Separate but Unequal: How Parallelist Ideology Conceals Indigenous Dependency

The ideology of parallelism, distorts our understanding of indigenousdependency. Yet, restoring the“nation-to-nation” relationship and revitalizing traditional cultures will notaddress indigenous dependency, because it inhibits indigenous peoples’participation in the labour force, entrenching their isolation fromthe modern world.
Separate ButUnequal provides an in depth analysis of the ideology of parallelism – theprevailing view that indigenous cultures and the wider Canadian society shouldexist separately from one another in a “nation-to-nation” relationship. Usingthe Final Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples as an example, thisbook shows how the single-minded pursuit of parallelism has distorted ourunderstanding of indigenous-non-indigenous relations. It also uses the political economy literatureto provide an alternative framework for examining indigenous dependency. Thisnew perspective – the political economy of neotribal rentierism – combines anumber of insights from different theoretical positions and shows thatindigenous peoples’ circumstances have been inextricably linked to thedevelopment of capitalism in Canada. While indigenous peoples were integralparticipants in the fur trade, the transition from mercantilism to industrialcapitalism led to their marginalization, in part, because of the difficultiesexperienced participating in a more developed economic and political system. Theprofit seeking character of the Canadian state, in combination with racistattitudes, meant that skilled producers were imported, and the indigenouspopulation was neglected and warehoused in unviable areas. This historical andmaterial analysis indicates that parallelist proposals for increasingindigenous autonomy in all spheres of public policy will not result in a morebalanced relationship between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples, as theyare merely restoring archaic economic, political and ideological forms thatwill continue to isolate the native population.