Fernando Angulo-Ruiz New Frontiers in the Internationalization of Businesses: Empirical Evidence from Indigenous Businesses in Canada highlights the impact of international expansion as a potential pathway to address the challenges of poverty and vulnerability, and provide relevant new knowledge on the factors that support successful international expansion of Indigenous businesses. This book examines how entrepreneur's identity and cultural values, network ties, motivations, and resources and capabilities facilitate or hinder the internationalization of Indigenous businesses. This book also investigates the economic and non-economic outcomes of internationalization. Most interestingly, this book answers the question of what is so new about the internationalization of Indigenous businesses by comparing this context to mainstream (non-Indigenous) businesses. The book also delves in the phenomena related to home-based businesses, service industries, and specific ethnic groups. This book has implications for vulnerable populations, especially those more than 370 million indigenous people spread across 70 countries worldwide. Studying those Indigenous businesses that decide to pursue international opportunities and how they become successful in international markets is a timely and novel area of research. Understanding this context contributes to current debates in international business.
Walking in the Woods by Herb Belcourt An updated edition of Herb Belcourt's remarkable life story with a brand-new foreword by the author. The eldest of ten children, Belcourt grew up in a small log home near the Métis settlement of Lac Ste. Anne during the Depression. His father purchased furs from local First Nations and Métis trappers and, with arduous work, began a family fur trading business that survives to this day. When Belcourt left home at 15 to become a labourer in coal mines and sawmills, his father told him to save his money so he could work for himself. Over the next three decades, Belcourt began a number of small Alberta businesses that prospered and eventually enabled him to make significant contributions to the Métis community in Alberta. Belcourt has devoted over 30 years of his life to improving access to affordable housing and further education for Aboriginal Albertans. In 1971, he co-founded CanNative Housing Corporation, a nonprofit agency charged with providing homes for urban Aboriginal people who confronted housing discrimination in Edmonton and Calgary. In 2004, Belcourt and his colleagues established the Belcourt Brosseau Métis Awards Fund, a $13-million endowment with a mandate to support the educational dreams of Métis youth and mature students in Alberta and to make a permanent difference in the lives of Métis Albertans.