"Home and native land" : how the Eeyouch in Quebec and the Sami in Norway used hydropower developments to democratize legislation
Date
2014
Authors
Holden, Ann Aasfrid
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Publisher
Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Dept. of History
Abstract
This comparative study examines how Indigenous people, the Eeyouch in Québec and the Sámi in Norway, have secured their right to be consulted prior to new developments on their land through the James Bay and Northern Québec Agreement and the Finnmarksloven. The longstanding tension between notions of private property and collective land-use rights are also found in these laws: the Agreement broke loose from the Indian Act’s patrilineal base of collective land ownership, and the Finnmarksloven emphasized land as important to Sámi culture while recognizing the local reality of ethnic diversity. Consultation based on dialogue with an aim to reach consensus was an important aspect of traditional Indigenous law-making. Ostrom’s theories on local land governance, combined with Habermas’ theories on colonization of the lifeworld, are used to illuminate the Sámi and Eeyouch agency to incorporate their own cultural and normative aspects into national laws.
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Keywords
Eeyouch , collective land ownership , hydropower , indigenous law , James Bay Cree , Sami , private property laws , Habermas , Ostrom , E.P. Thompson