Accounting And Aboriginal Peoples: From the Bottom Line to Lines of Relation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29173/jaed303Keywords:
Accountability, Accounting, Aspiration, Business And Economics, Cost control, Economic development, Economic performance, Ethnic Interests, Gross Domestic Product--GDP, Gross National Product--GNP, Indigenous peoples, Learning, Local knowledge, Native North Americans, Postcolonialism, Success, Sustainable development, TreatiesAbstract
According to the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, rebuilding Aboriginal economies and nations will require "radical departures from business as usual." In the interests of such radical change, this essay traces the role of accounting in obstructing and obscuring Aboriginal peoples' opportunities, achievements, and contributions and explains how Aboriginal thinking and institutions are helping redefine success measures and increase choice by making visible alternative paths and promoting sustainable development for all. Building on ongoing efforts to think and act outside colonial conceptual boxes and celebrate culturally meaningful, holistic Aboriginal economic performance, this essay recommends a double strategy to address the historical impact of traditional accounting on Aboriginal peoples and economies by (a) displacing old paternalistic models that constructed Aboriginal "problems" and (b) respecting and learning from Aboriginal powers, achievement, and measures of success. Only when Indigenous knowledge and values are put at the centre of authoritative practices will accounting do justice to the specificities of Aboriginal experience in Canada, support and sustain Aboriginal aspirations and economies, help Canada live up to its treaty promises to Aboriginal peoples, and forge a truly post-colonial Canadian.
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