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GGR 202: Where in Canada? (Winter 2014)
Short Paper 1:
Aboriginal sovereignty, economic development & colonialism
Due date: In Tutorial, Wednesday, February 5th
Weight: 20% of final mark
Assignment objective
For this assignment, you will submit a short paper on the relationship between Aboriginal people’s sovereignty claims, economic development and colonialism in Canada. Your tasks are as follows:
1. Choose one recent example (since 2000) of Aboriginal people resisting an economic development project in Canada. Such projects might include fishing, mining, real estate development, leisure, tourism, oil extraction, pipeline construction or logging. Pick three news articles about your example and analyse, using the above articles, how they portray the interests of and relationships between Aboriginal people, the government and other actors.
2. Read and analyze the following articles, paying particular attention to what they have to say about Aboriginal people and economic development projects:
? Menzies, C. (1994). Stories from home: First Nations, land claims and Euro- Canadians. American Ethnologist, 21(4): 776-791.
? Johnson, D. (2011). From the tomahawk chop to the roadblock: discourses of savagism in whitestream media. American Indian Quarterly, 35(1): 104-134.
In your paper, make sure to engage the following questions:
1. How do your news articles portray the conflict between Aboriginal people, economic actors and the government? What do they have to say about the relationship between Aboriginal people’s protest tactics, their claims to land and resources, and the reactions of economic actors and the government?
2. Using Menzies and Johnson, explain what these conflicts tell us about the geographies of colonialism in Canada in both the past and the present. What do they have to say about (a) Aboriginal sovereignty claims, (b) the relationship between the Canadian government and Aboriginal people, and (c) the conflict generated by development projects? In what ways are Johnson’s and Menzies’ arguments and approaches similar to and different from each other?
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Requirements and instructions
1. Your paper should be between 3.5 to 4 pages (+ a ‘Works Cited’ page) double spaced, with 1” margins on all sides and use 12-point Times New Roman font. Your name, student number and the course title and number should be included on top.
2. It should include (i) a brief introduction in which you state the main points of your paper, (ii) a main section in which you lay out your critical summaries of Menzies and Johnson and your analysis of the three news articles, and (iii) a short conclusion in which you connect your points together and wrap up.
3. Your paper should be properly referenced. This means that ideas, concepts, arguments, themes and direct quotations that you draw from other people (including Menzies, Johnson and the news articles) must be referenced in-text. You also need to provide a bibliography or ‘Works Cited’ page along with your 3.5-4 page paper. For this course, you are required to use APA style in-text citations in the author-date-page format, with full bibliographic information in a ‘Works Cited’ page. Do not use footnotes or endnotes for citation purposes.
4. Unexcused late submissions will be accepted following the course policies – 10% off for each day late up to 5 days. No late papers will be accepted after 5 days. For details, please see the course syllabus.
Important resources
1. Consult with your college’s writing centre for help with research and writing.
Book an appointment early as spots fill up.
2. You can access many news articles online through the University of Toronto Library website. For example, the Canadian Periodicals Index gives you access to over 14 million articles published between 1980 and 2013. News databases can be found here: http://resource.library.utoronto.ca/a-z/subject.cfm?subject=120
3. Make sure to use the following important documents. They are available as PDF files in the ‘Handouts’ tab on Blackboard.
? ‘APA Citation Style Guide’ – for proper formatting of in-text citations and bibliographic entries
? ‘How Not to Plagiarize’ – to ensure that your paper meets standards of academic integrity
Jermaine Byrant
Nicole Johnson
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