AJ97001 Letní škola Česká Kanada

Filozofická fakulta
jaro 2012
Rozsah
0/2/0. 7 kr. (plus 3 za zk). Doporučované ukončení: zk. Jiná možná ukončení: z.
Vyučující
Mgr. et Mgr. Kateřina Prajznerová, M.A., Ph.D. (přednášející)
PhDr. Thomas Donaldson Sparling, B.A. (cvičící)
Garance
Jeffrey Alan Vanderziel, B.A.
Katedra anglistiky a amerikanistiky – Filozofická fakulta
Kontaktní osoba: Tomáš Hanzálek
Dodavatelské pracoviště: Katedra anglistiky a amerikanistiky – Filozofická fakulta
Předpoklady
( AJ09999 Postupová zkouška || AJ01002 Anglický jazyk II ) && AJ04003 Úvod do literatury II && AJ07002 Úvod do studia kultury USA II
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Předmět si smí zapsat nejvýše 28 stud.
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The Czech Canada Summer School offers an interdisciplinary approach to the topic of Canada and the environment. It covers cultural studies, economics, First Nations studies, geography, history, law, literature, natural science and political science. Teaching will take the form of two core courses (consisting of four 90-minute morning sessions each), four guest seminars (one 90-minute afternoon session each), and three field trips (on Sunday, Wednesday, and Saturday). The teachers themselves will come from universities in the Czech Republic (Brno, Ostrava, Prague), Slovakia (Bratislava) and the USA (Lexington, KY). The summer school is organized by the Central European Young Canadianists and hosted by the Canadian Studies Centre at Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic, with the assistance of the Government of Canada / avec l’appui du gouvernement du Canada and the European Social Fund (ESF) Operational Programme “Education for Competitiveness.”
Osnova
  • Schedule
  • Saturday, June 23
  • • Arrival at Telc
  • 7:30 pm
  • • Opening get-together
  • Sunday, June 24
  • 9 am - 12 am
  • • Following the Trails of Water in Telc: A Walk
  • 2:30 pm
  • • Welcome by Her Excellency Valerie Raymond, Ambassador of Canada to the Czech Republic and Slovakia
  • • Opening of the Czech Canada photo exhibit
  • 4 pm • Tour of the Telc Chateau
  • 7 pm
  • • Introduction to Canada and the theme of the summer school by Don Sparling, Masaryk U, Brno: “O Canada - Our Home and n/Native Land”
  • Monday, June 25
  • 8:30 am - 10 am
  • • Randall Roorda, U of Kentucky at Lexington
  • Core Course: “Roughing It in The Bush: Women in Canadian Wilderness” Session 1: The Bush
  • Readings
  • Atwood, Margaret. The Journals of Susanna Moodie. 80-116, 62-64. Atwood, Margaret. “Linoleum Caves.” 87-116. Atwood, Margaret. Survival. 27-51. Moodie, Susanna. Roughing It in the Bush. xv-xix, 21-35, 215-35, 241-65, 269-96, 329-37, 359-75, 439-61, 489-95, 533-63. Traill, Catharine Parr. The Backwoods of Canada. 9-13, 54-71, 92-129, 166-79, 207- 29.
  • 10:30 am - 12 pm
  • • Don Sparling, Masaryk U, Brno
  • Core Course: “Native Canadians and the Environment: Cultural, Legal, Economic and Social Issues”
  • Session 1: Where We Are and How We Got Here
  • Readings “Aboriginal Rights: Some Questions.” 71-74. “Calder et al. v. Attorney-General of British Columbia.” 48-60. “Delgamuukw et al. v. The Queen in Right of British Columbia et al.” 149-57. “Guerin et al. v. The Queen.” 64-70. “Note on Aboriginal Claims.” 163-65, 167-70. “Note on Aboriginal Rights after Constitution Act, 1982.” 145. “Note on Constitution Act, 1982.” 119-21. “The Royal Proclamation, 1763.” 28-30. “St Catherine’s Milling and Lumber Co. v. The Queen.” 31-35.
  • 2 pm - 5 pm
  • • Petr Vurm, Masaryk U, Brno
  • Guest Seminar: “Environmental Literature in Quebec from the Quiet Revolution Onwards: Examples, Tendencies, (R)evolutions”
  • Readings Poulin, Jacques. Volkswagen Blues. 9-24, 39-55, 81-84, 135-40, 185-90, 203-13.
  • Tuesday, June 26
  • 8:30 am - 10 am
  • • Randall Roorda, U of Kentucky at Lexington
  • Core Course: “Roughing It in The Bush: Women in Canadian Wilderness”
  • Session 2: Wilderness Wives
  • Readings
  • Arthur, Elizabeth. Island Sojourn. xiii-xv, 3-28, 37-49, 68-103, 132-41, 149-76, 208- 16. Pinkerton, Kathrene. Wilderness Wife. 13-51, 73-87, 99-126, 166-82, 298-305. Roorda, Randall. “Wilderness Wives.” 35-56. Stanwell-Fletcher, Theodora C. Driftwood Valley. v-xii, 3-31, 68-96, 124-61, 204-16, 266-71.
  • 10:30 am - 12 pm
  • • Don Sparling, Masaryk U, Brno
  • Core Course: “Native Canadians and the Environment: Cultural, Legal, Economic and Social Issues”
  • Session 2: Case Study I: Teztan Biny
  • Readings
  • McCarthy, Shawn. “Budget Bill Gives Harper Cabinet Free Hand on Environmental Assessments.” The Globe and Mail. http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/budget-bill-gives-harper-cabinet-free-hand-on-environmental-assessments/article4105864/?service=mobile. Protect Fish Lake - Teztan Biny. http://www.protectfishlake.ca/. R.A.V.E.N. Respecting Aboriginal Values and Environmental Needs. http://www.raventrust.com/fishlaketeztanbiny.html. Smitten, Susan. Blue Gold: The Tsilhqot'in Fight for Teztan Biny (Fish Lake). http://vimeo.com/9679174. Taseko. Taseko Mines Limited. http://www.tasekomines.com/.
  • 2 pm - 5 pm
  • • Lucia Otrisalova, Comenius U, Bratislava
  • Guest Seminar: “The Environment and National Identity”
  • Readings
  • Berger, Carl. “The True North Strong and Free.” 416-34. Harris, Cole. “The Myth of the Land in Canadian Nationalism.” 239-40. MacEachern, Alan. “Lost in Shipping.” 196-214.
  • Wednesday, June 27
  • • Milada Matouskova and Miroslav Sobr, Charles U, Prague
  • “Ecohydrological Survey of Water Bodies” Field Trip to Rohozensky and Podhajsky Ponds, Telcsky Stream and Moravska Dyje
  • Readings on Rivers
  • “Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament.” 1-96. Matouskova, Milada. “Assessment of the River Habitat Quality within European Water Framework Directive.” 19-32. Matouskova, Milada, and Martin Dvorak. “Assessment of Physical Habitat Modification in the Bilina River Basin.” 293-306. Matouskova, Milada, Annette Weiβ, and Jörg Matschullat. “Ecological Survey of River Habitat Diversity.” 284-307. Orr, H. G. et al. “A Predictive Typology for Characterising Hydromorphology.” 32- 40. Zalewski, Maciej, et al. “Ecohydrology – Why Demonstration Projects throughout the World?” 3-11.
  • Readings on Ponds and Lakes
  • “Discharge Measurements: ARC 2007 Water Monitoring Workshop.” PowerPoint. Engel, Zbynek, et al. “Changes of Petrov Glacier and Its Proglacial Lake in the Akshiirak Massif, Central Tien Shan, since 1977.” 388-98. Gierke, John S. “ENG5300 Engineering Applications in the Earth Sciences: Measuring River Discharge.” 8 Aug. 2002. Jansky, Bohumir, and Miroslav Sobr. “Genetic Classification of Lakes in the Czech Republic.” 117-28. Koenings, J. P., et al. “Limnology Field and Laboratory Manual: Methods for Assessing Aquatic Production.” Feb. 1987. Sobr, Miroslav, et al. “Lakes and Water Reservoirs in the Czech Republic.” 189-96.
  • Thursday, June 28
  • 8:30 am - 10 am
  • • Randall Roorda, U of Kentucky at Lexington
  • Core Course: “Roughing It in The Bush: Women in Canadian Wilderness”
  • Session 3: Animal Presence
  • Readings
  • Atwood, Margaret. Surfacing. Engel, Marian. Bear.
  • 10:30 am - 12 pm
  • • Don Sparling, Masaryk U, Brno
  • Core Course: “Native Canadians and the Environment: Cultural, Legal, Economic and Social Issues”
  • Session 3: Case Study II: Nunavut
  • Readings
  • “Agreement Between the Inuit of the Nunavut Settlement Area and Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada.” http://www.nucj.ca/library/bar_ads_mat/Nunavut_Land_Claims_Agreement.pdf. Government of Nunavut. Government of Nunavut, 2012. Web. 10 June 2012. http://www.gov.nu.ca/.
  • 2 pm - 5 pm
  • • Petr Kopecky, U of Ostrava
  • Guest Seminar: “Sense(s) of Place in British Columbia Literature”
  • Readings
  • Geddes, Gary. “Introduction: Signing the Dotted Line.” 1-3. Geddes, Gary. Sailing Home. 195-198, 265-269. McKay, Don. Deactivated West 100. 15-31. McKay, Don. Strike/Slip. 3, 8-9, 19. Pass, John. Stumbling in the Bloom. 12-24. Pass, John. Water Stair. 16-18, 33-34. Ricou, Laurie. “The Arbutus/Madrone File: Writing Across the Border.” 5-13. Reimer, Chad. “A Sense of Place: The Local in British Columbia History.” 109-15.
  • Friday, June 29
  • 8:30 am - 10 am
  • • Randall Roorda, U of Kentucky at Lexington
  • Core Course: “Roughing It in The Bush: Women in Canadian Wilderness”
  • Session 4: Northwest Passage
  • Readings
  • Van Herk, Aritha. The Tent Peg. Wilson, Ethel. Swamp Angel.
  • 10:30 am - 12 pm
  • • Don Sparling, Masaryk U, Brno
  • Core Course: “Native Canadians and the Environment: Cultural, Legal, Economic and Social Issues”
  • Session 4: Place and Identity
  • Readings
  • Ahenakew, David. “Aboriginal Titles and Aboriginal Rights: The Impossible and Unnecessary Task of Identification and Definition.” 24-30. Borrows, John. “Living between Water and Rocks: The Environment, First Nations, and Democracy.” 29-55. Haluza-DeLay, Randolph, Pat O’Riley, Peter Cole, and Julian Agyeman. “Introduction: Speaking for Ourselves, Speaking Together: Environmental Justice in Canada.” 1-26. Ittinuar, Peter. “The Inuit Perspective on Aboriginal Rights.” 47-53. Lovelace, Robert. “Prologue: Notes from Prison: Protecting Algonquin Lands from Uranium Mining.” ix-xix. McGregor, Deborah. “Honouring Our Relations: An Anishnaabe Perspective on Environmental Justice.” 27-41.
  • 2 pm - 5 pm
  • • Premysl Macha, U of Ostrava
  • Guest Seminar: “Nature as a Political Problem: The Political Ecology of Oil Sands Exploitation in Canada”
  • Readings
  • Latour, Bruno. “Why Political Ecology Has to Let Go of Nature.” 9-52. Willems-Braun, Bruce. “Buried Epistemologies.” 3-31.
  • Saturday, June 30
  • • Fieldtrip to the Czech Canada Nature Park and Slavonice
  • 7 pm
  • • Closing get-together
  • Sunday, July 1 (Canada Day!)
  • • Departure
Literatura
  • Moodie, Susanna. Roughing It in the Bush.
  • Stanwell-Fletcher, Theodora C. Driftwood Valley.
  • Atwood, Margaret. Survival
  • Arthur, Elizabeth. Island Sojourn.
  • Engel, Marian. Bear.
  • Wilson, Ethel. Swamp Angel.
  • Atwood, Margaret. The Journals of Susanna Moodie.
  • Traill, Catherine Parr. The Backwoods of Canada.
  • Pinkerton, Kathrene. Wilderness Wife.
  • Van Herk, Aritha. The Tent Peg.
  • Atwood, Margaret. Surfacing.
Výukové metody
Seminars, lectures, fieldtrips, audio-visual learning.
Metody hodnocení
The Czech Canada Summer School is registered as an official course at Masaryk University (AJ97001), with a value of either 7 ECTS credits (partial credit) or 10 ECTS credits (full credit).
For partial credit, students are expected to participate in all the scheduled sessions, read all the assigned readings and write a short (200-word) response to the readings for each session (core courses as well as guest seminars). These short responses are to be posted in ELF before the summer school begins (by June 22).
For full credit, students are expected to participate in all the scheduled sessions, read all the assigned readings and write a short (200-word) response to the readings for each session (core courses as well as guest seminars). These short responses are to be posted in ELF before the summer school begins (by June 22). Further, students will write an 1800-to-2400-word follow-up essay (5-7 pages, double-spaced) for each of the two core courses. The follow-up essays are to be posted in ELF within a week after the summer school ends (by July 9).
• For further details on the assignments, please see the assignment guidelines below and also in individual echo-assignment descriptions in ELF. Assignment Guidelines Short Responses By Friday, June 22, students will post a 200-word response to the readings for each session (core courses as well as guest seminars) in the appropriate echo-assignment box in ELF. Some of the instructors have suggested questions to respond to: Prompts for Randall Roorda’s core course: please see the detailed introductory notes below. Questions for Lucia Otrisalova’s guest seminar: What’s the role of the natural environment in shaping people’s attitudes? Is there any link between your country’s natural environment and your national identity? Questions for Petr Kopecky’s guest seminar: How do the authors build the sense of place? How do their literary expressions of the sense of place relate to your personal experience? Follow-up Essays By Monday, July 9, students taking the summer school for full credit will post an 1800-to-2400-word (5-7 pages, double-spaced) essay for each of the two core courses in the appropriate echo-assignment box in ELF. Randall Roorda and Don Sparling will provide further information on this assignment later. Roughing It in the Bush: Women in Canadian Wilderness Randall Roorda University of Kentucky Introductory Notes and Prompts for Response Overview This course takes its title from one of Canadian literature's best known and most influential early works, Susanna Moodie's Roughing It in the Bush. In Canadian parlance, the bush means wilderness, pretty much—places not conspicuously frequented by people—but the expression lacks the idealized quality of its synonym, just as Canadian attitudes toward wilderness tend more toward ambivalence than those prevailing in the States. To go wild suggests something desirable and thrilling; to get bushed means succumbing to a self-destructive condition born of long isolation in remote places. The contrast between these suggests a hovering or shuttling between attitudes and conditions, a tension we'll explore. That it's women's writing before us suggests further oppositions braided into this ambivalence toward wild nature—between female and male, nature and culture, domesticated and unsettled, interior and exterior spaces, subjugation and domination in relations of many sorts. The question presiding through our reading is this: how have women writers depicted Canadian landscapes (natural history, landforms, climate, modes of habitation) and represented their presence therein? For Canadian literature, attending to place is tantamount to exploring identity, for as Northrop Frye has observed, “Canadian sensibility... is less perplexed by the question 'Who am I?' than by some such riddle as 'Where is here?'” In considering where “here” is for Canadian women, we'll take our lead from Margaret Atwood, who in the opening to Survival characterizes that text as “a book of patterns, not of authors or individual works”—“patterns of theme, image, and attitude” pervading Canadian literature as a whole (11-12). Even with Atwood (who we'll read in three genres: poetry, fiction, and criticism), what concerns us is not author biography, much less hagiography: one could pursue a course exploring Atwood's patterns without recourse to Atwood herself. Stressing patterns, it follows that our perspective must be comparative; no text we encounter will be read in isolation, rather in pairs and clusters, with the course at large a constellation. What follows is a precis of readings for our four class sessions, with notes on selections and prompts for responding in advance of class. Session 1: The Bush Atwood, Margaret. The Journals of Susanna Moodie. 80-116, 62-64. Atwood, Margaret. “Linoleum Caves.” 87-116. Atwood, Margaret. Survival. 27-51. Moodie, Susanna. Roughing It in the Bush. xv-xix, 21-35, 215-35, 241-65, 269-96, 329-37, 359-75, 439-61, 489-95, 533-63. Traill, Catherine Parr. The Backwoods of Canada. 9-13, 54-71, 92-129, 166-79, 207- 29. It so happens that two of Canada's most celebrated early authors were not just women but also sisters: the Strickland sisters, Susanna Moodie and Catharine Parr Traill. Both accompanied their military-officer husbands to Upper Canada (present-day Ontario) in 1832, part of an influx of immigrants including many of their ilk: scions of well-to-do families whose younger male offspring were barred from inheriting anything of their families' estates, and whose prospects in depressed, overpopulated England were poor. Mustered-out soldiers were entitled to grants of land in Canada, provided they settled on and cultivated them. So the Moodies and Traills embarked for the bush, and these books are accounts of the places they came to and their experiences there. Along with ample excerpts from these writers, we'll read a poem sequence by Atwood, which purports to be an interiorized version of events Moodie reports in Roughing It and her subsequent book, a version that makes manifest her tacit bush-vs.-wilderness ambivalence, what Atwood sees as a split sensibility, a sort of double vision. Here are some questions to consider and (if you wish) respond to: • If “Where is here?” is indeed a core question for Canadian identity, how does it inform and unfold in these texts? How, for these English writers, does living in the bush eventuate in their becoming Canadian? Would you say that, for these writers, “Where is here?” is a riddle, as Frye suggests it is? How so? • What do you learn, what stands out to you, about the particular environment represented in these texts? Traill especially has a reputation as a naturalist: what does she notice and respond to in this place? How do both writers compare it to other places? How do you compare it to places you've known? • Though siblings, Moodie and Traill are frequently regarded as contrasting in temperament and concerns, to some degree at least. Where do you spot differences between them, and of what sort? What areas of resemblance stand out to you, to what effect? • The first two sections in Atwood's The Journals of Susanna Moodie take episodes in Moodie's book as points of departure. (The third departs largely from events in her later book, Life in the Clearings, with imagined post-death addenda.) Several of these episodes are included in our excerpts. Try matching the originals with the poetically-heightened, psychologized versions in Atwood's poems. What do you discern in Moodie's accounts that Atwood wants to dramatize? What do you make of these intense, modern, post-feminist versions of Moodie's sketches? What does Atwood add, how does she embellish, what does she omit or neglect in Moodie's work? • Atwood's Journals came out the same year as Survival (1972). How in her poems does she exemplify what she asserts about Canadian literature in her criticism? What “patterns of theme, image, and attitude” does she develop in her poem sequence, with what implications for our further reading? Session 2: Wilderness Wives Arthur, Elizabeth. Island Sojourn. xiii-xv, 3-28, 37-49, 68-103, 132-41, 149-76, 208- 16. Pinkerton, Kathrene. Wilderness Wife. 13-51, 73-87, 99-126, 166-82, 298-305. Roorda, Randall. “Wilderness Wives.” 35-56. Stanwell-Fletcher, Theodora C. Driftwood Valley. v-xii, 3-31, 68-96, 124-61, 204-16, 266-71. The thing about Canada is, if you're intent on roughing it in the bush, if you mean to settle in wilderness, Canada's where you have to go (or Alaska, the U.S. equivalent of Canada). When at the turn of the 20th century historian Frederick Turner famously declared the frontier closed, he did so for the American West, not the far North. When the Strickland sisters tagged along with their husbands to the bush, their feeling for wild nature was adjunct to their resolve to dispatch with it, to turn the bush into clearings, in which respect they resembled frontier women across North America at the time. By the 20th century that had changed, with some married couples heading to the wild to be in the wild, the wife a full partner in a nature-retreat scenario most associated with the solitary Thoreau. A genre of mid-20th century books attests to their desire for and experience in remote places—Canadian places, since there's no place left more remote. I've written about this genre in an article I've given you, and we'll read extensive excerpts from the three books I dwell on in that piece. I invite you to confirm, contest, extend or complicate what I observe about these Wilderness Wives—Kathrene Pinkerton, Theodora C. Stanwell-Fletcher, and Elizabeth Arthur—and to relate what you read to other texts and cultural phenomena you're familiar with as well as to elements of your own experience. Here are prompts for response: • What is the appeal of these books? To whom do they seem addressed, and how? How do you feel addressed by them? What in them especially arouses your attention and desire? • These books concern women in the Canadian environment, but these women are not themselves Canadian, rather American. Do they nonetheless evince concerns and tensions of the sort that Atwood remarks on in Canadian letters? How is the question “Where is here?” posed and answered by these writers? How does the place itself—the rugged, inhospitable, obdurate, elemental bush—exert its influence on “patterns of theme, image, and attitude” therein? • Speaking of such patterns: like those of the Strickland sisters, these are works of nonfiction, and their relationship to what's “literary” is an issue. What qualifies them to be read as literature; what about them (if anything) invites you to treat them as such? • During the course of their accounts, these writers report mainly equable, successful marriages. Yet two of the three ended in divorce within a few years of the times reported (the Pinkertons stayed together for decades, till death). What do you learn and what can you infer about these marriages—about gender roles, domestic arrangements, the character of the husband, sexual dynamics, differentials in power, prowess, values, perception, etc.? How do you relate their marital relations to their presence in place? Session 3: Animal Presence Atwood, Margaret. Surfacing. Engel, Marian. Bear. This session title is drawn from a poem by Denise Levertov entitled “Come Into Animal Presence”—a fine poem, readily found on-line. Levertov finds “an old holiness” in animals, borne precisely of their indifference, their absorption in being, their pure focus on their own affairs. Her poem compares well with one by Atwood, “The Animals in That Country”: both suggest a rift between a past, lost sacrality associated with animals and our present objectifying posture toward them. That objectification of animals—and of the nonhuman creation generally—is linked with objectification of women is a tenet of the movement called ecofeminism. For this session we'll read a core text both of ecofeminism and of recent Canadian literature, Margaret Atwood's novel Surfacing; we'll cross-reference it with Marian Engel's Bear, another short novel with ecofeminist overtones and a high profile in Canadian letters, also set in the Canadian Shield, the post-glacial rock-tree-water terrain of the East. These are intense, subtle, complex books; it's embarrassing, almost, to presume to pose questions directing your attention to one or another thread in their intricate weaves. These questions are meant to prompt response to motifs of animal presence—the concrete character and symbolic valence of nonhuman creatures and the protagonists' endeavors to assume nonhuman states themselves—not to foreclose other avenues of response you might entertain, other patterns you'd call to our attention, and especially other ways of relating these texts to readings from previous sessions. • What passages do the protagonists in these novels enact? Where do they start out, from what situations and conditions; what do they go through; in what conditions do they emerge? What stages in their development or transformation do you discern, precipitated by what events and recognitions? How do these processes of transformation involve and depend on animals? • How are these characters subject to dissolution of identity, values, belief systems, memory—unsettling of a sort we're prone to call insanity? In short, how do these women go crazy, and how do they come to their senses? • How do these trials and transformations involve men—socially, occupationally, psychologically, and especially sexually (since these are books, so to speak, for mature audiences)? Try enumerating various exemplars of male identity and conduct in these novels, relating them to animal presence or absence as viewed by the women protagonists. • How do particulars of landscape figure in these books? How do the books compare in their depictions of ways women and men enter into and relate to wild places? Session 4: Northwest Passages Van Herk, Aritha. The Tent Peg. Wilson, Ethel. Swamp Angel. This title alludes to the desiderata of Canada's European explorers, a sea route from Atlantic to Pacific facilitating access to the riches of the Orient. I use the expression to refer, first, to the Northwest locations of the novels paired for this session: Swamp Angel by Ethel Wilson (British Columbia), and The Tent Peg by Aritha van Herk (the Yukon). I mean further to suggest a scenario they have in common, wherein a lone woman from the city heads off to a remote wild place, not passing as a man (though that's what happens in van Herk, early on) but passing into a place frequented by men, marked as a male domain, as wilderness tends to be. The women are in retreat, as it were, from adverse circumstances—especially men—in their urban existences; and the novels observe a narrative logic of retreat, whereby a move away from settled places is perforce a move toward recognitions vouchsafed those who dwell in nature. Predictably, the women are changed, in some way redeemed through their passages. The catch is, those around them are, too—especially men. For these works of women's passages, the Session 3 questions above mostly apply (subtracting the bit about insanity while amplifying elements of masculine violence and obtuseness). So does the caveat about nuance and complexity in these texts and the invitation to respond to whatever patterns and resemblances draw your attention. By this last session, you might look especially for points of comparison between texts from different sessions (such as female rivalry and jealousy in Atwood and Wilson, the import of bears in Engel and van Herk, backdrops of resource extraction in van Herk and Atwood and of recreational economies in Wilson and Engel, etc.). Finally, I welcome responses that relate concerns in this course to other courses and sessions in the program—an instance being depictions of Native Canadians, a matter not touched on in any of my prompts yet one of some import. A Note on Responses The program syllabus calls for you to write 200-word responses to the readings for each class session. That isn't much (roughly the verbiage in the following two paragraphs) considering the richness and sheer extent of what's there to be responded to: more than we can cover or even touch upon in our sessions (though less than might be expected given the academic credit granted). Since the syllabus stipulates it, I'll stick with this 200-word guideline—but I want you to know I regard it as a bare minimum, requisite for a barely passing grade. I urge you to respond further and write more, not just to raise but to develop observations on the texts. You can scrape by with less, but for a top grade I expect you'll write a half-page or more (typed single-spaced) response per session. Your responses are important not least because, with so little class time at our disposal, I'll need to collect them in advance and make something of them in plotting our sessions. Ordinarily, to involve everyone (and since I tend not to lecture), I rely on small groups pursuing activities they report on to the class at large, my own role being to construct activities and conduct debriefings. I mean to use your responses in lieu of this in-class work, so the whole session is in effect a debriefing, a conversation orchestrated out of elements from your responses. The responses are important, too, because if done well they may comprise seeds for the paper you write once the program ends. More on this later. Ideally, I'd like to receive and start working with your responses well before we convene in Telč. We'll see how feasible that proves and how we might use ELF as a means of effecting transfer and instituting exchanges in advance. Practically, at the latest, I'll need to collect each session's responses no later than the day before that class. Finally, since it's assumed your responses will be shared in some form or other, you should assume that others besides me may read what you write, and you should expect to be asked to speak about what you wrote if asked to in class. Coda on Contact There's ELF, sure, but if you have questions, concerns, observations or whatever right now, I invite you to reach me by email: rroorda@uky.edu I look forward to meeting and working with you all. Native Canadians and the Environment Cultural, Legal, Economic and Social Issues Don Sparling Masaryk University Introductory Notes Overview What follows are descriptions of the material to be covered in the four classes on “Native Canadians and the Environment.” This includes texts that have been uploaded in the Masaryk University ELF system and material that can be found on-line (texts of various kinds as well as a video). During each class we will discuss the issues raised by these materials, especially as reflected in the comments you will have made on your readings. In addition, I will in some cases speak briefly on some issues or concepts for which I have not supplied readings or links, but which are relevant to the issues we will be dealing with. You are encouraged to do some preliminary on-line research on these as well. Session 1: Where We Are and How We Got Here Why Aboriginal Peoples in Canada have rights to the land and the use of the land, what kinds of rights these are, and how they changed and developed over time, is a complicated story. The readings for this lesson are intended to provide the background to this extremely complicated issue; they break down into five groups. 1. “Aboriginal Rights: Some Questions” sets out in summary form the basic issues that are at play. The following extracts provide an overview of the legal background to these issues. 2.1 Documents of the Crown and Parliament on which issues affecting Canada’s Aboriginal peoples are based. The Royal Proclamation, 1763 The Constitution Act, 1982 (two extracts) 2.2 Key court cases that helped interpret and define Aboriginal rights. St Catherine’s Milling and Lumber Co. v. The Queen Calder et al. v. Attorney General of British Columbia Guerin et al. v. The Queen Delgamuukw et al. v. The Queen in Right of British Columbia et al. These extracts from the courts’ judgements are difficult to follow both intellectually and linguistically. You needn’t read them all – the main arguments and points made are usually summarized in the introductions to each reading – but you should read at least some in order to get a sense of the way legal nuances and their interpretations have profound effects in practice. 2.3 Basic information on Indian treaties, including a map of Indian Treaty areas 2.4 Basic information on Aboriginal claims and their development over time Other issues to be treated: the concepts of “The Crown” and “allies.” Session 2: Case Study I: Teztan Biny In recent years one of the most highly publicized cases of opposition on the part of the First Nations to commercial developments affecting their traditional lands involves the Tsilhqot'in (Chilcotin) people of British Columbia. The Canadian mining giant Taseko has been seeking permission to open a new mine – dubbed Prosperity Mine (!) – that would, among other things, result in the destruction of Teztan Biny (Fish Lake), a body of water sacred to the Tsilhqot’in nation. There are three main players involved in this cause célèbre; the following links will give you a start in orienting yourselves in the issues involved: The First Nations http://protectfishlake.ca/ – the Tsilhqot'in people’s main on-line channel for informing the general public on developments in the case http://vimeo.com/9679174 – a special video made by the Tsilhqot'in to explain their viewpoint http://www.raventrust.com/fishlaketeztanbiny.html – another Native site supporting the Tsilhqot'in people’s struggle, and bringing it up to date Taseko http://www.tasekomines.com/ – the company’s official website The Government of Canada http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/budget-bill-gives-harper-cabinet-free-hand-on-environmental-assessments/article4105864/?service=mobile – an article in the Toronto Globe and Mail outlining the Canadian government’s newest proposals to introduce radical reforms to the laws and institutions regulating environmental protection Go through the material on the above sites, and then use what you find there to explore specific aspects of this project and its ramifications. Additional examples of controversial economic development; the Enbridge pipeline; the tar sands in Alberta; the James Bay (Quebec) development project Other issue to be treated: the concept of “spirits” and “spirituality” in relation to the natural world in First Nations’ cultures Session 3: Case Study II: Nunavut The creation of the separate territory of Nunavut in northern Canada in 1999 marked the first major devolution of power to an indigenous people anywhere in the world. Since then, the new government of Nunavut has been attempting to create a modern political entity in the world’s most sparsely populated region, and one marked by some of its harshest natural conditions. Comprehensive information on this great experiment can be found at the two following websites, the first laying out the conditions for the creation of Nunavut, the second reflecting its current life. http://www.nucj.ca/library/bar_ads_mat/Nunavut_Land_Claims_Agreement.pdf – Nunavut Land Claims Agreement (the agreement between the Government of Canada and the Inuit that brought Nunavut into existence) http://www.gov.nu.ca/ – official Government of Nunavut website Using these two sites, examine the many ways in which the Inuit of Nunavut are interacting with their environment, and the problems and challenges this entails. As background to the creation of Nunavut, read also Peter Ittinuar’s “The Inuit Perspective on Aboriginal Rights,” first published in 1985. Issue to be treated through specific examples: Natives and hunting rights – whales, lobsters, fish, polar bears and other beasts Session 4: Place and Identity The three texts in this concluding class all deal with philosophical aspects of First Nations’ relationship to the land, and explore the concept of environmental justice. David Ahenakew, “Aboriginal Titles and Aboriginal Rights: The Impossible and Unnecessary Task of Identification and Definition” Deborah McGregor, “Honouring our Relations: An Anishnaabe Perspective on Environmental Justice” John Borrows, “Living between Water and Rocks: The Environment, First Nations, and Democracy” What we will discuss in this class is the various aspects that might make up a Native “philosophy of the environment.” Final assignment (to be sent by Monday, July 9): A brief description of what you personally found the most interesting/illuminating issues discussed in the course of the four classes.
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