My Anthropology of Canada’s First Nations discussed the Dick Pound savagery issue in class today. I asked them to read Margaret Wente’s Globe and Mail column and Iain Hunter’s Victoria Times Colonist column. I then asked them to develop rebuttals to to Wente where warranted and to offer support for her point of view when [...]
And Even More News: Indigenous cultures rivalled those of civilizations around the globe (Globe and Mail) Call off the ignoble savaging of Margaret Wente and Dick Pound (National Post) (Includes links to a facebook group against Wente; makes the observation that savages might be noble while forgetting that the term savage does not always refer [...]
The Hul’qumi’num Treaty Group (southern Vancouver Island) is going to Washington DC to argue its rights have been violated before Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. At heart: the slow place of land claims and outstanding grievances related to uncompensated land expropriations for a railroad in the 1880s. The HTG will be heard next week. See: [...]
Anthropology, the ‘Indian industry’, white man’s guilt and Jared Diamond have been implicated as justification for Vancouver Olympic Committee Dick Pound’s comment that 400 years ago Canada was full of savages. In a Globe and Mail column, Margaret Wente writes: … North American native peoples had a neolithic culture based on subsistence living and small [...]
“The Province has authorized its provincial negotiators to include revenue sharing with First Nations on new mining projects, Minister of State for Mining Gordon Hogg announced today. British Columbia is the first province in Canada to share direct revenue generated from mining.” The full press release is here. Sphere: Related Content
The Terrace Standard reports that Nathan Cuthen’s (NDP) victory in the Skeena-Bulkley Valley riding in the recent federal election was partly the result of his association with anti-coal bed methane drilling in the Klappan. Consensus among candidates against drilling appears to exist in the region. But, it seems that Cullen was better than other candidates [...]
Fast Company Magazine has a short piece this month on the agony associated with sitting through some powerpoint presentations. Jist: don’t use powerpoint images to ‘decorate’ your talks. From the article: Curiosity must come before content. Imagine if the TV show Lost had begun with an announcement: “They’re all dead people, and the island is [...]
I never know quite to make of studies like this. In the current issue of IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, two researchers assert that the skills required for surfing the internet — including navigation skills — are more apparent in men. They connect this ability to our ancestry as hunters. From CTV.ca: The [researchers are] [...]
Sarah Palin’s record of trying to overturn subsistence hunting and fishing laws is attracting some attention. Her views are a beautiful example of the middle class construction of wilderness, that wilderness is simply for recreation, something to be enjoyed in short bursts, or exploited to exhaustion. There appears to be no place for subsistence hunting [...]
theTyee.ca reveals that Shell continues to conduct research activities in the Klappan despite recent calls to ban coal bed methane extraction in BC.
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