Indigenous Peoples (Inuit) and Legal Image of Governance in Arctic
Introduction: In recent years considerable efforts have been made to promote various autonomous, self-government and public governance arrangements for indigenous peoples of the North. However, extensive scholarly works on the issue of governance and indigenous self-governance show that even a legal concept of autonomy suffers from much ambiguity and confusion. Arguably, this concept can be rendered more determinate by an analysis of measures that guarantee some form of autonomy for Arctic Indigenous peoples. To illuminate the scope, models and importance of autonomy for Indigenous peoples in the Circumpolar North, this project will look at the legal image of Arctic governance and its sustainability from a comparative constitutional viewpoint.
Objective: In an attempt to open a new perspective on the concept of governance in the Arctic, this research aims to evaluate the performance of different constitutional arrangements that secure a measure of autonomy for Indigenous peoples of the North. This project will question to what extent governance arrangements are sustainable and effective in dealing with global and local challenges.
Scope: This research will employ the examples of several Arctic jurisdictions with Inuit residence. Thus, the governance models of the Nunavut territory (Eastern Arctic), Nunavik (Northern Quebec), Nunatsiavut (the province of Newfoundland and Labrador) and the Inuvialuit of the Western Arctic (Northwest Territories) Canada will be compared with each other.
Methodology: The main objective of this proposal is an empirical and comparative normative examination of governance models for the Inuit of four jurisdictions in Canada. To examine the evolution and transformation of the legal image of autonomy for these regions, this study will cover the fields of Aboriginal, Comparative Constitutional, International law, legal anthropology, ethnology, sociology, history and political science.
Being based on the methodology of multiple approaches to the legal comparison, this proposal will undertake a complex micro comparison. In so doing, contextualist, textualist and jurisprudential approaches will be employed to analyze the concept of Arctic governance models in the context of social changes that affect Inuit communities around the Circumpolar North; Further, interdisciplinary methods of social sciences (historical and linguistic analysis, etc.), cultural immersion (interviews) will be followed by the method of dynamic comparison, which will elaborate on the dynamics of changes to the concept of governance in the Arctic.
Research Contribution and its implication to the “Aboriginality and Governance” project.
This research will contribute to the project by bringing a new perspective on the emerging and evolving innovative concepts of governance for Arctic residents. This analysis will be of great interest to Aboriginal groups in the Circumpolar North, seeking self-governance in the framework of realisation of their right to self-determination. Further, this project will focus on important issues for Northerners – sustainability and resilience of regional governance arrangements in the face of globalization, dramatic challenges like global warming and increasing economic/financial dependency on the centre. This study will illustrate the evolution and transformation of the legal image of governance in the Arctic communities in light of cultural, historical, and social processes that shape the human, political, economic and legal sustainability of circumpolar societies. Given the dearth of such comparative study, this research would make a significant contribution to the existing scholarship on this topic. I believe that this project will be important for many government, indigenous, academic, business and community stakeholders involved in the administration and realization of governance.
‘Legal image of Indigenous Governance in the Arctic’
At the outset the project will examine the factors, which shaped the emergence of existing constitutional arrangements for Indigenous peoples of the Inuit in four Canadian regions. Notably, the Inuit of the Circumpolar World have expressed similar aspirations in their quest for internal self-determination or autonomy. However, the Inuit capability to regain control over their lives and their homelands has taken different forms of governance arrangements in practice. They vary from developing territorial public governance concept in Nunavut; its modification in Nunavik, which is looking forward to the establishment of the new autonomous form of public government, developments in Nunatsiavut and the Western Arctic where the Inuit aspire to advance their options for true indigenous governance within the existing constitutional frameworks.
The core issues: This multiplicity in the governance approaches in the Arctic brings this study to the core questions: of whether the differences between the South and the North and particularities of indigenous livelihood require any unique vision of governance in the Arctic? What is sustainable and effective Arctic governance? How it can be achieved? What can be learned from success and failure of governance systems in Canada’s North. Does ‘importing’ into the Arctic setting a system of ‘Southern’ governance, which is often sustained by the heavy investments from the centre, create a workable or palatable solution for Northern citizens? Is there a need for indigenous autonomy based on Inuit wisdom and values, or existing forms of governance that can be infused with indigenous traditional knowledge and become more legitimate among the Arctic Indigenous peoples are sufficient?
This study will argue that governance models in the North should be done differently from the Southern concepts because of the presence of indigenous peoples with their expectations for self-governance and due to the specific conditions of Northern geography, namely: severe climate, cold temperatures, the low density of the population, high expenses, poor infrastructure, etc. This research will further look at how the Arctic Indigenous peoples show the value of their own culture in their aspirations for autonomy. Arguably the South has a great deal to learn from the North and there might be another legal image of governance and its institutions from the perspective of the Arctic Indigenous peoples. To examine this image, which is quite different from the federal government’s policies in that direction, further empirical consideration will be given to the indigenous communities’ interpretation of existing governance arrangements in the Arctic.
4 questions:
1. My main research question is to investigate legal, economic, human and political sustainability of the Inuit governance systems in Canada.
2. My research question relates to domain 1 and 3.
3. Interaction with Aboriginal communities and governments of the 4 Inuit regions is of utmost importance for my research.
4. I hope our meeting and interaction at the chantier will lead to an exchange of ideas and dialogue with various stakeholders.
