GEOGRAPHIES OF (M-GGR/01) EXCLUSION DESBIENS€¦ · landscape as subject, and the collective life...

AR

UC

TET

AU

AN

– C

OM

ITÉ

PA

RIT

AIR

E ES

SIP

IT

May 6

2014

Master’s Degree in Planning and

Management of Tourism Systems

GEOGRAPHIES OF EXCLUSION

INTERCULTURAL GEOGRAPHY

(M-GGR/01)

PROFESSOR: CAROLINE

DESBIENS

1. Landscape as a semiotic system

2. Eeyou Istchee : sign of aboriginality

3. James Bay : sign of modernity

4. Place naming (toponymy)

5. James Bay tourism : a new landscape

Developme

nt

Reading/writing

landscape Place names and

culture

Immaterial heritage

Erasur

e

Source: Pierre Turgeon, La Radissonie

(Libre Expression, 1992)

AR

UC

TET

AU

AN

– C

OM

ITÉ

PA

RIT

AIR

E ES

SIP

IT




(M-GGR/01)

PROFESSOR: CAROLINE

DESBIENS

Landscape reflects culture but

also the power relations

between cultures.

The creation of a landscape

by one culture can mean the

erasure of previous cultural

markers…


AR

UC

TET

AU

AN

– C

OM

ITÉ

PA

RIT

AIR

E ES

SIP

IT

April 26

2012



(M-GGR/01)

PROFESSOR: CAROLINE

DESBIENS

Source: The Crumb Museum - www.crumbmuseum.com/crumb1.html#target

« A Brief History of America… »

from Robert Crumb

AR

UC

TET

AU

AN

– C

OM

ITÉ

PA

RIT

AIR

E ES

SIP

IT




(M-GGR/01)

PROFESSOR: CAROLINE

DESBIENS

Is the first landscape « empty »?

Only to those who cannot read

the cultural text that is inscribed

in it…

1. LANDSCAPE AS A SEMIOTIC SYSTEM

AR

UC

TET

AU

AN

– C

OM

ITÉ

PA

RIT

AIR

E ES

SIP

IT




(M-GGR/01)

PROFESSOR: CAROLINE

DESBIENS

1. LANDSCAPE AS A SEMIOTIC SYSTEM

« A landscape is a cultural image, a

pictorial way of representing, structuring or

symbolising surroundings. This is not to say

that landscapes are immaterial. They may be

represented in a variety of materials and on

many surfaces – in paint on canvas, in

writing on paper, in earth, stone, water

and vegetation on the ground. »

Daniels, Stephen and Denis Cosgrove eds., The Iconography of

landscape (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1988)

Pieter Brueghel the Elder, The Harvesters, 1565.

April 26

2012

2. EEYOU ISTCHEE : SIGN OF ABORIGINALITY

AR

UC

TET

AU

AN

– C

OM

ITÉ

PA

RIT

AIR

E ES

SIP

IT

Principal trade routes at the beginning of the 17th century


AR

UC

TET

AU

AN

– C

OM

ITÉ

PA

RIT

AIR

E ES

SIP

IT


(M-GGR/01)

PROFESSOR: CAROLINE

DESBIENS

Treaties and reserves across Canada




AR

UC

TET

AU

AN

– C

OM

ITÉ

PA

RIT

AIR

E ES

SIP

IT


(M-GGR/01)

PROFESSOR: CAROLINE

DESBIENS

2. EEYOU ISTCHEE : SIGN OF ABORIGINALITY The process of « réduction » (spatial)



AR

UC

TET

AU

AN

– C

OM

ITÉ

PA

RIT

AIR

E ES

SIP

IT




(M-GGR/01)

PROFESSOR: CAROLINE

DESBIENS

1857 : Act to Encourage the Gradual Civilization of Indian Tribes 1869 : Act for the Gradual Enfranchisement of Indians

1876 : Indian Act

« The great aim of our legislation has been to do away

with the tribal system and assimilate the Indian people

in all respects with the other inhabitants of the Dominion as speedily as they are fit to change. »

Prime Minister John A. Macdonald (1887)

2. EEYOU ISTCHEE : SIGN OF ABORIGINALITY The process of « réduction » (legal)

AR

UC

TET

AU

AN

– C

OM

ITÉ

PA

RIT

AIR

E ES

SIP

IT




(M-GGR/01)

PROFESSOR: CAROLINE

DESBIENS


http://www.nfb.ca/film/cree_hunters

Beyond the reduction : the land as a lived territory…

« Cree Hunters of Mistassini » by Boyce Richardson

National Film Board of Canada (1974)

http://www.nfb.ca/film/cree_hunters

AR

UC

TET

AU

AN

– C

OM

ITÉ

PA

RIT

AIR

E ES

SIP

IT




(M-GGR/01)

PROFESSOR: CAROLINE

DESBIENS

3. JAMES BAY : SIGN OF MODERNITY

Source: Pierre Turgeon

La Radissonie (Libre Expression, 1992)

Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa (1933-1996)

“It will not be said that we will live

poorly on such a rich land.”




(M-GGR/01)

PROFESSOR: CAROLINE

DESBIENS

Bourassa « Father of James Bay » in front of the

Giant’s Staircase

“ The territory of Québec remains to a large extent

unexplored. While the Americans and Russians are

involved in space exploration, there remains on our

territory, very close to us and inside our frontiers, one of

the most beautiful challenges that can be taken up: the

conquest of Quebec’s North, with its tumultuous

waters that form so many grandiose rivers, its immense

lakes that resemble so many seas, its evergreen forests

that hide unimaginable resources in mining deposits of

all kinds… We must reinvent the history of

Quebec; we must repeat the courage and the

will of our ancestors in the twentieth century; we

must occupy our territory; we must conquer James

Bay. We have decided that the time has come.”

Bourassa, La Baie James (1973) p. 12.


AR

UC

TET

AU

AN

– C

OM

ITÉ

PA

RIT

AIR

E ES

SIP

IT




(M-GGR/01)

PROFESSOR: CAROLINE

DESBIENS


James Bay : Responding to a cultural imperative…

Lord Durham (1792-1840) Rapport sur les affaires de l’Amérique du Nord britannique (1839)

Who shall convert the wilderness into a flourishing

country?

« The possession of the mouth of the St.-Lawrence concerns

not only those who happen to have made their settlements

along the narrow line which borders it, but all who now dwell, or

will hereafter dwell, in the great basin of that river. For we must

not look to the present alone. The question is, by what

race is it likely that the wilderness which now covers

the rich and ample regions surrounding the

comparatively small and contracted districts in which

the French Canadians are located, is eventually to

be converted into a settled and flourishing country? »

AR

UC

TET

AU

AN

– C

OM

ITÉ

PA

RIT

AIR

E ES

SIP

IT

Page 2 Master’s Degree in Planning and



(M-GGR/01)

PROFESSOR: CAROLINE

DESBIENS

Converting the wilderness

into a flourishing country :

Economic initiatives


AR

UC

TET

AU

AN

– C

OM

ITÉ

PA

RIT

AIR

E ES

SIP

IT




(M-GGR/01)

PROFESSOR: CAROLINE

DESBIENS


Converting the wilderness into a flourishing

country : Mapping

AR

UC

TET

AU

AN

– C

OM

ITÉ

PA

RIT

AIR

E ES

SIP

IT




(M-GGR/01)

PROFESSOR: CAROLINE

DESBIENS


Converting the wilderness

into a flourishing country :

Resource planning and

engineering

AR

UC

TET

AU

AN

– C

OM

ITÉ

PA

RIT

AIR

E ES

SIP

IT




(M-GGR/01)

PROFESSOR: CAROLINE

DESBIENS

« For in an important, if not always literal, sense the spectator owns the view

because all of its components are structured and directed towards his eyes only. The

claim of realism is in fact ideological. It offers a view of the world directed at the

experience of one individual at a given moment in time when the arrangement

of the constituent forms is pleasing, uplifting or in some other way linked to the

observer’s psychological state; it then represents this view as universally valid by

claiming for it the status of reality. The experience of the insider, the

landscape as subject, and the collective life within it are all implicitly

denied. Subjectivity is rendered the property of the artist and the viewer – those

who control the landscape – not those who belong to it » (p. 20)

Denis Cosgrove, Social formation and symbolic landscape (Croom Helm 1984)

Renaissance : emergence of perspective as a way of

seeing corresponds to a reconfiguration of the links

between art, science, capital and political power…


AR

UC

TET

AU

AN

– C

OM

ITÉ

PA

RIT

AIR

E ES

SIP

IT




(M-GGR/01)

PROFESSOR: CAROLINE

DESBIENS


Once the aboriginal landscape (Eeyou

Istchee) is resignified as a landscape

of modernity (James Bay) where the

Eeyouch are absent, what are the

processes that further consolidate the

erasure of “the experience of the

insider, the landscape as subject, and

the collective life within it » ?

AR

UC

TET

AU

AN

– C

OM

ITÉ

PA

RIT

AIR

E ES

SIP

IT


(M-GGR/01)

PROFESSOR: CAROLINE

DESBIENS

GARDEN AT THE END OF THE WORLD A Geographical Poem

« Jamais personne n’a nommé dans sa langue

tant de terres ni tant d’eaux! » Félix-Antoine Savard, Menaud, Maître Draveur

4. PLACE NAMING (TOPONYMY)




(M-GGR/01)

PROFESSOR: CAROLINE

DESBIENS

« Tracks are language in the landscape. The signs by which

the hunter knows who he is intersecting with in the landscape are

tracks left in the snow. […] Tracks convey a vast amount of

information: who is ahead, where they were and where they are

going, what their condition is […] Without seeing the person

themselves you can know them by their tracks. It is the central

way of knowing who is in the landscape with you. This

applies to all the ‘actors’ moving about in the landscape, including

other humans, animals, spirit persons, and atooshes (cannibal-

monsters). » (p. 84)

Susan Preston, Meaning and representation: landscape in the oral tradition of the Eastern James Bay Cree [Master’s Thesis]

(The University of Guelph 1999)

The cultural landscape as a space of

communication…





(M-GGR/01)

PROFESSOR: CAROLINE

DESBIENS

Sign reading and spatial orientation …

Willie Awashish speaks about his father

Isaiah:

« Along the way to Mistassini there were blazes on the trees. We would get onto a lake and I’d stop the skidoo. My father was riding behind me. I’d ask him, Which way now? He’d say, See that point there, you go around it, and you go into a little bay, and at the bay there’s gonna be a rock. You go right along the rock, and the first tree you see there’s gonna be a blaze on it. So we would go there and go along the rock, and the first tree we’d see would be dead, rotten, but you could see the old blaze on it. And all the way to Mistassini, going through all the lakes, he made only one mistake… » (p. 13)

Boyce Richardson, Strangers devour the land (Macmillan 1975)


AR

UC

TET

AU

AN

– C

OM

ITÉ

PA

RIT

AIR

E ES

SIP

IT




(M-GGR/01)

PROFESSOR: CAROLINE

DESBIENS

« The names and stories are not abstract facts about the past. They are melded

into a landscape that echoes these tales from the past which are heard, interpreted and

reinterpreted as people travel from place to place. They are a cultural heritage,

linking the community and its past to a myriad of points across the land

and evoking sadness, mirth or wonder at the ancestors' experiences on

that land. At the same time, they are a network of messages containing both practical

information and a breath of spiritual and moral counsel. There is every reason to believe

that the naming and story-telling tradition that created this network is still vital and

dynamic. [N]ew names are still being added and, in years to come, new

stories will likely become part of the traditional history tied to those places.

The names and stories add an important dimension, whether this is called “literary" or

"aesthetic", historic or spiritual, to Cree appreciation of their lands. » (p. 154)

David Denton, « The Land as an Aspect of Cree History: Exploring Whapmagoostui Place Names » (Paper of the 38th Algonquian Conference 2007)

Place names and cultural transmission …


AR

UC

TET

AU

AN

– C

OM

ITÉ

PA

RIT

AIR

E ES

SIP

IT




(M-GGR/01)

PROFESSOR: CAROLINE

DESBIENS


« The loss of a normal pattern of

recognizable signs would severely limit the

ability to know and participate in a culture. »

(p. 119)

Susan Preston, Meaning and representation: landscape in the oral tradition of the Eastern James Bay Cree [Master’s Thesis] (The University of Guelph 1999)

Tourism in James Bay has been a factor in

resignifying the iconography of the landscape…

AR

UC

TET

AU

AN

– C

OM

ITÉ

PA

RIT

AIR

E ES

SIP

IT




(M-GGR/01)

PROFESSOR: CAROLINE

DESBIENS

5. TOURISM : A NEW LANDSCAPE

AR

UC

TET

AU

AN

– C

OM

ITÉ

PA

RIT

AIR

E ES

SIP

IT




(M-GGR/01)

PROFESSOR: CAROLINE

DESBIENS


« DISCOVER JAMES BAY - Ready for an

adventure off the beaten path, in the heart of

the taïga ? Visit James Bay to discover

the immensity of our hydroelectric

facilities and the majesty of the

northern landscape ! Robert-Bourassa

dam towering as High as a 53-storey

building, the world’s largest underground

powerhouse 140 metres below the surface, La

Grande-1 generating station, which took 6,000

people to build, the colossal spillway – these

feats of engineering are sure to electrify

you !» (p. 154) (Tourist brochure)

Resignifying the region as accessible…

AR

UC

TET

AU

AN

– C

OM

ITÉ

PA

RIT

AIR

E ES

SIP

IT




(M-GGR/01)

PROFESSOR: CAROLINE

DESBIENS


Honoring the work of the « pioneers »

Camp Robert-A.-Boyd : Where it all began…

AR

UC

TET

AU

AN

– C

OM

ITÉ

PA

RIT

AIR

E ES

SIP

IT




(M-GGR/01)

PROFESSOR: CAROLINE

DESBIENS


Showcasing the dams (modernity, labour, nationalism

ingenuity…)

LG-1 on the La Grande River

Photos: C. Desbiens

AR

UC

TET

AU

AN

– C

OM

ITÉ

PA

RIT

AIR

E ES

SIP

IT

April 26

2012




(M-GGR/01)

PROFESSOR: CAROLINE

DESBIENS


Showcasing sustainable development…

AR

UC

TET

AU

AN

– C

OM

ITÉ

PA

RIT

AIR

E ES

SIP

IT




(M-GGR/01)

PROFESSOR: CAROLINE

DESBIENS



Upichiwuun Bay on the La Grande River

Photos: C. Desbiens

FIKRET BERKES: « Simplistic, mechanical ecology in fact

does not capture the relationships of people and the

environment and the deep feeling that people have for their

environment. »

(http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-

6833987343412992075#)

AR

UC

TET

AU

AN

– C

OM

ITÉ

PA

RIT

AIR

E ES

SIP

IT




(M-GGR/01)

PROFESSOR: CAROLINE

DESBIENS



Uupichun (First Rapids) on the La Grande River

Photos: C. Desbiens

AR

UC

TET

AU

AN

– C

OM

ITÉ

PA

RIT

AIR

E ES

SIP

IT




(M-GGR/01)

PROFESSOR: CAROLINE

DESBIENS


I saw Uupichun-LGl, also. I didn’t want to cross over to

the other side because I was afraid. I had never crossed

at a place that looked like that. I was too scared when

they wanted to drive across (the dam). We had to turn

back. We used to get so much food there. Look at what

it looks like now. There used to be so many people

there. They pulled in nets (kakawpichaanuch). You

couldn’t see the place (where they pulled in the nets) at

all when I saw it. People got so many fish there. People

dried fish for the winter (nimaashtaakuch -- dried fish).

Today, it cannot be done at all, to hunt there.

(Great Whale Environmental Assessment, article no 8)

AR

UC

TET

AU

AN

– C

OM

ITÉ

PA

RIT

AIR

E ES

SIP

IT




(M-GGR/01)

PROFESSOR: CAROLINE

DESBIENS

GEOGRAPHIES OF EXCLUSION What did the Inuit, Eeyouch and Naskapis get out

of hydroelectric development in the ancestral

lands?

•Territorial agreement (Canada’s « First Modern

Treaty »)

•New framework of governance = more autonomy

•More participation into wage economy

•Language programs in the school

•Cultural institutions (new museum recently opened)

•Etc.

AR

UC

TET

AU

AN

– C

OM

ITÉ

PA

RIT

AIR

E ES

SIP

IT




(M-GGR/01)

PROFESSOR: CAROLINE

DESBIENS


Land regime of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement (JBNQA)

GEOGRAPHIES OF (M-GGR/01) EXCLUSION DESBIENS€¦ · landscape as subject, and the collective life...

Documents

Transcript of GEOGRAPHIES OF (M-GGR/01) EXCLUSION DESBIENS€¦ · landscape as subject, and the collective life...