Norway, Sweden, Finland and Canada have much in common. All are highly developed liberal democracies. All include sparsely populated, resource-rich, Northern ¿frontiers.¿ And all are settler-colonial, comprising indigenous peoples absorbed by the state without consent.
Yet these states also differ. Canada is federal; the Nordic states are unitary. In the Nordic states, settlers and indigenous peoples are highly intermixed; in Canada many indigenous populations remain separate. And while Canada has seen intense judicial conflict concerning individual and indigenous rights, such legal battles have been less prominent in Nordic states.
For all of these reasons, the Nordic states and Canada provide fertile territory to explore the rapidly evolving field of indigenous governance.
This course aims to undertake that exploration using a comparative approach. Particular focus will be placed on the opportunities and challenges facing indigenous governance in unitary versus federal states; the challenges of indigenous autonomy where settler and indigenous populations are mixed; and the conflicts arising between indigenous and individual rights.
This course consists of twelve sections. Section One introduces the indigenous peoples of the Nordic states and Canada. Sections Two and Three explore theories and praxis of liberalism, multinational governance and settler-colonialism. Section Four to Six adress Sami territorial and /or political autonomy in Norway (and Sweden and Finland). Section Seven to Nine examine First Nations, Inuit and Metis territorial and/or political autonomy in Canada. Section Ten explores shared rule involving indigenous polities and regional and/or central settler-state governments. Section Eleven explores indigenous political action on an international level. Finally, Section Twelve seeks to synthesize the preceding section emphasizing the most important differences between Canada and Norway (and Sweden and Finland).
Upon completion of the course the student should be able to:
Knowledge
Skills
General competence