Description
On 28 February 2006, the Six Nations of the Grand River blocked workers from entering a half-built housing development in southern Ontario. They renamed the land Kanonhstaton, “the protected place.” The protest drew attention to the issue of Aboriginal land rights and sparked a series of ongoing events known as the “Caledonia Crisis.” Laura DeVries’ account of the dispute links the actions of local residents, government officials, and the police – and the current of racism released by the conflict – to entrenched non-Aboriginal discourses about law, landscape, and identity. It encourages non-Aboriginal Canadians and citizens of other settler societies to reconsider their assumptions – to view so-called facts such as the rule of law as culturally specific notions that prevent truly equitable dialogues with Aboriginal people. Devries not only reveals the conflicting visions of justice that various actors brought to the dispute, she also examines alternative conceptualizations of sovereignty over land and law inherent in the Constitution. By questioning notions about law, multiculturalism, national identity, and human rights as they played out in one conflict over land, DeVries offers true insight into Canada’s troubled relationship with First Nations.