A World You Do Not Know

A World You Do Not Know explores the wilful ignorance demonstrated by North America’s settlers in establishing their societies on lands already occupied by indigenous nations. Using the Innu of Labrador-Quebec as one powerful contemporary example, Colin Samson shows how the processes of displacement and assimilation today resemble those of the 19th century as the state and corporations scramble for Innu lands. While nation building, capitalism and industrialisation are shown to have undermined indigenous peoples’ wellbeing, the values that guide societies like the Innu are very much alive. The book ends by showcasing how ideas and land-based activities of indigenous groups in Canada and the US are being maintained and recast as ways to address the attack on cultural diversity and move forward to more positive futures.

Preface: ‘Things to teach you of a world you do not know’  1. All is not lost  2. The march of civilisation 3. Egalitarianism to capitalism  4. Nature and nation-building  5. Caribou to Chubby Chicken  6. Western diseases  7. Land-based revitalisation  Bibliography

This is a powerful, articulate and troubling book about many kinds of poison. It is a journey to the devastation that colonial history has brought to indigenous peoples around the world, from land seizure to transformation of diet, from losses of resources to the loss of self … a book of immense importance. -Hugh Brody, author of Maps and Dreams, Canada Research Professor, University of the Fraser Valley