“They could take you out for coffee and call it consultation!”: The colonial antipolitics of Indigenous consultation in Jasper National Park

Abstract

Although Canada has been applauded for its co-management arrangements in recently established national parks, it continues to struggle with its legacy of colonial dispossession of Indigenous peoples, especially in its older and more iconic parks. First Nations were evicted from the earliest parks such as Banff and Jasper in a process of colonial territorialization that facilitated a ''wilderness'' model of park management and made space for capitalist enterprises like sport hunting and tourism. In Jasper National Park today, private tourism development proposals trigger a duty to consult with nations whose Aboriginal or Treaty rights may be impacted by development. In the last few decades, Jasper has made strides toward ''reconciliation'' including forming the Jasper Aboriginal Forum in an attempt to improve consultation with First Nations. I argue that Jasper's approach to reconciliation and consultation reproduces and further entrenches unequal colonial-capitalist power dynamics, relying on antipolitical strategies to produce the appearance of inclusion and to naturalize the park's ultimate decision-making authority in First Nations' traditional territories. Park management attempts to incorporate First Nations' input and certain ''cultural'' rights into existing state-led science-based management structures while leaving the legitimacy and justness of those structures unquestioned. As a result, Jasper's approach to consultation obscures the ongoing neocolonial political and economic violence of alienating First Nations from their land bases and consequently reinforces existing inequalities. Ultimately, I argue that this antipolitical approach facilitates tourism development projects that benefit government and industry and not Indigenous communities.

Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs), Aichi Target 11 and Canada’s Pathway to Target 1: Focusing Conservation on Reconciliation

“…Protected areas, as embodied in Canadian law and imagination, have been developed through a paradigm which holds paramount the preservation of a people-free "wilderness". National parks in Canada were early tools that deliberately perpetuated colonial injustices and continue to operate as such today despite some recent improvements [9,23]. Many well-established and world-renowned national parks in Canada, such as Banff, Jasper, and Riding Mountain National Parks, as well as provincial parks such as Quetico in Ontario, were founded on and continue to struggle with a legacy of colonial dispossession of Indigenous peoples [23][24][25][26].…”

“…National parks in Canada were early tools that deliberately perpetuated colonial injustices and continue to operate as such today despite some recent improvements [9,23]. Many well-established and world-renowned national parks in Canada, such as Banff, Jasper, and Riding Mountain National Parks, as well as provincial parks such as Quetico in Ontario, were founded on and continue to struggle with a legacy of colonial dispossession of Indigenous peoples [23][24][25][26]. The creation of these defined regions, which continue to act as conservation enclosures, not only intentionally removed Indigenous peoples from their lands and dispossessed them of their territories, but also perpetuated the illusion of "wilderness" as being pure and devoid of human life and influence [27].…”

“…The creation of these defined regions, which continue to act as conservation enclosures, not only intentionally removed Indigenous peoples from their lands and dispossessed them of their territories, but also perpetuated the illusion of "wilderness" as being pure and devoid of human life and influence [27]. This "wilderness" model of national parks concurrently advanced capitalist enterprises such as sport hunting, recreation, and tourism, while excluding Indigenous peoples as beneficiaries in any capacity or form [9,23]. It became an exercise of "primitive accumulation", entailing both the dispossession of land and the enclosure of a commons in favor of specific interests [28].…”

“…By 2020, at least 17% of terrestrial areas and inland water, and 10% of marine and coastal areas of Canada are conserved through networks of protected areas and other effective area-based measures. [7] (p. 23) In addition to attempting to advance Target 1, the Government of Canada is also attempting to move forward with reconciliation efforts and putting into practice the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Calls to Action (described in greater detail in Section 3.1) as well as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). In 2017, the Indigenous Circle of Experts (ICE) was invited, created and their collective work commemorated by national Indigenous organizations and federal, provincial and territorial jurisdictions engaged in the Pathway to Target 1 [8,9].…”

Equitable Research Partnerships

“…"They could take you out for coffee and call it consultation!" (Youdelis 2016) Consultation, engagement, community engagement, guided discussions, focus groups and interviews: these are all means of obtaining relevant input from stakeholders prior to action. When a problem affects a range of people or groups and a feasible and implementable solution is sought, stakeholder input and community engagement are essential Bassler et al 2008;Dunn 2011).…”