1st Edition
Mining and Indigenous Livelihoods Rights, Revenues, and Resistance
This book maps the encounters between Indigenous Peoples and local communities with mining companies in various post-colonial contexts.
Combining comparative and multidisciplinary analysis, the contributors to this volume shine a light on how the mining industry might adapt its practices to the political and legal contexts where they operate. Understanding these processes and how communities respond to these encounters is critical to documenting where and how encounters with mining may benefit or negatively impact Indigenous Peoples. The experiences and reflections shared by Indigenous and non-Indigenous contributors will enhance our understanding of evolving practices and of the different strategies and discourses developed by Indigenous Peoples to deal with mining projects. By mobilizing in-depth fieldwork in five regions—Australia, Canada, Sweden, New Caledonia, and Brazil—this body of work highlights voices often marginalized in mining development studies, including those of Indigenous Peoples and women.
This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of mining and the extractive industries, sustainable development, natural resource management, and Indigenous Peoples.
Introduction
Part 1: Indigenous Peoples, Law, and Politics
Zoé Boirin-Fargues and Sophie Thériault
2. Closure and connection: A Southwest Pacific reappraisal of the mining enclave
Pierre-Yves Le Meur and Glenn Banks
3. Foreign investor accountability for the violation of Indigenous Peoples’ rights in international investment law and arbitrations: Reflections from the Bear Creek case
Zoé Boirin-Fargues
4. Power relationships, institutions, and mining: Comparing Indigenous Peoples’ participation in Canada and Brazil
Sabrina Bourgeois and Ana Catarina Zema
Part 2: Braiding Indigenous Views in the Mining Cycle
5. Indigenous Peoples’ relationships to large-scale mining in post/colonial contexts: Toward multidisciplinary comparative perspectives
Leah S. Horowitz, Arn Keeling, Francis Lévesque, Thierry Rodon, Stephan Schott, and Sophie Thériault
6. Environmental assessment as a knowledge infrastructure: Unpacking politics and power in impact evaluations for Indigenous communities
Ella Myette
7. Realizing Indigenous rights: Effective implementation of agreements between Indigenous Peoples and the extractive industry
Ciaran O’Faircheallaigh and Thierry Rodon
Sarah Holcombe, Sandy Worden, and Arn Keeling
Part 3: Navigating Relationships with Indigenous Communities
9. Understanding the silent dimensions of social acceptability of a lithium project in the Cree community of Nemaska
Julie Fortin
10. Lateral violence: Effects of external pressures on Indigenous communities
Kristina Sehlin MacNeil
Part 4: Indigenous Women and Resource Development
11. Employment trends for Indigenous women working in the Northern Territory’s large-scale mining industry: Real employment opportunities or empty corporate promises?
Jodi Cowdery and Andrew Taylor
12. Rhetoric versus reality: Understanding employment inequities for Inuit women in mining
Katie Mazer, Justine Becker,and Suzanne Mills
13. A mine for women? Trajectories of Kanak women in the nickel industry in New Caledonia
Guillaume Vadot, Christine Demmer, Séverine Bouard, and Mathilde Baritaud
14. Conclusion
Postface: MinErAL Partner Reflections
A: How MinErAL helped expose and share the realities of mining development in the Nunavik region
Jean-Marc Séguin
B: The impact of the MinErAL Project from the perspective of a Kanak working for Koniambo Nickel
Jean-Louis Thydjepache
Biography
Thierry Rodon is a professor in the Department of Political Science at Université Laval, Canada, and holds the INQ Research Chair in Northern Sustainable Development.
Sophie Thériault is a full professor in the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law (Civil Law Section), Canada, where she served as Vice-Dean, Academic (2019–2023), and as Vice-Dean, Graduate Studies (2015–2017).
Arn Keeling is a settler-scholar and professor of geography at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador in St. John’s, Canada.
Séverine Bouard is a human geographer (PhD) at IAC, New Caledonia.
Andrew Taylor is an associate professor of demography at the Northern Institute of Charles Darwin University in Australia.
"This groundbreaking book is an indispensable resource for anyone concerned about the impacts of mineral extraction on Indigenous Peoples and local communities worldwide. With meticulous research and a commitment to amplifying marginalized voices, the authors offer a comprehensive analysis of the complex dynamics surrounding mining encounters. By emphasizing comparative perspectives and the holistic understanding of social, environmental, economic, and cultural factors, this work sheds light on both the opportunities and challenges presented by extractive industries. Through collaboration with Indigenous organizations and partners across multiple countries, the MinErAL network has produced invaluable insights that contribute to the global dialogue on sustainable development and Indigenous rights. A must-read for policymakers, researchers, and advocates alike."
Rosa Galvez, Canadian Senator representing Quebec (Bedford); formerly a professor and head of the Civil and Water Engineering Department at Université Laval in Quebec City, Canada.
“This collection is an excellent and necessary resource for those interested in the relations between mining and Indigenous Peoples. At a time when Indigenous Peoples are increasingly facing pressures from extractive industry, this book convincingly shows the need for a comparative approach and a holistic understanding of the impacts of these activities.”
Chris Southcott, Professor in the Department of Sociology, Lakehead University, Canada
