In 2000, the Nisg̱a’a treaty marked the culmination of over one hundred years of Nisg̱a’a people protesting, petitioning, litigating, and negotiating for recognition of their rights. Beyond Rights explores this groundbreaking achievement and its impact. The Nisg̱a’a were trailblazers in gaining Supreme Court recognition of unextinguished Aboriginal title, and the treaty marked a turning point in the relationship between First Nations and provincial and federal governments. Using this treaty as a pivotal case study, Carole Blackburn analyzes treaty making as a way to address historical injustice and to achieve contemporary legal recognition, and explores the possibilities for a distinct Indigenous citizenship in a settler state.

Carole Blackburn's profile page

• Short-listed, George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature

Carole Blackburn is an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia and the author of Harvest of Souls: Jesuit Missions and Colonialism in North America, 1632–1650. She has been researching the Nisg̱a’a Final Agreement since 1999, conducting interviews and engaging in participant observation with treaty negotiators, politicians, bureaucrats, Nisg̱a’a citizens, government workers, and lawyers for the province, the federal government, and the Nisg̱a’a.

...Beyond Rights provides a compelling account for why, despite their flaws, the modern treaties are important to the future of reconcilitation in Canada and ought to have the attention of all Canadians.

BC Studies