Chadwick Cowie

University of Alberta

crcowie@ualberta.ca

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9268-358X 

Journal of Australian, Canadian, and Aotearoa New Zealand Studies 1, issue 1 (June 2021): 7-44,  https://doi.org/10.52230/TEQU4081

Abstract:

The purpose of this article is to assess and critique the Quebec secessionist movement from an Indigenous lens in order to include other contexts and views on the aforementioned topic that is traditionally left to the peripheries of the Quebec secessionist movement. In order to add an Indigenous lens to the discussion of Quebec’s secessionist movement, this paper will first review the concepts of sovereignty and self-determination from both ‘western-centric’ and Indigenous views. Furthermore, this article will then review the historical formation of French and English settlers and power in what Indigenous peoples call Turtle Island, from the 1500s until 1960. Lastly, with the many political, economic, and societal changes from the 1960s and on, this article will critique the competing views of Quebec as a sovereign entity to that of Indigenous nationhoods. This article concludes that for Quebec to truly reflect a decolonized state, the inclusion of Indigenous nations as equal partners with their own sovereignty and self-determination recognized must also occur.

Keywords:

Indigenous, Nationhood, Quebec, Canada, Colonialism

Article (PDF)