INSTEAD Indigenous Stewardship of Environment and Alternative Development

About this book

The Indigenous Stewardship of Environment and Alternative Development (INSTEAD) research program is a knowledge co-creation partnership of Indigenous communities, representative organizations, university researchers, and activist civil society organizations. The collective aims to tackle conceptual and practical challenges faced by Indigenous peoples and communities in the stewardship of their environmental and cultural heritage in diverse regions of the Americas.

This book presents several of INSTEAD's founding Indigenous and academic partners to profile their diverse agendas and struggles. The intention is to bring together experience on diverse Indigenous territories, nurturing a sustained alliance of partners and researchers committed to the co-production of comparative knowledge, strategy formation, and policy action. Drawing on local knowledge experts and community leaders in collaboration with researchers dedicated to each partner territory, the book delves into the circumstances of each locale, critically comparing institutional and political contexts and assessing the creative strategies at play.

Emphasis is placed on the co-creation of knowledge toward the goals and engagements of INSTEAD's Indigenous partners, influenced by a legacy of thinking about Indigenous methodologies and research partnerships. Throughout, the book focuses on the challenges of protecting the integrity and diversity of socioecological communities within alternative models of development.

Bringing together Indigenous voices, this collection examines strategies for protecting and recuperating Indigenous environmental and cultural heritage.

Contents

List of Figures
List of Tables
Acknowledgments

1. Introduction: Indigenous Stewardship of Environment and Alternative Development
2. Free to Decide Their Own Destiny: The Ngabe and the Bugle of the Isthmus of Panama and Their Struggle for Self-Determination
3. Recovering Yrmo: The Yshir Nation's Life Project
4. Responding to Environmental Decline in Eastern James Bay: Indigenous Knowledge and Transdisciplinary Research
5. Intangible Heritage, Forest Conservation, and Identity: A Complex Challenge for Totonac Livelihood Continuity
6. Between Development and Buen Vivir ("Living Well"): The Struggles of the Mapuche in Defence of Their Environmental and Cultural Heritage
7. "La Gente Fantasma": Relational Sustainability and Mining in Guatemala
8. Miyopimaatisowin, Living a Good Life in Bigstone Cree Nation Territory: Consultation in the Canadian Boreal Forest
9. Mapping the Aspirations and Challenges of the Hul'q'umi'num' Peoples
10. Forests, Governance, and the Struggle for Political Autonomy: Perspectives from the Cree First Nation of Waswanipi
11. "We Kicked Your Ass at CP146!": Visions for Living and Protecting the Tsal'alhmec St'at'imc Way of Life
12. Git lax m'oon: Indigenizing Research and Natural Resource Management on the Northwest Coast of Canada
13. Sumaq Kawsay and Biocultural Conservation: The Experience of the Potato Park (Cusco, Peru)
14. "How Are We Going to Keep People Informed?": IsumaTV, Digital Indigenous Democracy, and Inuit Language Media Activism
15. Conclusion

Index

Customer Reviews

Biography

Colin Scott is a professor of anthropology at McGill University. Evodia Silva-Rivera is a researcher at the University of Veracruz. Katherine Sinclair is an assistant professor of anthropology at MacEwan University.