Review of First Nations, First Thoughts: The Impact of Indigenous Thought in Canada edited by Annis May Timpson

Authors

Priscilla Settee, University of Saskatchewan

Date of this Version

Winter 2011

Citation

Great Plains Quarterly 31:1 (Winter 2011).

Comments

Copyright © 2011 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska.

Abstract

This timely collection offers perceptive, thought-provoking perspectives on contemporary issues Indigenous communities face. Privatization, governance, language preservation, museums, public policy, and official knowledge are some of the topics the book tackles. Written by a range of seasoned and emerging scholars, First Nations, First Thoughts is organized into five subject areas (each containing two or three papers): challenging dominant discourses; oral histories; cultural representation; governance; and political self-determination. The title is a clever response to Thomas Flanagan's First Nations? Second Thoughts (2000). One of the articles rebuts the content of this infamous, rather anti-Indigenous-sovereignty book. Because Flanagan is consulted on issues of public policy by conservative-leaning governments, Indigenous peoples believe it important to counter his proposals. Throughout the book notions such as reclaim, revision, return, reconstitute, and resist come to mind.