A World You Do Not Know: Settler Societies, Indigenous Peoples and the Attack on Cultural Diversity (Institute of Commonwealth Studies) - Softcover

Samson, Colin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0957521006 ISBN 13: 9780957521001

Publisher: University of London Press, 2014

Synopsis

A World You Do Not Know explains how the willful ignorance of indigenous peoples was a major dynamic in the European colonization of North America. Using the Innu of Labrador-Quebec as one powerful contemporary example, Colin Samson shows how the processes of displacement, land-grabbing, and assimilation today are in their intentions and effects no different from U.S. and Canadian policies of the 19th century. While nation building, capitalism, and industrialization are shown to have undermined indigenous peoples' social stability, health, and wellbeing, Samson describes how the values that guide many indigenous societies are very much alive.

The book concludes by showcasing how land-based activities of indigenous groups in Canada and the United States are being maintained and recast. Samson argues that by continuing to hunt, fish, and live from what is left of their lands, indigenous peoples are talking back to the ignorance that transformed them and holding out the promise for more positive futures.

About this title

About the Author:

Colin Samson is professor of sociology and director of the BA Liberal Arts program at the University of Essex. He has been working with the Innu of the Labrador-Quebec peninsula since 1994. His associations with these indigenous peoples led to coauthoring the human rights report Canada's Tibet: The Killing of the Innu, which won the Italian Pio Manzo Peace Prize in 2000. His book A Way of Life That Does Not Exist: Canada and the Extinguishment of the Innu won the Pierre Savard Award given by the International Council for Canadian Studies in 2006. Since 2009, Samson has worked in creative partnerships with filmmaker Sarah Sandring, who produced the documentaries Nutshimit (2010), and Nutak (2013) for Nirgun Films.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of London Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0957521006
• ISBN 13: 9780957521001
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 282