Strengthening Policy for First Nations Self-Determination in Health: An Analysis of Problems, Politics, and Policy Related to Medical Travel in Northwest Territories

Medical travel, where a patient travels to a larger centre for services not available in their home community, is a critical element of the Northwest Territories (NT) health care system. For residents with a valid NT health care card who do not have other coverage for medical travel, the territorial government administers some travel benefits through the NT Medical Travel Program as well as the federally funded non-insured health benefits program. The Gwich'in Tribal Council (GTC) recognizes that medical travel constitutes a major burden and presents extraordinary challenges for Gwich'in living in small remote communities in NT. In 2020, the GTC conducted research that suggests current policy and programs provide only partial access to care. Informed by Gwich'in medical travel stories and drawing from literature on the concepts of health care access, knowledge, power, and Indigenous rights, this article reframes prevailing understandings of the problems, politics, and policy associated with medical travel in NT. The authors contend that relevant and equitable medical travel in NT depends on policy-making that engages First Nations as equal partners with different levels of government and describe key considerations relevant to policymakers in NT and throughout Canada

A Study in Institution Building for Dene Governance in the Canadian North: A history of the Development of the Dene National Office

For greater di scussions of rights and political history, we examine institution building for Aboriginal governance in the north by the Dene. The Dene Nation is a national northern Aboriginal organization that has, in turn, spawned several institutions and process for Aboriginal governance in the Canadian North. This study explains the institutional development of the Dene, in particular the Dene Nation and the Dene National Office, which have been for more than 30 years vehicles for the advancement of Treaty and Aboriginal rights implementation in Denendeh (Northwest Territories -N WT). This descriptive analysis begins with a discussion of the origins of Dene national identity, reflected in the story of Yamoria. Originally named the National Indian Brotherhood-NWT upon its creation in 1969, the national office has brought both the distinct regional and national concerns of Dene to national and international attention. As an organization, it has carried forward various processes that supported Dene governance including the Dene/Metis Land Claims, negotiations of the 1970s and 1980s, regional Land Claims and Self-Government Agreements, and a rejuvenated collectivism

The Arctic Environmental Responsibility Index: A method to rank heterogenous extractive industry companies for governance purposes

Abstract: The Arctic Environmental Responsibility Index (AERI) covers 120 oil, gas, and mining companies involved in resource extraction north of the Arctic Circle in Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Finland, Norway, Russia, and Sweden. It is based on an international expert perception survey among 173 members of the International Panel on Arctic Environmental Responsibility (IPAER), whose input is processed using segmented string relative ranking (SSRR) methodology. Equinor, Total, Aker BP, ConocoPhillips, and BP are seen as the most environmentally responsible companies, whereas Dalmorneftegeophysica, Zarubejneft, ERIELL, First Ore‐Mining Company, and Stroygaz Consulting are seen as the least environmentally responsible. Companies operating in Alaska have the highest average rank, whereas those operating in Russia have the lowest average rank. Larger companies tend to rank higher than smaller companies, state‐controlled companies rank higher than privately controlled companies, and oil and gas companies higher than mining companies. The creation of AERI demonstrates that SSRR is a low‐cost way to overcome the challenge of indexing environmental performance and contributing to environmental governance across disparate industrial sectors and states with divergent environmental standards and legal and political systems

Writing settlement after Idle No More: non-indigenous responses in Anglo-Canadian poetry

This article examines the representation of settlement in Canada in the wake of Idle No More in recent Anglo-Canadian literature. It argues that Idle No More engendered a new vocabulary for settler-invader citizens to position themselves in relation to this Indigenous movement, with non-Indigenous Canadians self-identifying as “settlers” and “allies” as a means of both orienting themselves with respect to Indigenous resistance to the settler-invader nation-state and signalling an attempted solidarity with Idle No More that would not lapse into appropriation. Four very different poetic texts by non-Indigenous authors demonstrate this reconsideration of settlement in the wake of Idle No More: Arleen Paré’s Lake of Two Mountains (2014); Rachel Zolf’s Janey’s Arcadia (2014); Rita Wong’s undercurrent (2015); and Shane Rhodes’s X (2013). Although only the latter two of these collections make explicit reference to Idle No More, all four of these texts engage with historical and current colonialisms, relationships to land and water, and relationships between Indigenous peoples and settler-invaders, providing examples of new understandings and representations of (neo)colonial settlement in post-Idle No More Canada

Review of Being Maasai, Becoming Indigenous: postcolonial politics in a neoliberal world by Dorothy Hodgson

Book details Hodgson, Dorothy Being Maasai, Becoming Indigenous: postcolonial politics in a neoliberal world. Bloomington: Indiana University Press; 2011. 288 pages, ISBN-13: 978–025322305

Indigenous Self-Government Negotiations in the Northwest Territorries (NWT), Canada: Time, Reality and Social Suffering

During the past 30 years, Canada has attempted to reconcile Aboriginal rights and title with Canadian sovereignty; including rights of political self determination, or "self government". I examine this process critically in this dissertation, exploring how temporal characterizations of Indigenous peoples, and injustices they suffer, are used by Canadian state representatives to restrict Canada's approaches to resolving injustice. This temporally based approach underpins a broader federal policy orientation rendering meaningless Indigenous peoples' experiences of social suffering arising from injustice. Emptying suffering of meaning is accomplished practically through 'Aboriginal policies' in which symptoms of suffering are defined as "dysfunction". The thrust of broad based 'Aboriginal policy' locates "dysfunction" as arising from actions internal to Indigenous peoples, rather than suffering arising from injustices perpetuated through Canada's social, political, and economic order. The dissertation begins with a description of legal and political foundations of self government negotiations in the NWT. This is followed by an interrogation of concepts of temporality used discursively by Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars, leading to a critique of temporally based philosophical arguments regarding "historic injustice". These arguments are shown to be correlates with arguments asserted in government policies shaping negotiations. Through three examples drawn from three different self government negotiations, I examine how temporal characterizations solidify the disconnection between 'Aboriginal policy' orientations and the conditions creating ongoing social suffering within Indigenous communities. Throughout, descriptions of moose hide tanning function as ethnographic detail and an analytical tool drawn from Dene culture. This introduces the reader to a unique cultural referent for thinking about self government through Indigenous values and practices. It also functions as a tool through which Indigenous peoples, injustice, and 'Aboriginal policy' are situated as coeval, exposing the contradictions inherent in a government policy orientation premised on their temporal separation.Digitisation of this thesis was sponsored by Arcadia Fund, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin

Traditional knowledge, co-existence and co-resistance

This article examines the ways in which settler privilege lies as the basis of injustice and, consequently, why overcoming this privilege is a form of co-resistance central to co-existence. By looking at scholarly debates around Traditional Knowledge, specifically in the area of resource co-management, the author situates those debates as an example of settler colonial privilege, an insight further developed through a discussion of settler colonialism and its relationship with notions of being an ally. Drawing on examples of land based education experiences and working with Dene Elders, the author analyzes ways in which settler colonialism manifests and can be explored through actions, self-reflection and relationships. The author draws on the Dene understanding as co-existence as a basis for understanding the significance and implications of self-decolonization for ensuring respectful relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people

Strengthening Policy for First Nations Self-Determination in Health

Medical travel, where a patient travels to a larger centre for services not available in their home community, is a critical element of the Northwest Territories (NT) health care system. For residents with a valid NT health care card who do not have other coverage for medical travel, the territorial government administers some travel benefits through the NT Medical Travel Program as well as the federally funded non-insured health benefits program. The Gwich'in Tribal Council (GTC) recognizes that medical travel constitutes a major burden and presents extraordinary challenges for Gwich'in living in small remote communities in NT. In 2020, the GTC conducted research that suggests current policy and programs provide only partial access to care. Informed by Gwich'in medical travel stories and drawing from literature on the concepts of health care access, knowledge, power, and Indigenous rights, this article reframes prevailing understandings of the problems, politics, and policy associated with medical travel in NT. The authors contend that relevant and equitable medical travel in NT depends on policy-making that engages First Nations as equal partners with different levels of government and describe key considerations relevant to policymakers in NT and throughout Canada. Les déplacements pour motifs sanitaires, dans lesquels un patient se déplace vers un centre urbain plus grand pour recevoir des services non disponibles dans sa communauté, sont un élément critique du système de soins des Territoires du Nord Ouest (TNO). Le gouvernement territorial offre des aides aux déplacements pour les résidents munis d’une carte de santé valide des TNO dépourvus d’autre forme de couverture pour déplacements sanitaires, à travers le programme de déplacement sanitaire des TNO ainsi qu’à travers le programme fédéral de services de santé non assurés. Le Conseil Tribal Gwich’in (CTG) a reconnu que les déplacements sanitaires représentaient un fardeau écrasant et des défis extrêmes pour les Gwich’in vivant dans des petites communautés isolées des TNO. En 2020, le CTG a conduit une recherche montrant que les programmes et politiques actuelles ne procure qu’un accès partiel aux soins. Cet article, en se fondant sur des récits de déplacements sanitaires de Gwich’in et en utilisant la littérature sur les concepts d’accès aux soins, la connaissance, le pouvoir et les droits autochtones, propose une autre lecture des problèmes et politiques liées aux déplacements sanitaires dans les TNO. Les auteurs affirment que des déplacements sanitaires de qualité et équitables dans les TNO seront le fait d’un processus de décision engageant les Premières Nations comme partenaires à part entière avec les différents niveaux de gouvernement et ils listent les considérations clés pour les décideurs politiques aux TNO et à travers le pays