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A review by dashadashahi
Unsettling Canada: A National Wake-Up Call by Ronald M. Derrickson, Arthur Manuel
4.0
In Unsettling Canada Manuel provides an insider's analysis of Indigenous rights movements that grew in the second half of the nineteenth century. While Manuel begins with Trudeau’s infamous White Paper in 1969, Manuel also uses the book to detail his life story. Therefore, readers become privy to Manuel’s childhood, including his parents’ involvement in activism and struggles they faced, his time in the Residential School system, and his awakening to Indigenous rights and activism which began with writings from international rights movements such as the Black Panthers. Manuel, through a semi-autobiographical standpoint, uses the book to demonstrate the Indigenous rights movement within Canada but also their work on the international stage and the challenges they met, the changes they struggled for, and the ongoing battles they face such as the fight for Indigenous governance and economies that operate in sustainable manners. The latter is taken up by Derrickson in the afterword.
This book’s strength comes from the insider view it presents on Indigenous activist struggles within Canada and globally. Manuel does an excellent job of presenting the struggle for recognition in Canada and the opportunities the global sphere presented. The transnational aspect of this book demonstrates that Canada’s Indigenous activism did not occur within a vacuum but drew on groups and strategies outside of the country as well as how the global community provided a chance to finally have issues addressed in a manner Canada could not ignore as easily. Indeed, by putting Canada’s global reputation on the line Indigenous people pressured Canada to face their demands, although this varying degrees of success. For example, although Canada revoked their rejection of UNDRIP guidelines, they have yet to implement any of its recommendations. Moreover, the insider perspective complements work such as Sarah Nickel’s Assembling Unity: Indigenous politics, Gender, and the Union of BC Indian Chiefs (2019), which while an excellent analysis is written from an outsider perspective as someone who did not participate or lead such events.
This book’s strength comes from the insider view it presents on Indigenous activist struggles within Canada and globally. Manuel does an excellent job of presenting the struggle for recognition in Canada and the opportunities the global sphere presented. The transnational aspect of this book demonstrates that Canada’s Indigenous activism did not occur within a vacuum but drew on groups and strategies outside of the country as well as how the global community provided a chance to finally have issues addressed in a manner Canada could not ignore as easily. Indeed, by putting Canada’s global reputation on the line Indigenous people pressured Canada to face their demands, although this varying degrees of success. For example, although Canada revoked their rejection of UNDRIP guidelines, they have yet to implement any of its recommendations. Moreover, the insider perspective complements work such as Sarah Nickel’s Assembling Unity: Indigenous politics, Gender, and the Union of BC Indian Chiefs (2019), which while an excellent analysis is written from an outsider perspective as someone who did not participate or lead such events.