Anthropology, Public Policy and Native Peoples in Canada

Christine Hughes is a policy analyst at the Ontario Native Affairs
Secretariat.

This compilation of 13 articles on a number of public policy issues
involving aboriginal peoples in Canada begins with an excellent
introductory essay, by the editors, that discusses common themes
addressed by the contributors.

The book is divided into three parts, each prefaced by a brief,
insightful introduction. Part 1 (“Historical Perspectives on Native
Policy Issues”) contains articles on the development of the Eskimo
Disk List System (Derek Smith); on the writing of the Hawthorn Report, a
federal government-commissioned survey on Canadian Indians, and how it
was used to shape future policies (Sally Weaver); and on the use of
social-impact assessment in the Mackenzie Valley in the mid-1970s (Peter
Usher).

The essays in Part 2 (“The Politics of Anthropological Research”)
illustrate some of the practical problems associated with
anthropological fieldwork. Articles by Julie Cruikshank and Peggy Martin
Brizinski discuss the authors’ respective fieldwork experiences in
northern Canada and Alaska. Also in this section are edited transcripts
of Noel Dyck’s interviews with three members of B.C. First Nations and
an article by Dyck describing some of the constraints of “advocacy
anthropology.”

The final section (“Anthropological Involvement in Native Policy
Issues”) contains six representative case studies of anthropological
involvement in public policy issues. John O’Neil et al. describe the
experiences of medical anthropologists/sociologists engaged in a
participatory health-related research program with northern aboriginal
communities. Several articles detail problems associated with
land-claims research. Joe Sawchuk’s description of working for Native
political organizations is complemented by James Waldram’s analysis of
his experience as an advocate for a northern Native community. Colin
Scott reviews policy, legal, and constitutional perspectives on culture,
custom, and tradition in aboriginal governance. The book concludes with
Julia Harrison’s account of her experiences as curator of the Glenbow
Museum’s 1988 The Spirit Sings exhibition, which sparked a protest by
the Lubicon Lake Cree in Alberta and subsequently divided the
anthropological community.

This book is well suited to an undergraduate applied anthropology
course.