Indigenous Processes of Consent: Repoliticizing Water Governance through Legal Pluralism

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dc.contributor.authorCurran, Deborah
dc.date.accessioned2019-03-27T18:30:55Z
dc.date.available2019-03-27T18:30:55Z
dc.date.copyright2019en_US
dc.date.issued2019
dc.description.abstractWhile international instruments and a few state governments endorse the “free, prior and informed consent” of Indigenous peoples in decision-making about the water in their traditional territories, most state water governance regimes do not recognize Indigenous water rights and responsibilities. Applying a political ecology lens to the settler colonialism of water governance exposes the continued depoliticizing personality of natural resources decision-making and reveals water as an abstract, static resource in law and governance processes. Most plainly, these decision-making processes inadequately consider environmental flows or cumulative effects and are at odds with both Indigenous governance and social-ecological approaches to watershed management. Using the example of groundwater licensing in British Columbia, Canada as reinforcing colonialism in water governance, this article examines how First Nations are asserting Indigenous rights in response to natural resource decision-making. Both within and outside of colonial governance processes they are establishing administrative and governance structures that express their water laws and jurisdiction. These structures include the Syilx, Nadleh Wut’en and Stellat’en creating standards for water, the Tsleil-Waututh and Stk’emlúpsemc te Secwépemc community assessments of proposed pipeline and mining facilities, and the First Nations of the Nicola Valley planning process based on their own legal traditions. Where provincial and federal environmental governance has failed, Indigenous communities are repoliticizing colonial decision-making processes to shift jurisdiction towards Indigenous processes that institutionalize responsibilities for and relationships with water.en_US
dc.description.reviewstatusRevieweden_US
dc.description.scholarlevelFacultyen_US
dc.description.sponsorshipThis research was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council grant number 890-2015-0115 and the Real Estate Foundation of British Columbia grant number 2016-11.en_US
dc.identifier.citationCurran, D.(2019). Indigenous Processes of Consent: Repoliticizing Water Governance through Legal Pluralism. Water, 11(3), 571. https://doi.org/10.3390/w11030571en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://dx.doi.org/10.3390/w11030571
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1828/10673
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherWateren_US
dc.subjectwater governanceen_US
dc.subjectpoliticsen_US
dc.subjectlawen_US
dc.subjectdecision-making processesen_US
dc.subjectgovernmentalitiesen_US
dc.subjectUNDRIPen_US
dc.subjectfreeen_US
dc.subjectprior and informed consenten_US
dc.subjectFPICen_US
dc.subjectgroundwateren_US
dc.subjectenvironmental flowsen_US
dc.subjectenvironmental assessmenten_US
dc.subject.departmentFaculty of Law
dc.subject.departmentSchool of Environmental Studies
dc.titleIndigenous Processes of Consent: Repoliticizing Water Governance through Legal Pluralismen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

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We acknowledge and respect the Lək̓ʷəŋən (Songhees and Esquimalt) Peoples on whose territory the university stands, and the Lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.