The politics of representation : sites of debate over aboriginal culture
Date
1996
Authors
Reimer, Neil
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Abstract
Claims or representations by groups and individuals are central to any political debate. How these individuals or groups represent themselves or are represented by others can become highly-charged issues, even in a seemingly localized or straightforward dispute. Nowhere is the politics of representation more acute than with the debate over the status of aboriginal people in Canada. This has become a central question in contemporary Canadian politics, as aboriginal people have become better organized and more vocal in pursuing greater autonomy and control over their lives.
The basis for these political claims is a cultural one, and thus complex questions of cultural representation become central to the immediate political issues to be resolved. Commonly used categories of modern liberal political discourse such as equality and individual rights are insufficient to accommodate aboriginal claims, as are assumptions about modern forms of social organization. Further, there is no single forum in which these issues can be resolved: the complexity of contemporary socio-cultural relations means that there are many disparate forums or sites in which aboriginal culture is represented, and the characteristics of these sites themselves become crucial to the way in which the debate(s) can proceed. A politics of representation is created in a double sense: the immediate claims (over land, etc.) are political, but rest on a cultural basis, the representation of which is also political. The immediacy of these politics is illustrated when one analyzes individual sites of representation.
Three such sites are examined here. One is a courtroom, in which the Gitksan and Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs brought a land-claims action against the Province of British Columbia. The second is an education institution, the En'owkin Centre, which is administered by Okanagan people. And finally, a group of texts that address Okanagan culture are analyzed and compared. In each, different cultural representations are made and different political issues arise. Taken together, these sites are important exemplars of the different ways in which identity is constructed and debate over aboriginal issues can proceed. In particular, they highlight the varying degrees to which processes of dialogue may help to overcome the gaps between different narratives employed by aboriginals and others.