Like the Sound of a Drum: Aboriginal Cultural Politics in Denendeh and Nunavut (review)

The Canadian North is in the midst of an important political revolution in national history. Only thirty years ago, the Yukon and Northwest Territories were governed as federal colonies. Aboriginal people played relatively minor political roles, the hand of the federal government was omnipresent, and meaningful regional autonomy seemed a long way off. With stunning speed, the government of Canada granted responsible government, negotiated Aboriginal claims settlements, expanded the powers of Indigenous self-government, and created the Inuit-controlled territory of Nunavut. Aboriginal leaders emerged both as important national figures and key players in the administration and planning of the territorial North.

Peter Kulchyski has been a leading observer of this transformation. Like the Sound of a Drum is the most important contribution yet to the understanding of the nature and extent of this political transition. Through a comparative study of Fort Simpson and Fort Good Hope in the Northwest Territories and Pangnirtung in Nunavut, the author describes fundamental changes in northern politics. He moves well beyond a discussion of political structures and legislative changes to explain the deep cultural roots of the reorganization of power in the North. This is a theoretically informed, strongly argued, and insightfully researched book, one that will no doubt set the standard for scholars seeking to explore the intersection of political aspirations, Aboriginal culture, and political systems in Canada.

Kulchyski builds his work around four main arguments. First, he argues that the ‘politics of form’ are of crucial importance in understanding Aboriginal communities in transition, as northern peoples resist the imposition of external political systems. He dismisses the assertion that northerners have to be ‘prepared’ for Aboriginal self-government and says they are ready for these responsibilities, and on their own terms. Kulchyski makes clear his assumptions about the role of the state: ‘The State’s objective, aside from the wishes of its individual agents, is to find a mechanism to incorporate Aboriginal peoples into the dominant order. This is a structural exigency and will never cease as long as the dominant order depends on the logic of capital accumulation and the expansion of the commodity form’ (16). He found that Aboriginal people ‘experience the State as ruthless, unrelenting, totalizing machinery’ (16–17). His fourth argument is that there is a substantial chasm in language, communication, and core values between Aboriginal people and the state – he calls these structures ‘writing’ – and that meaningful negotiations requires the ability of both sides to bridge the divide. More directly, he asserts that Aboriginal people should not have to conform to the dictates of the state.

Like the Sound of a Drum has much to recommend it. Kulchyski weaves in the book a sophisticated left-liberal analysis of the nature of Aboriginal governance and the role of the dominant society, capitalism, and democracy, a well-informed assessment of the state of play in northern, community-level politics, and an eloquent series of vignettes of his encounters with the realities of northern cultural politics. Scholars from many fields will find a great deal of value in his engagement with the theoretical and conceptual literature relating to Aboriginal cultures in transition. Chapter 6 offers a challenging evaluation of the leading arguments about self-government by Canadian academics and the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples; the discussion of Alan Cairns’s work is particularly noteworthy. One hopes that Kulchysky’s conclusions will be tested in other settings – the Yukon and the northern provinces, in particular – and that a similar kind of evaluation will be undertaken of the nature of the national and territorial bureaucracies. In completing the important and admirable task of revealing the nuances, strengths, and substance of Aboriginal politics, Kulchysky has worked from a very stereotypic description of the role of the state, without the sensitivity and depth that he has provided for Indigenous political cultures.

Kulchysky has succeeded admirably in the tasks he set for himself. The book provides an effective introduction...