In 1880, two Inuit families from Labrador in northern Canada were exhibited in European zoos. Spectators flocked to the zoo exhibit expecting to see "exotics" from some "primitive race". What they found instead were Labradorimiut who spoke three languages, played German hymn tunes on violin and who were keeping their own ethnographic notes on the "uncivilised" Europeans. While spectators gaped at them, the Inuit gazed back. And one of them - Abraham Ulrikab - kept a diary.

Following the success of First Invaders (Ronsdale, 2004), Alan Twigg turns his attention to First Nations writers, unearthing more than 300 books by more than 170 mostly unheralded British Columbia aboriginal authors. Taking the reader from residential schools to art galleries, this lively and unprecedented panorama of British Columbia includes trailblazer Pauline Johnson, political organizer George Manuel and Haida carver Bill Reid. Equally important, Aboriginality sheds new light on fascinating, lesser-known figures such as Chief William Sepass, and Howard Adams, to name only two. Nearly half the author profiles are women, including Marilyn Dumont, Lizette Hall and Heather Harris. Each author is presented in historical and chronological context, along with background material on aboriginal history, as well as rare photos, illustrations and a comprehensive bibliography. "Alan Twiggs Aboriginality is unprecedented and indispensable." —Howard White, publisher, Encyclopedia of British Columbia.

Delgamuukw. Mabo. Ngati Apa. Recent cases have created a framework for litigating Aboriginal title in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The distinguished group of scholars whose work is showcased here, however, shows that our understanding of where the concept of Aboriginal title came from – and where it may be going – can also be enhanced by exploring legal developments in these former British colonies in a comparative, multidisciplinary framework. This path-breaking book offers a perspective on Aboriginal title that extends beyond national borders to consider similar developments in common law countries.

Forums such as commissions, courtroom trials, and tribunals that have been established through the second half of the twentieth century to address Aboriginal land claims have consequently created a particular way of presenting Aboriginal, colonial, and national histories. The history that emerges from these land-claims processes is often criticized for being “presentist” – inaccurately interpreting historical actions and actors through the lens of present-day values, practices, and concerns. In Aboriginal Rights Claims and the Making and Remaking of History, Arthur Ray examines how claims-oriented research is often fitted to the existing frames of Indigenous rights law and claims legislation and, as a result, has influenced the development of these laws and legislation. Through a comparative study encompassing Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United States, Ray also explores the ways in which various procedures and settings for claims adjudication have influenced and changed the use of historical evidence, made space for Indigenous voices, stimulated scholarly debates about the cultural and historical experiences of Indigenous peoples at the time of initial European contact and afterward, and have provoked reactions from politicians and scholars. While giving serious consideration to the flaws and strengths of presentist histories, Aboriginal Rights Claims and the Making and Remaking of History provides Aboriginal, academic, and legal communities with essential information on how history is used and how methods are adapted and changed.

Aboriginal Peoples in Canada, eighth edition, provides a current, comprehensive introduction to Native Studies. Using both the majority and minority perspectives, it chronicles the changes that have taken place over the past century and how they have impacted upon Canadian and Aboriginal Peoples. The goal of the authors is to provide a critical interpretation of the events that have shaped Aboriginal-Euro-Canadian relations and that thus have formed the structure of Canadian society. With updated statistical material, recent research in Native studies, and expanded sections on the most relevant contemporary topics, this text offers a good balance between social and cultural issues, as well as historical, legal, and theoretical material for students in the field of Aboriginal, First Nations, and Native Studies.

This volume features differing views of past, present, and possible future roles for Aboriginal people in the Canadian political and electoral system. The studies address the issues facing Aboriginal people and the efforts to increase their involvement in the federal electoral system. Robert Milen examines the development of Aboriginal political consciousness since the 1970s, with attention to recent constitutional and electoral initiatives and aspirations. Augie Fleras' study considers the New Zealand system of guaranteed representation for the Maori and suggests how Canada might follow this example. Valerie Alia studies how the media deal with Aboriginal issues, basing her recommendations on interviews with Aboriginal people who offered her their views. Roger Gibbins critiques the idea of guaranteed Aboriginal representation in the House of Commons.

Thomas Isaac looks at the broad picture of trends that are developing in the law and the background, highlighting aspects of Canadian law that impact Aboriginal peoples and their relationship with the wider Canadian society. While covering issues such as Aboriginal and treaty rights, constitutional issues, land claims, self-government, provincial and federal roles, the rights of the Métis, and the Indian Act, this book pays particular attention to the Crown’s duty to consult. The Supreme Court of Canada has clearly stated that achieving reconciliation between Aboriginal interests with the needs of Canadian society as a whole lies primarily with governments, which Isaac outlines.

An Abenaki born in St Francis, Quebec, Noel Annance (1792–1869), by virtue of two of his great-grandparents having been early white captives, attended Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. Determined to apply his privileged education, he was caught between two ways of being, neither of which accepted him among their numbers. Despite outstanding service as an officer in the War of 1812, Annance was too Indigenous to be allowed to succeed in the far west fur trade, and too schooled in outsiders’ ways to be accepted by those in charge on returning home. Annance did not crumple, but all his life dared the promise of literacy on his own behalf and on that of Indigenous peoples more generally. His doing so is tracked through his writings to government officials and others, some of which are reproduced in this volume. Annance’s life makes visible how the exclusionary policies towards Indigenous peoples, generally considered to have originated with the Indian Act of 1876, were being put in place upwards to half a century earlier. On account of his literacy, Annance’s story can be told. Recounting a life marked equally by success and failure, and by perseverance, Abenaki Daring speaks to similar barriers that to this day impede many educated Indigenous persons from realizing their life goals. To dare is no less essential than it was for Noel Annance.

Sometime during the summer of 1690, in east-central Saskatchewan, Englishmen Henry Kelsey and his Indian escorts walked out of the boreal forest and into a new world -- the northern great plains of western Canada. It was a landscape never encountered before by another European. Kelsey has been lauded as "first in the west" and the "discoverer of the Canadian prairies." But these accolades overlook the simple fact that any European and later Canadian activity in what would become the future province of Saskatchewan was entirely dependent on the goodwill and cooperation of the indigenous peoples of the region. After all, Kelsey had to be taken inland. He was a passenger, not a pathfinder.