The Sami are recognized as an Indigenous people and a national minority in both Norway and Sweden, and their involvement in any planning concerning their traditional territories is required. The aim of this article is to examine how Sami interests are secured and institutionalized in municipal comprehensive planning (MCP). We use two case study areas: Sortland municipality in Norway and Vilhelmina municipality in Sweden. Analysis of various qualitative materials indicates that, despite contextual and institutional differences, the planning processes in the case study areas have similar outcomes. We conclude that formal rights of the Sami are not always acknowledged by the politicians who make the final decision. Rather, the Sami depend on the politicians’ willingness to consider their needs.

In this timely and morally necessary book, Tamara Starblanket gives particular attention to the forced transfer of Indigenous children to institutions whose raison d’être was to indoctrinate and “educate” them away from their culture and heritage so as to erase Indigenous memory and reprogram younger generations as “Canadians.” These institutions were notorious for death and disease, torture, forced starvation, forced labour, and sexual predation. The book’s structure is well-ordered, the argumentation compelling, but not in phoney “scholarly detachment,” instead in conscious compilation and analysis of the evidence, supported by the force of ethics and a commitment to truth and justice, regardless of zeitgeist and political correctness.

The national Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada has challenged governments and school boards across Canada to acknowledge and address the damaging legacies of residential schooling while ensuring that all students gain an adequate understanding of relations between Indigenous Peoples and non-Indigenous peoples. This article explores the dynamics and prospects for effective change associated with reforms in elementary and secondary education systems since the release of the Commission’s Calls to Action, focusing on the policy frameworks employed by provincial and territorial governments to guide these actions. The analysis examines critically the overt and hidden messages conveyed through discourses within policy documents and statements. The key questions we address include: What do current education policy frameworks and actions regarding Indigenous Peoples reveal about government approaches to education and settler–Indigenous relationships in Canada? To what extent is effective reconciliation possible, and how can it be accomplished in the context of institutional structures and discourses within a White settler colonial society? The findings reveal that substantial movement towards greater acknowledgement of Indigenous knowledge systems and incorporation of Indigenous content continues to be subordinated to or embedded within Western assumptions, norms, and standards.

This study explored the benefits of the production, sale, and consumption of Indigenous black soap (ọsẹ dúdú) in southwest Nigeria. A multistage sampling technique was used to select 71 participants from Oyo, Ogun, and Lagos states. Participants were extensively interviewed, and their responses were analyzed and placed into themes. The study found certain economic- and health-related benefits attached to the production, sale, and consumption of black soap. These benefits could help drive sustainable development in Indigenous communities in Nigeria and the model could be used in Indigenous communities in other countries. Ọsẹ dúdú was also a major ingredient, in conjunction with other herbs, in medicines that were perceived to have important health benefits. Policy recommendations are suggested.

Federally funded research in Canada is of significant scope and scale. The implications of research in the colonial project has resulted in a fraught relationship between Indigenous Peoples and Western research. Research governance, as an aspect of public administration, is evolving. The relationality inherent in new public governance (NPG)—a nascent public governance regime—may align with Indigenous relationality concepts. Recent societal advances, such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), the Truth and Reconcilliation Commission of Canada (TRC), and the Indigenous Institutes Act in Ontario, provide further impetus for Indigenous self-determination in multiple domains including research. This article advocates for Indigenous research sovereignty and concludes with suggestions for ways in which federal funding agencies, specifically the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), could contribute to the advancement of Indigenous research sovereignty.

This article examines the experience of an Indigenous development plan carried out between 2005 and 2010 in Colonia Aborigen Chaco, an Indigenous settlement located in Chaco province, Argentina, originally established in 1911 as the Aboriginal Reserve of Napalpí. On the reserve, inhabitants were forced to settle down as the State appropriated their traditional territories. Here, I propose a critical analysis of this experience with ethnographic description pertaining to the long historical processes that inhabitants of Colonia Aborigen endured, which systematically subjected them to alimentary, educational, productive, and religious routines aimed at transforming them culturally. I intend to demonstrate that it is necessary to review a series of assumptions, which are quite prevalent in Indigenous policies, about what an Indigenous person, an Indigenous territory, and an Indigenous development are supposed to be. I emphatically assert that it is necessary to have a critical approach towards these historical processes of constitution in order to better understand the expectations Indigenous people have about their realities and development.

The urban Indigenous older adult population in Canada continues to grow; however, there is a lack of understanding of how non-Indigenous health and social services and Indigenous-specific organizations are responding to and addressing the growth of this population. Therefore, in this research, we conducted a postcolonial discourse analysis of semi-structured interviews with six decision-makers (e.g., managers and directors of health and social services organizations) and seven service providers (e.g., program coordinators and social workers) from Indigenous and non-Indigenous health and social service organizations in Ottawa, Canada, to examine how they produce understandings of supporting urban Indigenous older adults to age well. The participants produced three main discourses: (a) non-Indigenous organizations have a responsibility to support Indigenous older adults, (b) culturally specific programs and services are important for supporting Indigenous older adults to age well, and (c) it is difficult for community stakeholders to support Indigenous older adults to age well because this population is hard to reach. The results demonstrate the complexities and tensions that community stakeholders face in supporting Indigenous older adults to age well within a sociopolitical environment informed by reconciliation and a sociodemographic trend of an aging population.

Business is one of the fastest growing areas in post-secondary education, but there is little understanding of Indigenous business practices. This article looks at three Arctic communities in the Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut, and their associated co-operative businesses. I examine how these businesses express cultural values, as well as the business skill needs within these communities. Key informant interviews were conducted in each of the three Arctic communities, and three conclusions were made: (a) Co-operatives act as links between communities and their economic activities, (b) Business skills within communities need to be developed, and (c) Business skills need to include cultural components, as co-ops represent cultural economic expressions.

Indigenous people experience significant health disparities compared to non-Indigenous people, which are exacerbated by less accessible and poorer quality health care services. This research aimed to understand the specific barriers to health care that Indigenous patients and their families face, as well as to explore promising practices and strategies for improving the responsiveness of health services to the needs of Indigenous people. Through qualitative interviews with Indigenous and non-Indigenous health care and social services providers, we identified a range of challenges and successful approaches, and developed recommendations for improving policy and practice to address the gaps in culturally safe health care services. Our study shows that many of the barriers Indigenous people face when accessing health care are rooted in the broader social determinants of health, such as poverty, racism, housing, and education. These are complex problems that are outside of the traditional scope of health care practice. However, this study has also demonstrated that many barriers to equitable care actually stem from within the health care system itself. We found that health care gaps were often attributable to poorly funded on-reserve health care services and culturally unsafe off-reserve services. Attitudes and practices among those working in health care and gaps in coordination between mainstream and Indigenous services are challenges related to the way the health care system operates. Solutions are needed that address these issues. Given the multifaceted nature of access barriers, strategies to improve health services for Indigenous people and communities require a comprehensive and systemic approach.

This article examines the association between the resguardo, a colonial land access system similar to the North American reserve and reservation systems, and income inequality among Indigenous people in Colombia. I regressed the variable income unmet basic needs gap (IUBNgap) between Indigenous people and non-minority people in Colombia on a set of regressors that included the mean of resguardo land size per family. I find that more resguardo land per family is associated with a larger IUBNgap, which is likely due to the fact that resguardos tend to be larger where lands are isolated and where most of the land suitable for economic production is owned by non-Indigenous landowners.