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Distributed for University of British Columbia Press

Shaping the Future on Haida Gwaii

Life beyond Settler Colonialism

Too often Indigenous peoples have been portrayed as being without a future, destined either to disappear or assimilate into settler society. This book asserts quite the opposite: Indigenous peoples are not in any sense “out of time” in our contemporary world. Shaping the Future on Haida Gwaii shows how Indigenous peoples in Canada not only continue to have a future, but are at work building many different futures – for themselves and for their non-Indigenous neighbours. Through the experiences of the Haida First Nation, this book explores these possible futures in detail, demonstrating how Haida ways of thinking about time, mobility, and political leadership are at the heart of contemporary strategies for addressing the dilemmas that come with life under settler colonialism.

244 pages | © 2018


Table of Contents

Part 1: Pasts and Futures

1 An Introduction to Haida Future-Making in Old Massett

2 The Everyday Temporalities of Life on Haida Gwaii

Part 2: Home

3 Coming Home to Haida Gwaii: Haida Departures and Returns in the Future Perfect

4 Of Hippies and Haida: Fantasy, Future-Making, and the Allure of Haida Gwaii

Part 3: Care

5 Leading “from the Bottom of the Pole”: Care and Governance in the Haida World

6 Precarious Authority: Endangerment and the Political Promise to Protect Haida Gwaii

Conclusion: Unsettling Futures

Notes; References; Index

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