Editor’s Introduction

Intractable and intransigent are two words that seem to describe the tone of provincial and federal government relations with Indigenous peoples in Canada these days. There is much talk of collaboration, of forging new relations, of building futures together, and of reconciliation. Yet in Canada, police forcibly evicting Indigenous land defenders characterized the opening weeks of the new decade. Indigenous opposition to the continued expansion of fossil fuel industries manifests in new forms of political collaboration with settler communities.

For two centuries Indigenous peoples in what is now called British Columbia have experienced repeated and consistent attempts to limit, displace, and remove them from their traditional territories. Anthropology shares a history of complicity wherein earlier ethnographers accepted as fact the disappearance of “real” Indians and busied themselves recording details of our cultures before they would disappear. There have been attempts to move beyond settler colonial perspectives, but it often feels like too little too late.

The most recent theater of conflict repeats a long-standing narrative. Non-Indigenous businesses wish to access and use Indigenous lands. Some Indigenous leaders agree with development, while many others disagree. Among those who agree there are many who feel they have no choice but to agree—to do nothing is to be excluded from the promise of late capitalist prosperity and to risk further socioeconomic and cultural marginalization. Indigenous opposition to the current Coastal Gaslink LNG pipeline has simmered for a decade. Traditional titleholders found their voices excluded and took action by establishing resurgence settlements and reoccupied traditional lands. The business sought court injunctions against the Indigenous people. When the Indigenous people did not leave the police arrived, armed for war, and removed the Indigenous people. This time, however, rather than the story dying out as yet another police raid on an Indigenous community, multiple support actions starting popping up all across Canada—rallies, occupations, and blockades. What has set this social movement apart from earlier moments like Idle No More, or Occupy, is a genuine inter-community alliance of settler and Indigenous groups alike. The protests escalated, and finally the provincial government of British Columbia and the federal government of Canada were compelled to go to the chiefs and meet with them. At the time of writing a tentative agreement on governance issues to deal with future problems was found, but the pipeline will continue to be built.

The articles in this journal issue focus on collaborations that, like the current social movement unrolling in Canada, take alliance to be at the heart of collaboration. From school gardens to Standing Rock, the authors in this issue seek to decenter their own settler privilege and recast themselves as genuine allies in a common struggle. Each contribution offers a possible path of collaboration and alliance. With work like this, one can be optimistic that good things are still possible.