Where the Rivers Meet
Pipelines, Participatory Resource Management, and Aboriginal-State Relations in the Northwest Territories
Large-scale industrial projects in the Canadian North require Aboriginal input – do current consultation and participatory processes address Aboriginal concerns or do they help legitimize project approvals?
Description
Oil and gas companies now recognize that industrial projects in the Canadian North can only succeed if Aboriginal communities are involved in decision-making processes. Where the Rivers Meet is an ethnographic account of Sahtu Dene involvement in the environmental assessment of the Mackenzie Gas Project, a massive pipeline that, if completed, would have unprecedented effects on Aboriginal communities in the North. The book reveals that while there has been some progress in establishing avenues for Dene participation in decision making, the ultimate assessment of such projects remains rooted in non-local beliefs about the nature of the environment, the commodification of land, and the inevitability of a hydrocarbon-based economy.