New book for Dr. Dokis

Dr. Carly Dokis, assistant professor of anthropology, has a new book out, Where Rivers Meet: Pipelines, Participatory Resource Management, and Aboriginal-State Relationships in the Northwest Territories (UBC Press) and Nipissing is hosting a launch part on Thursday, September 10, at 3 – 5 p.m. in the small cafeteria (A246).

Where the Rivers Meet is an ethnographic account of Sahtu Dene involvement in the environmental assessment of the Mackenzie Gas Project, a massive pipeline that, if completed, would transport gas from the western subarctic to Alberta, and would have unprecedented effects on Aboriginal communities in the North.

Oil and gas companies now recognize that industrial projects in the Canadian North can only succeed if Aboriginal communities are involved. Are Aboriginal concerns appropriately addressed through current consultation or is the very act of participation used as a means to legitimize project approvals?

In her book, Dr. Dokis reveals that while there has been some progress in establishing avenues for Dene participation in decision-making, the structure of participatory and consultation processes fails to meet expectations of local people by requiring them to participate in ways that are incommensurable with their experiential knowledge and understandings of the environment.

Ultimately, Dr. Dokis finds that despite Aboriginal involvement, the evaluation of such projects remains rooted in non-local beliefs about the nature of the environment, the commodification of land, and the inevitability of a hydrocarbon-based economy.