Property in Canada’s Land Claims Policy: A Case Study of The Tsawwassen First Nation Final Agreement

• Author / Creator

  Tulli, Maria L.

• In 1995, Canada implemented the Government of Canada’s Approach to Implementation of the Inherent Right and Negotiation of Aboriginal Self-Government (hereafter, the land claims policy). Since then, the land claims policy has been the primary way Canada engages with land claims. The policy is a continuation of a settler colonial logic of abstraction whereby land is considered simultaneously commodity and not owned by anyone prior to colonial settlement. There is no room in the land claims policy for alternative ways of relating to land. This thesis seeks to understand why this is so, why Canada engages with the policy, and why land modernization more generally has become a favoured policy choice in recent years. Thus, the research question asks how is the property produced and legitimated through the land claims policy? This question is addressed through a political economy theoretical framework and a case study of the Tsawwassen First Nation Final Agreement (TFNFA), signed in 2007 between the Tsawwassen First Nation, British Columbia, and Canada. The thesis begins with a historical analysis of Canada and British Columbia’s engagement with land claims. Following this, attention turns to the Tsawwassen land claim and a document analysis of the TFNFA. The TFNFA makes visible the ways that the land claims policy is aimed at facilitating the accumulation of territory and capital through dispossession, though it is not the only means used to pursue this goal. The policy relies on the transformation of contested territory into property owned by the state. This produces certainty over land ownership and jurisdiction and enables unimpeded land and resource development while restricting possibilities for First Nations’ self-governance.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • land claims
  • Canada

• Graduation date

  Fall 2019

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Arts

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-cft6-7h94

• License

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