A Way of Life That Does Not Exist: Canada and the Extinguishment of the Innu by Colin Samson
8vo. pp. 388. black & white illustrations. bibliography. index. hardcover cloth. dw. London & New York: Verso Books, .
ISBN-10: 1859845258 / ISBN-13: 9781859845257
Based on extensive historical research and fieldwork in Labrador over many years, A Way of Life that Does not Exist brings to light the scale of the tragedies that have overtaken the Innu, giving rise to international human rights concerns.
Colin Samson looks in detail at Innu relations with the Canadian state, developers, explorers, missionaries, educators, health-care professionals, and the justice system. Although the Innu have lost land and lives in the attempts to assimilate them, Samson demonstrates that many have also resisted the official state policy of ‘extinguishment’ through both political channels and by maintaining a resilient belief in their distinctiveness and their attachment to the land.