Contemporanéités autochtones, territoires et (post)colonialisme

Abstract

Résumé RÉSUMÉ Contemporanéités autochtones, territoires et (post)colonialisme Réflexions sur des exemples canadiens et australiens Bien qu'irrémédiablement transformés et aujourd'hui insérés dans le système mondial, les ordres sociaux, les consciences culturelles et les identités autochtones manifestent une persistance certaine, en même temps qu'ils se reproduisent par le biais d'un dialogue complexe avec l'État et la société dominante. Dans les contextes (post)coloniaux actuels où circulent les discours du multiculturalisme, les autochtones réclament, à l'instar d'autres groupes, le droit à la différence. Dans les processus de revendications politiques et territoriales, ils se heurtent toutefois à des idéologies politiques et juridiques encore homogènes et uniformes qui s'accordent mal avec la reconnaissance d'une altérité souvent radicale. Leurs relations aux territoires nous servent ici de fil conducteur afin d'interroger à la fois les stratégies et les résistances locales, ainsi que certains des obstacles et ambiguïtés liés aux processus de revendications. Les deux groupes à l'étude sont les Atikamekw (Haut St-Maurice, Québec, Canada) et les Kukatja (désert occidental, Australie). Nous nous interrogeons aussi sur le rôle de l'anthropologie et des anthropologues au sein des problématiques autochtones contemporaines. Mots clés : Poirier, revendications autochtones, territoires ancestraux, postcolonialisme, États-nations, Atikamekw, Kukatja, Québec, Canada, Australie

Redefining the Lexicon of Power, Envisioning the Future: The Atikamekw Nehirowisiw Nation and the Comprehensive Land Claims Negotiations

“…In this sense, the continuity of territorial practices and transmission of ancestral values and visions can also be described as the expression of a creative resistance in the sense that they are collectively and differently defined by the members of the nation. It is also a form of creative resistance inasmuch as those practices, values and visions are mobilised directly and concretely in the dynamics of negotiation with state institutions and non-Indigenous actors (Ortner 1995;Poirier 2000). This is the case, for example, in the negotiation processes conducted by the Conseil Atikamekw-Montagnais (CAM), whose main mission was, until its dissolution in 1994, to promote and defend the rights of its members and to act as political representatives vis-à-vis their state interlocutors.…”

“…The ontological and epistemological principles on which Atikamekw Nehirowisiwok's (north-central Quebec) normative practices and processes are based may appear to be incompatible with state legal principles and categories. In fact, these legal and normative principles, practices, categories and processes are articulated in complex dynamics of assimilation, appropriation, "indigenisation" and differentiation (Blaser 2004;Clammer, Poirier and Schwimmer 2004;Poirier 2004Poirier , 2010Poirier , 2017Sahlins 1999). Negotiations between states and Indigenous Peoples contribute to defining and making more explicit the differences between these normative systems and these complex socio-political dynamics.…”

“…1 In their ongoing negotiations with state institutions, the Atikamekw Nehirowisiwok 2 are far from passive subjects. In response to the gradual invasion of their territory by non-Indigenous activities and interests, they have been working for decades to implement their own societal and life projects (Blaser 2004) and to develop common strategies of creative resistance (Éthier 2017;Poirier 2010Poirier , 2017Sahlins 1999) that focus on both the progressive transformation of power relations and the state's recognition of their system of territorial authority and sovereignty. Atikamekw Nehirowisiwok work hard to maintain their own political and decision-making instruments with respect to family hunting territories.…”

Le respect des droits des peuples autochtones dans le régime forestier québécois : quelle évolution (1960-2014)?

“…L'aliénation territoriale et l'expérience des pensionnats ont éveillé l'activisme autochtone (Poirier, 2000;Rodon, 2013). Durant les années 1970, on a pu assister au Québec à une mobilisation concertée de la part des nations autochtones contre les politiques d'assimilation du gouvernement fédéral, illustrées notamment par le Livre Blanc (1969) et certains projets d'extraction des ressources tels que le projet hydroélectrique de la Baie James.…”

The political dimensions of coexistence

“…Therefore, some members of the minority population will, from time to time when the larger context is favourable to such affirmation and/or when particular issues and interests are at stake, (re)emphasize particularities such as tribal identities. 3 In fact, in the global context of indigenous struggles and claims, many have warned of the potential dangers of the word 'indigenous' (see Bowen, 2000;Poirier, 2000), including some Maaori such as Linda Tuhiwai Smith who wrote: 'The term "indigenous" is problematic in that it appears to collectivize many distinct populations whose experiences under imperialism have been vastly different ' (1999: 6). She underlines that in the New Zealand context, the term 'Maaori' is used a lot more than 'indigenous' as the universal designation for New Zealand's first peoples although they come from different tribes and origins and thus have different experiences, present realities and histories.…”