Book review: Engaging Indigenous Communities: Resources, Rebellions, and Resurgence, Conference Proceedings

Reviewed by Karl Hele

In 2010, Ontario Native Women’s Association ( ONWA) local Anishnaabekweweg of the North Shore and Dr. Karl Hele held a conference in Sault Ste. Marie called ‘Resources, Rebellions, and Resurgence.’ The conference was the first event organized under  Dr. Hele’s Engaging Indigenous Communities Conference series.  Unfortunately, a second conference was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

In 2021 an edited collection of select conference papers from ‘Resources, Rebellions, and Resurgence’ was published by Aboriginal Issues Press. The 2010 conference brought together Indigenous Knowledge Keepers, Elders, community members, as well as Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars. Together, participants explored the historical and contemporary relations between Indigenous Peoples, Settlers, and the colonial state.

Six contributors examine efforts by Indigenous people – in India – Harinder Kaur Singh and Brinder Pal Singh; Canada – Peter Krats, Daniel E. Shaule, and Paul-Emile McNab; and the United States – Phil Bellfy – to protect resources and lands in the face of colonialism.  Karl S. Hele, Daniel E. Shaule, David T. McNab, and Olive P. Dickason explore concepts of community engagement with colonialism and its representative. Specifically, Krats looks at Atikameksheng Anishnawbek’s defense of community from the mid-1800s to 1930; McNab explores the ties between colonialism and road construction on Walpole Island; Shaule examines Mississauga efforts to receive fair compensation for lost lands; Bellfy looks at how borders and colonial practices contributed to the unceded status of Sugar and Neebish Islands in the St. Mary’s River; Hele discusses the tlineAnishinabeg encounter with Christianity between 1828 and 1871; McNab explores the Kelowna Accord; and a joint paper by Dickason and McNab examines ties between spirit memory and reconciliation.

Both Harinder Kaur Singh and Brinder Pal Singh’s contributions add a fascinating international dimension to the conference proceedings while reminding readers of similarities when it comes to the colonial experience and resources.  It is hoped that the knowledge shared and conversations begun in 2010 are reignited and continued with the 2021 conference proceedings. By increasing awareness of the resistance to and engagement with colonial regimes seeking to access Indigenous lands and resources, Engaging Indigenous Communities: Resources, Rebellions, and Resurgence will serve as a resource, encourage others to pursue and publish further studies as well as a move colonial states a step closer on the long path to reconciliation.

Copies of the book are available from Aboriginal Issues Press by contacting Elenore Hood at hoode@myumanitoba.ca or aboriginal_issues_press@umanitoba.ca mailto:riddell.reception@umanitoba.ca. Profits from the sale of this book are used to support the Aboriginal Issues Press scholarship for Indigenous students at the University of Manitoba.

Karl S. Hele, ed.  Engaging Indigenous Communities: Resources, Rebellions, and Resurgence, Conference Proceedings (Winnipeg: Aboriginal Issues Press, 2021).

ISBN: 978-1-928008-11-8