In this issue, we present the important Indigenous economic development work being done by First Nations, economic development officers and directors/managers, communities, businesses, organizations, and institutions across the country. JAED strives to “explore ideas and build knowledge in the field of Indigenous economic development theory and practice” and we believe the articles and book reviews throughout this issue reflect this intent.
This is the first online issue of our journal. Are you looking to enter the procurement arena? We have some ideas and resources that might help in this volume. It also has stories about political and business leaders, who are inspiring to say the least. It doesn’t matter if your community is remote and northern. If your leadership has a vision and an action plan, you are assured that they are working everyday to improve their community’s situation. They are also constantly seeking strategies to overcome challenges and embracing new ideas and technologies. These are shared in the Lessons from Experience section. Are you curious about sustainable energy and its benefits or what the profile of northern businesses in the Yukon might be? You’ll find that information in the Lessons from Research section. If you are curious about Indigenous economics, and how that differs from mainstream economics, you’ll enjoy the book review.
This issue brings important issues to the foreground. The conversation regarding the meaning and relevance of treaties in today’s context of Indigenous relationships is addressed thoughtfully in the two commentaries, one focusing on fisheries and the other on the Robinson treaties in Ontario. The positioning expressed by the authors is particularly relevant.
For insights into stories of meeting challenges head-on, reflect on the articles in this issue. We are drawn into plans to support urban Indigenous entrepreneurs, to a young entrepreneur’s vision for upholding tradition in the marketplace. Most appropriately, the topic of economic reconciliation is raised and a starting place is offered. A successful research program aimed at poverty reduction in several Indigenous communities across Canada is discussed, and it reminds us of how a nuanced approach to individual situations is critical for success and that it is an on-going process as needs change. Of course, the lessons that have emerged in the pandemic are important to understand. An important collaboration with
different levels of government and Indigenous suppliers during Covid is documented to contribute to the growing body of literature in this area.
Although the stories in this issue reflect the time before COVID, the lessons remain valuable, and the hope in these pages must not be forgotten. COVID-19 has struck the Canadian Indigenous economy hard. The future of the Indigenous economy in Canada will be based on how this storm is weathered and what support local Indigenous businesses will receive. So we urge you to support your local Indigenous businesses, and to stay safe.
In this issue the primary topic that has emerged, as the focus for at least three of the submissions, is one that relates to Indigenous leadership. Other articles continue the discussion about provincial economic development activities (in this case Manitoba), in addition to the ongoing profiles of our Cando’s Economic Developer of the Year Award Winners. We also provide information about international business, trade, and culture, which offers comparative insights (in this case between New Zealand and
Alaska); and, finally, about the economic impact of Indigenous language revitalization (a new topic for our Journal). The issue ends with our ongoing and longitudinal coverage and analysis of Aboriginal unemployment, employment, and wage rates in Canada.
The articles in this issue are imbued with economic opportunities and ways to seize them. This positive tone continues to the end, with a longitudinal exploration of the enhancement of the state of the Aboriginal economy in relation to educational level completed, measured by employment, unemployment, and wage rates.
Huy tseep q’u Siiem nu Siye’yu (“Thank you respected friends and colleagues” in Hul’q’umi’num’). The Journal, co-published by the Council for the Advancement of Native Development Officers (Cando) and Captus Press, links practitioners, leaders, community change-agents, and researchers not only to each other, but also to those who coordinate, manage, lead, participate in, and teach about the governance and leadership of Indigenous community, business, entrepreneurial, and economic development. This
issue, like the 19 issues that came before, highlights and profiles the ground-breaking economic development work that has been taking place in Indigenous communities locally, nationally, and internationally.
This new issue coincides with an interesting time in our Indigenous history: October 2016 marks the twentieth anniversary of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP). What have leaders and communities done to move forward the recommendations RCAP made 20 years ago?
These stories touch not only on economic development, but also on healing, Aboriginal women in mining negotiations and project development, and Aboriginal forest enterprises. In this issue, researchers also engage in the discussion of a number of ongoing and important topics critical to the enhancement of the academic and community-based understanding of what it means to develop in ways that honour and utilize Indigenous ways of knowing and being. This includes the critical analysis of community-based enterprises as an economic development strategy, the value of looking at concepts related to “Aboriginal capitalism”, and an analysis of why it is important to rethink the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework from an Indigenous perspective.
Issue 9.1, begins with profiles of the 2013 Cando award winners, followed by Lessons from Experience, and Lessons from Research, ending with a current analysis of Aboriginal employment in the State of the Aboriginal Economy section. Combined, the articles and papers take us from the West Coast of British Columbia to the East Coast of Nova Scotia, including stops in the Northwest Territories, Winnipeg, and Saskatchewan along the way. The issue also profiles the art and on-going work of another one of Canada’s prolific and creative Aboriginal artists: Maynard Johnny Jr.
This Special Edition of the Journal of Aboriginal Economic Development focuses on on-reserve property rights and the development and management of on-reserve lands.
Since its inception in 1999, JAED has provided a broad-based update of the diverse and ever-changing aspects of Aboriginal economic, community, and business development and enhancement. This dialogue continues in this issue through shared stories, as well as the critical analyses of advances occurring in Aboriginal communities and businesses across Canada and around the world. In this issue, readers will be invited to read articles on governmental relations, Indigenous leadership, the ever-inspiring stories of Aboriginal youth, the celebration of community, the clarification of advances in business models of development, and Indigenous tourism.
Following the tradition of meeting the different needs of our readers, this issue contains community-based success stories and current research on the best practices in Aboriginal economic development. This is achieved by providing a critical analysis of the multi-faceted aspects of Aboriginal economies. The stories and research papers examine many of the challenges and opportunities we face in this ever-changing global economy. The articles discuss the important and varied connections that the natural
environment, culture, public and private institutions, civil society, and the social economy have with Aboriginal economies.
This section describes the strategies and motivations of those addressing the challenges and conflicting views regarding resource development.
This issue marks the 10th year of partnership between CANDO and Captus Press in bringing you, our readers, this unique, informative, and interesting journal. Through this journal, we hope to bring together ideas, research, and experience in way that can inform and guide future Aboriginal economic development activities, corporate preparedness and community involvement, and the creation of meaningful and supportive federal and provincial government policy.
In this issue we once again profile our CANDO award winners and interviews with leaders in Aboriginal economic, community, and business development. Additionally, we highlight three academic articles that analyze emerging “hot topics” currently facing those involved in Indigenous organizations and communities. We share interpretations on recently published books, and hear from our founding editor — David Newhouse — in the concluding comments to this journal. His reflections mirror another year of change and challenge in the Aboriginal post-colonial world.
This issue is our most diverse from an international perspective. Scholars from Canada, Australia and Bangladesh have chosen to share their research with the larger Indigenous and international
community of Aboriginal economic development practitioners. As evidenced by a number of contributions to this issue, we are witnessing not only spike in interest among scholars interested in sharing their economic development stories, but these same authors see the Journal of Aboriginal Economic Development as an important medium enabling a dialogue to ensue that also helps maintain the flow of information through the written word.
In this issue we continue to celebrate the success of those individuals and communities involved in supporting and promoting effective and innovative projects and ventures in Aboriginal economic, community, and business development. Although the themes in this issue essentially reflect the same ones that have been highlighted and profiled over the previous eight issues, the additional stories featured in this issue remind us once again that positive change is occurring, and that individuals, communities and organizations are benefiting from the hard lessons and experiences shared by those involved in earlier projects and stories that we have published.
We wanted to offer a glimpse into Aboriginal economic activity that is, for all intents and purposes, ill-understood if at all recognized by the vast majority of Canadians. In this journal, our work, and in our classes, we (including our colleagues and students) are documenting history in the making in an age where many Indigenous communities are moving forward to fiscal freedom in their own terms. While this often involves reconciling the rhythms of the Canadian economic system with community-based initiatives, many Aboriginal business leaders perceive this action to be valid and the only way that people with the freedom to choose can do. The reconciliation includes establishing home-based businesses, entrepreneurial endeavors, developing products and selling services to communities that rely on band-owned businesses and co-operatives. Many of the same philosophies have also been successfully utilized
by communities seeking to tap into global technology markets and developing culturally appropriate, sustainable businesses. In a word, Aboriginal communities are doing what makes sense and taking on projects that are manageable.
In a world where inequity and poverty kill, we all have a stake in the future of Aboriginal CED in Canada: CED practitioners and researchers; Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples; Elders, educators, and students; people in the resources, cultural, business, legal, and government sectors. In addressing issues of Aboriginal and treaty rights and community economic development in the context of globalization and resource depletion, the program was designed to promote possibilities rather than problems and to nourish alternative models of development and communities dependent on reciprocity rather than inequality.
The Journal continues to develop and evolve. For this issue, we have added a new recurring section called
Toolkits. What we hope to do is bring to your attention items of practical interest to economic developers. Our first offering focuses on the internet and its vast resources. The net has rapidly become an important source of education and training materials as well as an excellent resource for building community and business plans. We hope that you find it useful.
In this volume, we do not offer all the answers but we do offer insights into the way Aboriginal peoples in Canada and scholars of Aboriginal economic development are adding to the vision of sustainability for our children. Some communities are choosing strategies that focus on non-renewable resource development and they are tapping into the same technologies as other companies in those industries. Others are working with alternative technologies and embracing the most modern, leading edge ways of developing their resources. Most of the communities highlighted here have strategies that encompass a variety of ways of meeting their needs and vision for the future. Scholars have presented their findings in this area of study and provide thorough, sensitive analyses and recommendations.
In this issue, we present a range of analytic views on gaming. We want to stimulate a reasoned informed discussion about the issue of gaming as a component of an economic development strategy. We hope that communities will debate these issues themselves in an open, democratic, deliberate, inclusive and reasoned manner. Gaming can be a rose with thorns or thorns with a rose.
Welcome to the third issue of the Journal of Aboriginal Economic Development. We hope that you find this issue insightful and provocative. While economic development is high on the everyone’s agenda, getting people to take time to step back, reflect on it and write about it is not always the first priority, even within the academic community. The urgent and pressing business of dealing with the immense problems that our communities face means that we often believe that we ought to be doing something to deal with them directly. Yet the time spent in reflection, in learning of new perspectives and new ways of doing things, of connecting with what others are doing, even if it’s through the medium of the written word is time well spent. We can then tackle our daily business with a sense of vigour, connection and compassion.
About the Journal
JAED's intent is to explore ideas and build knowledge in the field of Indigenous economic development theory and practice. The journal prefers a broad interpretation of research and knowledge and encourages a wide variety of contributions in this area. We want to know what people are doing, what is working, what is not working, and why.
Journal of Aboriginal Economic Development | Print ISSN 1481-9112 | eISSN 1481-9120
Editor-in-Chief: Wanda Wuttunee
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