Read on Twitter
It's #NationalIndigenousPeoplesDay. So I want to highlight some of the readings I use to talk about Indigenous perspectives of International Relations, especially as they touch on sovereignty. (I owe a huge debt to Heather Dorries at UofT for assistance with this list.)
This is a great explainer by Joanne Barker (2005) of how the concept of "sovereignty" has been used to dispossess Indigenous peoples of their territory, especially in court cases:
…https://nycstandswithstandingrock.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/barker-2005.pdf
…https://nycstandswithstandingrock.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/barker-2005.pdf
This piece by Mary Simon (2009) was written in the context of Harper's push for Canada's Arctic power. She notes that sovereignty for the Inuit means being able to live lives of full dignity with health care and education. https://www.utpjournals.press/doi/abs/10.3138/jcs.43.2.250?journalCode=jcs (gated unfortunately)
This piece by Mark Pearcey looks at the "Standards of Civilization" argument through Chief Levi General's diplomatic mission to the League of Nations on behalf of the Six Nations to advocate for their rights. (also gated) https://academic.oup.com/isr/article-abstract/17/3/441/1822121
And I also recommend the work of @Hayden_King (2017) on "The erasure of Indigenous thought in foreign policy”. Available here: https://www.opencanada.org/features/erasure-indigenous-thought-foreign-policy/
This is such a small list and I know there is more out there. But I just wanted to take a moment to share some of the work that challenges my assumptions and pushes me to have a wider view of ideas like "sovereignty".
