Shaping the Future on Haida Gwaii: Life beyond Settler Colonialism

Abstract

Shaping the Future on Haida Gwaii sits in the usually uncomfortable gap between history (past) and anthropology (current), with important forays into the future. Joseph Weiss weaves these time lines together to allow for places like the village of Old Masset—an Indian Reserve on Haida Gwaii, an archipelago on the northern Pacific coast of Canada—to be historical yet constantly undergoing processes of change and renegotiation. Weiss is a fantastic writer, and his focus on Haida future making offers refreshing insights to discussions of Indigenous identity and politics in British Columbia.After two introductory chapters that provide methodology and frameworks, part 2 discusses Haida mobility and homecoming (chapter 3) and the ways that various settler populations have altered Haida territory and threatened Haida agency and ownership of Haida Gwaii (chapter 4). This section describes island life in the northern Pacific—a place whose remoteness requires Haida residents to leave to obtain education while also drawing specific settler populations (hippies, off-the-grid seekers). Weiss skillfully articulates how settlers both conflict and cooperate with the Haida, finding unity in opposition to the Northern Gateway Project (a now rejected plan to build a natural gas and bitumen pipeline to northern British Columbia that would see increased tanker traffic around Haida Gwaii) but also contributing to the settler fantasy that calls non-Indigenous people to Haida Gwaii and robs the Haida of “the precise qualities that make the Island their home” (98).Part 3 focuses on Haida governance, namely the Council of Haida Nations (CHN). Weiss argues that the CHN formed in opposition to logging on Lyell Island and finds continued relevance in opposition to current and future environmental threats to Haida Gwaii. Weiss highlights the various roles that the CHN balances between local care and within multiple settler governments.The conclusion offers an insightful look into Indigenous sovereignty. Weiss argues that any achievable sovereignty needs to function within multiple spheres of settler governance. He proposes to “invert the order of settler domination through reconfiguring the shared futures of Indigenous and settler peoples,” which could “decisively overturn any settler colonial anticipations of the inevitable erasure of native peoples” (188). His analysis of sovereignty is refreshingly practical, and it seems much more achievable within current political structures than alternatives that call for total removal of Indigenous people from settler governance structures.My main critiques of this book are likely more of a reflection of disciplinary difference than of conscious omission. Many of the historical sources are presented using the “cited in” function, and I found myself wondering whether an analysis of the historical documentation might have added more nuance to Weiss’s discussion of future making. For instance, late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century government petitions, Indian Reserve negotiations, and Royal Commission transcripts from British Columbia are ripe with discussions of future making. Weiss has potentially missed a rich source of material to support his broader arguments in the context of Haida Gwaii. Weiss also missed citing a few key books in the British Columbia Indigenous history lexicon. Weiss speaks often of continuity and change yet fails to engage with Keith Thor Carlson’s Power of Place, The Problem of Time (2010)—a key text for understanding Indigenous identity and politics in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century British Columbia. Furthermore, Weiss’s rich discussion on the seasonality of life on Haida Gwaii could have drawn on John Lutz’s book Makúk (2008) and his theories on the emergence of an Indigenous “moditional” (modern and traditional) economy that formed in British Columbia after the arrival of settlers. Such omissions would be easier to forgive if Weiss were writing in a different context, but these texts are staples in discussions of Indigenous history in British Columbia.Overall, this is an engaging book that is a must-read for anyone interested in present and future Indigenous political structures and on how settler colonialism has shaped, and continues to shape, Indigenous lives in Canada’s Pacific province.