Mapping songs, mapping histories: the negotiation of cultural perspectives on Git₋xsan territory
Date
1999
Authors
Bonnell, Jennifer Leigh
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Abstract
Behind political and legal conflicts over aboriginal land and resource rights in British Columbia lies a more fundamental impasse in cultural perspectives. For aboriginal people, a dilemma emerges between the compulsion to communicate their principles and values in terms that non-aboriginal people can understand (at the risk of sacrificing important context), and the compulsion to preserve "absolute meanings" at the risk of sacrificing communication. This thesis explores theoretical approaches to translation as a way of moving beyond this impasse in Crown-Aboriginal relations. It follows the efforts of the Gitxsan First Nation- both in the courts and in practical initiatives-to translate aspects of an aboriginal perspective as evidence of their claim to the land.
This thesis examines three examples of impasse in cultural perspectives, and the Gitxsan's response to that impasse. The first occurs in historic disputes over trapline registration in the 1930s, when different cultural conceptions of “trapline" led to conflict and, in isolated circumstances, to negotiation. The second occurs in the trial of Delgamuukw v. The Queen (1991), where differences over the nature of aboriginal title and the presentation of aboriginal evidence led to an impasse in communication in the trial, and to a negotiation of meanings in subsequent appeals. In the third example, the Gitxsan explore ways of facilitating cross-cultural communication through the translation of aboriginal evidence into graphic maps. The maps demonstrate a Gitxsan understanding of territory in which cultural rights are inextricably connected to the ecosystems on which they are based.
In each case, differences between Western and Aboriginal concepts remain constant; the potential for conflict or, alternatively, for negotiation builds in correlation with development pressures. Taken together, the examples show how the Gitxsan have adapted their claim of ownership and jurisdiction of their territories to different political environments, using different technologies. By presenting evidence from an aboriginal perspective, the Gitxsan encourage the Crown to begin its own process of translation: to make room for aboriginal concepts of title, and aboriginal methods of presenting evidence, in order to reach equitable agreements. The Gitxsan's approach has implications not only for their own development plans, but also for those of other First Nations.