Expert alert: Commentary on 15th anniversary of Oka Crisis
McGill anthropologist Ronald Niezen an expert on Canada's indigenous peoples
Fifteen years have passed since the Oka Crisis of July 11, 1990. Have relations between Canada's indigenous peoples and governments vastly improved since the historic crisis?
Ronald Niezen, a professor in McGill's Department of Anthropology, can provide insight on Canada's indigenous peoples and their relations with the federal and provincial governments. Niezen, who has formerly been a research consultant for the Cree Board of Health and Social Services of James Bay and a Harvard University professor, is one of North America's leading experts on:
- Indigenous peoples and human rights;
- Transnational networks and globalization, with particular relevance for native peoples;
- Native peoples and cultures of Canada and the United States.
Professor Niezen has also authored four books on indigenous peoples:
- A World Beyond Difference: Cultural Identity in the Age of Globalization (Blackwell Publishers);
- The Origins of Indigenism: Human Rights and the Politics of Identity (University of California Press);
- Spirit Wars: Native North American Religions in the Age of Nation Building (University of California Press);
- Defending the Land: Sovereignty and Forest Life in James Bay Cree Society (New York: Prentice Hall).
Media wishing to contact Professor Niezen can contact him during business hours at his home office at 514-483-0671 or ronald.niezen [at] mcgill.ca (by email).
