Consultation in the Alberta oil sands: Clashing Indigenous and settler world views

Indigenous calls for sovereignty, recognition of ancestral claims, and territorial rights are topics that are becoming increasingly relevant in Canada, particularly as industry continues to put pressure on provincial and federal governments to develop on Indigenous people’s traditional territory. Through the aggressive push for development and extraction of natural resources, two very different ontological perspectives1 of the land are coming into contact, often with the result that projects are delayed and/or brought to the courts, as well as arguably sabotaging efforts of collaboration and reconciliation in other areas of social and political life (Boyd and Lorefice 2018:573). Indeed, the settler-colonial ontological perspective of the land that believes that “any natural resource not used [is] wasted” (Davis 2018:145) conflicts with many First Nations’ traditional systems of stewardship and sustainability (Turner and Jones 2000). As such, a critical space that is worthy of examination is the consultation process because the duty to consult is legally mandated and is one of the few spaces in which the two “ways of knowing” the land come into contact. Accordingly, the research questions which guided my analysis include an examination of how the different ontological perspectives come into conflict when they make contact within the consultation process and what is required for meaningful consultations to take place that accommodate both ontological perspectives. Finding a way to identify and provide solutions to issues of land is of particular importance to contemporary society, as both Indigenous and settler-colonial people draw important connections between the land and their distinct identity and heritage, and neither are going to cede quietly to the other. Further, the need for cooperation is vital in a world where issues of land will become increasingly relevant because of climate change and scarcity of natural resources. In this way anthropology is demonstrably contributing to social issues in society, as the discipline that cultivates the ability to accommodate for, and critically examine, numerous and conflicting worldviews.