Defining People Differently: Claiming Space for Aboriginal Diversities in Contemporary Canada

This essay discusses some of the discursive practices associated with aspects of political, socio-economic and cultural relations between Canada’s First Nations and the larger society over the past decade. Attention is drawn to discourses of reconciliation and healing, life-skills and survival economics and cultural revival prevalent during the 1990s, both in and away from the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. Section Two identifies the key themes that run through this multi-disciplinary collection of writings by Aboriginal and also non-Aboriginal writers based in and outside Canada. Recurring links between aspects of changing policies, languages and identities are identified. Drawing upon perspectives from linguistics, law, sociology and popular culture, Section Two highlights elements of continuity and change within contemporary Aboriginal experience, namely the emergence of Aboriginal rock music, demographic shift and urbanising lifestyles, language practice and policy, culturally appropriate curriculum design and the use of official terminology used in relation to Canada’s indigenous peoples.