Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Explores diverse Indigenous perspectives on governance, resource, land and water management, intergovernmental relations and economic development in the context of contemporary settler colonialism in Canada. Skills include critical thinking, anti-colonial, economic, political and policy analyses. Students with credit for PLAN 407 may not take this course for further credit.

COURSE DETAILS:

This course examines a variety of Indigenous perspectives, priorities and complications with respect to governance and resource, land, and water management in British Columbia. We begin with an exploration of Indigenous worldviews, values and principles, especially as they relate to “resources,” and matters of kinship, responsibility, respect, and reciprocity. We will then seek to understand intergovernmental relations within the context of settler colonialism and neoliberal capitalism. Students will receive an introduction into the complex issues and difficult decisions faced by Indigenous peoples, including diversity and divergence of values and principles, economic and community development pressures, poverty, settler colonialism and the ongoing struggles for Indigenous self-determination.

This course will include theoretical foundations of Indigenous worldviews, settler colonialism, neoliberal capitalism and Indigenous self-determination, as well as an examination of several case studies, primarily from British Columbia. Students will be encouraged to critically analyze contemporary resource management/relationship issues from Indigenous, anti-colonial, and anti-capitalist perspectives. As many REM students go on to work on these issues directly after graduation, here they will be exposed to them here from the positions of empathy and solidarity. This is a seminar course with a heavy reading load and students are expected to actively contribute to in-depth class discussions.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

By the end of the course students will have gained and understanding of:

1. Various Indigenous perspectives on resource and environmental management issues in BC.
2. Indigenous governance institutions, community priorities and complications.
3. Critical thinking skills, especially from Indigenous, anti-colonial and anti-capitalist perspectives.
4. Cultivating and nurturing empathy, solidarity and allyship with Indigenous communities with respect to their struggles for self-determination and resource relationships.

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

REQUIRED READING NOTES: