Reclaiming Indigenous Economic Development Through Participatory Action Research

ABSTRACT

Participatory, gender-sensitive processes are hailed as valuable in ensuring community perspectives shape economic development planning: to assess community needs, aspirations and to identify indicators of development based on local perspectives. In Indigenous communities, such processes may not always be taken up due to research and consultation fatigue or plain scepticism. Women are often silent or less outspoken in public settings, and dominant perspectives tend to occupy most of the space and time allocated to participatory processes. This can lead to distorted understandings of community voices and inadvertently preserve the gendered status quo. A case study based on the community engagement approach taken in partnership with the government of the Toquaht Nation, on Vancouver Island endeavoured in a gender-sensitive consultation process to develop a value-based decision support system for economic development activities. The article details the use of the “Making Connections” method to facilitate discussions about economic development through Toquaht women’s circles. “Making Connections” is a tool to identify and build place-based, people-centred visions and indicators of economic development for community well-being. Based on James Tully’s work on actions for and of freedom, the article introduces this new method as a framework for cooperative community discussions in ways that allow for naming past and current histories of discrimination and disconnection, while honouring people’s strengths, resistance and resilience. The themes and concerns emerging from the women’s circles speak of a richer and more expansive notion of economic development that puts comprehensive well-being at the heart of economic development.

KEYWORDS:

• Indigenous community development
• gender-sensitive indicators
• Indigenous economic development
• community well-being
• community-based research
• participatory action research

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 miyo-wîcêhtowin is a Cree word that translates into ‘creating good relations’.

2 For a plain language summary of this case, see online: https://fncaringsociety.com/i-am-witness-tribunal-timeline-and-documents

3 For a small sample of these, see “The Master List of Report Recommendations” compiled by the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Inquiry, available online: https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/National-Inquiry-Master-List-of-Report-Recommendations-Organized-By-Theme-and-Jurisdiction-2018-EN-FINAL.pdf

4 See: The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future: A Summary of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 2015, online: http://caid.ca/TRCFinExeSum2015.pdf

5 See: The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Final Report, 2019, online: https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/final-report/

6 See, for example, the cases Gitxaala Nation v. Canada, 2016 FCA 187 and Tsleil-Waututh Nation v. Canada (Attorney General), 2018 FCA 153.

7 https://www.leg.bc.ca/parliamentary-business/legislation-debates-proceedings/41st-parliament/4th-session/bills/first-reading/gov41-1

8 The “Making Connections” method has also been referred to as the “Tully Wheel” when done without step one and step three. See: Shalene Jobin, Hadley Friedland, Renee Beausoleil, and Tara Kappo, “Wahkohtowin: Principles, Process, and Pedagogy” (Canadian Legal Education Annual Review, forthcoming)

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [Grant number 890-2013-0077].

Notes on contributors

Astrid V. Pérez Piñán

Astrid V. Pérez Piñán (corresponding author) is Assistant Professor at the School of Public Administration where she teaches graduate courses in the Community Development and Public Administration programmes. Her current research engages with the measurement turn in international and community development and the processes that lead to the (re)articulation of alternatives to the mainstream economic paradigm. Her additional research areas are: food sovereignty, and the politics and policies of colonisation and decolonisation with focus on gender and intersectional feminist analyses.

Hadley Friedland

Hadley Friedland is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law in the University of Alberta. Her research focuses on Indigenous law, Aboriginal law, family law and child welfare law, criminal justice and therapeutic jurisprudence. She has published numerous articles and collaborated to produce accessible Indigenous legal resources for Indigenous communities, legal professionals and the general public. She is o-founder of the Wahkohtowin Indigenous Law and Governance Lodge, an interdisciplinary initiative developed to uphold Indigenous law and governance through supporting community-led research.

Judith Sayers

Judith Sayers is President of the Nuu-Chah-Nulth Tribal Council, a non-profit organisation that provides services and support to fourteen Nuu-chah-nutlh First Nations of over 10,000 members. She was the elected Chief of the Hupacasath First Nation for 14 years and the Chief Negotiator for 15 years. She received the prestigious Order of Canada for her work on sustainable development. Judith’s educational background includes a business and law degree and an honourary Doctor of Laws from Queen’s University.

Matt Murphy

Matt Murphy is Associate Professor of sustainability and strategy at the Gustavson School of Business, University of Victoria. His primary research focus is on stakeholder relationships related to both conflict and collaboration and community-based sustainable development efforts in the context of First Nations. Through this research, Matt hopes to improve the human rights performance of business as well as to support Indigenous communities’ efforts to protect their rights and fulfil their own visions of sustainable development.