The kitchenuhmaykoosib inninuwug and the struggle for the right to say no

Abstract

An occupational justice perspective suggests that humans are “occupational beings who need and want to participate in occupations to develop, thrive and reach their potential” (Townsend & Wilcock, 2004, p. 262). When people have the skills, resources, opportunities and the right to choose and control their engagement in occupations within society, occupational justice exists. However, many people experience different forms of occupational injustice on account of “socially structured and / or socially formed conditions” (p. 251). To experience occupational injustice is to be systematically deprived of the right to engage in chosen occupations, as illustrated in this text based on Alvin Fiddler's keynote address at the 4th CSOS Symposium in Thunder Bay, Canada. Fiddler's keynote offered a powerful illustration of what can happen when there is cultural miscommunication – the concept discussed by Regna Darnell in her keynote address. As Fiddler explained, the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug have been forced to turn their attention from traditional pursuits in order to address and fight the threat that the contemporary mining boom represents to their lands and identity. Loss of traditional occupations can threaten the sense of identity of individuals and the community, the ability to pass on traditional meanings and forms of occupations to future generations, and the culture of a group of people. Moreover, the problems arose in the first place because of historically divergent understandings of the fundamental basis of the relationship between First Nations and government. The Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug are being deprived of the right to self‐determination and in this case, the right to decide what occupations are appropriate in what places. These are rights that most non‐Indigenous peoples take for granted. At the same time, it needs to be recognized that the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug struggle represents a recent and particularly public example of occupational injustice, but it is far from the only example of the occupational injustice to which Indigenous peoples are routinely subjected in Canada and elsewhere.