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Home , Homeland, Kamchatka Peninsula

REVIEWS • 229

NO HOME IN A HOMELAND: Christensen recounts that the relocation of Indigenous AND HOMELESSNESS IN THE CANADIAN peopleo t settlements coincided with the Cold War and NORTH. By JULIA CHRISTENSEN. Vancouver: UBC the discovery of oil and gas, and later diamonds, in the Press, 2017. ISBN 978-0-7748-3395-0. xiv + 290 p., map, Northwest Territories. She argues that the original impacts notes, bib., index. Softbound. Cdn$ and US$34.95. of are reproduced in present-day realities of Indigenous people through (neo)colonial policies and No Home in a Homeland represents a significant, unique, governmentality in the North. The centrality of this and timely contribution to the literature on homelessness arguments i presented throughout the book and supported experienced by Indigenous people in the Canadian North. by Christensen’s analyses of several policies that can be Christensen’s main goal in the book is to demonstrate the typifieds a (neo)colonial. effectsf o colonial policies on Indigenous cultures, among Using a definition of homelessness that captures a themn a increase in visible homelessness in the 1990s. Her more nuanced and culturally representative reality of research concentrates on the two largest population centres Indigenous people in the North, Christensen frames in the Northwest Territories: Yellowknife and Inuvik. The current Indigenous homelessness as multiscalar, in that the research, which spanned more than a decade, included 87 negative effects of settlement, cultural displacement, and in-depth interviews and six focus groups with homeless residential schools are in essence recreated or entrenched Indigenous men and women, and 55 in-depth interviews by present-day governmental attempts to ameliorate these with social and health service providers. effects. The overall effect of these policy initiatives is the Asn i other colonized nations, , New Zealand, marginalization of Indigenous people and the emergence of and the , Indigenous people experience visible homelessness. homelessness at a far greater rate than other cultural Starting with the impact of neoliberal polices that all groups. They are overrepresented in the justice system and but eliminated government spending on public housing, have higher rates of unemployment and health problems as Christensen identifies several factors that effectively well. Dominant socio-political discourse typically positions entrench dependency and engender homelessness. Housing these and other issues related to Indigenous persons as generallys i in short supply, with waiting lists up to six problems within the person or the Indigenous culture. months or more. Many homeless persons have been evicted In this book however, colonial policies are described as from housing for reasons often beyond their immediate assaultsn o Indigenous peoples, communities, and cultures. control, while others, because of their single status, have Indigenous homelessness in the North has two major no chance for subsidized housing. Welfare dependence antecedents: the relocation of Indigenous people from the is generated and maintained by the lack of mainstream lando t settlements and systemic attempts to de-indigenize employment opportunities and the lack of workplace Indigenous children by removing them from their birth trainingn i a volatile, resource-based economy. Many parents. The latter is well documented in the disastrous homeless men and women migrate to Inuvik or Yellowknife outcomesf o residential schools and the “sixties scoop.” for education or work, but when these options do not pan Combined with a less-than-predictable, resource-based out, they are left stranded. Christensen argues that other extraction economy, socio-political upheaval and colonial policies designed to encourage financial independence policies are responsible for the resulting intergenerational and provide housing, such as the “Productive Choices” trauma experienced by Indigenous people in northern policy, force people into social models that are ill suited Canada. to their culture by forcing individualist models of living No Home in a Homeland si presented in six chapters, on people from a collectivist and interdependent culture. each focusing on a different aspect of Indigenous This situation is linked to a critical factor related to homelessness in the Northwest Territories. Christensen homelessness—the loss of the sense of “home” that involves beginsy b introducing a fictional character, Leonard, cultural, community, physical, and spiritual dimensions. whos i adopted by a family in southern Canada at a very No Home in a Homeland encourages readers to examine young age. Leonard’s experiences are posited to represent the f effects o colonial and (neo)colonial polices through the thosef o a typical adoptee, not quite fitting into his new narratives of Indigenous homeless persons. Christensen environment, but not knowing where he actually belongs. challenges dominant discourse by providing a counter- As a geographer, Christensen concentrates on the socio- narrative that clearly positions Indigenous homelessness spatial and socio-structural factors associated with in the North within past colonial and present (neo)colonial Indigenous homelessness. Being a non-Indigenous scholar, policies. Although not overly abstract, the content of the shes i sensitive to the potential bias she brings to the study books i specialized, and as such, will challenge most non- of Indigenous homelessness. The book is packed with geographers and those not well versed in Indigenous analysesf o colonial and (neo)colonial policies affecting and colonial history to catch up to present-day realities. Indigenous communities and people in the Northwest Christensen is relentless in her recounting of the harmful Territories, analyses which are woven together with effectsf o colonial and (neo)colonial policies. If readers personal narratives of the lives of homeless Indigenous men do not get this message, they probably never will. In this and women and service providers. sense, the book is a difficult read: it will push most readers 230 • REVIEWS outf o their personal comfort zone, as it will undoubtedly packhorses to haul the provisions and equipment required. underscore the harm inflicted on Indigenous people and On4 1 July 1728, Bering put to sea from the mouth of the simultaneously be a call for action. In this regard, No Home River in a vessel he had had built there, and in a Homeland could benefit from further elaboration on whiche h named Arkhangel Gavriil (Archangel Gabriel). current initiatives focused on addressing the inequities Pushing north along the coast of the Kamchatka , experienced by Indigenous people. For example, although Bering discovered St. Lawrence Island and, continuing the effects are not clear, the Truth and Reconciliation north along the coast of the , reached Commission represents a concerted effort by the federal his farthest north latitude of 67˚24′ nN i the Chukchi Sea. government of Canada to address its colonial past. As well, At this point, he decided to head back south. To reach that when combined with settlement agreements, devolution latitude meant that he had sailed through the , represents a strong case for self-government at a broader but, remarkably, presumably because of poor visibility, he leveln i the Northwest Territories. That said, Christensen’s had not sighted the coast (the strait is only 82 km exploration of policy options for addressing homelessness wide).n O his return trip south, Bering still did not sight in the North provides a springboard for further discussions the Alaskan coast, although he did discover the Diomede on policy development. Given its strong academic rigour, Islandsn i mid-strait. Thus he could not be sure that he No Home in a Homeland is suitable for upper-level had discovered that was not joined to America, the undergraduate and graduate students in law, Indigenous junction possibly lying farther north than his northern- studies, humanities, and social sciences. The book will most latitude. By 28 February 1730, Bering was back in also serve as a useful resource for government officials St. Petersburg. and public policy makers and be of interest to Canadians Soon after his return, given the inconclusive result of his interestedn i the history and polices framing a significant first expedition, Bering submitted a proposal for a follow-up social problem in . Overall, it is a solid expedition (the Great Northern Expedition or Second read and well worth the time and effort. Kamchatka Expedition) to the Tsarina Anna Ivanovna, and it was readily approved. Like the previous expedition, it Michael G. Young was organized by the Navy through the Admiralty College. School of Humanitarian Studies On9 2 April 1733, Bering again set off across the , Royal Roads University accompanied this time by his wife and two youngest Victoria, British Columbia V9B 5Y2, Canada children.s A before, a vast quantity of provisions and [email protected] equipment (including sails and rigging and even anchors for several ships) was transported to by the river- and-portage route as far as Yakutsk and thereafter by ISLAND OF THE BLUE FOXES: DISASTER AND packhorses. Bering’s wife and family remained in Yakutsk, TRIUMPH ON THE WORLD’S GREATEST and Bering himself spent two years there before proceeding SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITON. By STEPHEN R. BOWN. to Okhotsk. From there, in 1738, Martyn Petrovich Boston, Massachusetts: Da Capo Press, 2017. ISBN 978- Shpanberg headed south with three vessels and explored the 0-306-82519-4. v + 277 p., 327 p., maps, b&w illus., , and in the following year he reached Honshu, notes, selected bib., index. Hardbound. US$28.00. the northernmost of the main islands of Japan, where he was n given a amicable welcome and did some trading. Bown’s book effectively represents a biography of the Alsot a Okhotsk two vessels were built for a voyage Dane —Ivan Ivanovich Bering (1681–1741), easto t try to reach America, the Sv. Petr (St. Peter), to ase h was known in —whose main claim to fame be commanded by Bering himself, and the Sv. Pavel (St. was two expeditions, the First Kamchatka Expedition Paul),oe t b commanded by Aleksei Il’yich Chirikov. The (1725–30) and the Great Northern Expedition or Second two ships sailed around , the southern tip of Kamchatka Expedition (1733–43). The main thrust of Kamchatka, to Avachinskaya Guba ( Bay), where the first expedition was to determine whether Asia was the f city o Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy now stands, and joinedo t America in the area of the present-day Bering after wintering there, the two ships put to sea again on 4 Strait. The expedition was originally the brainchild of June 1741. On board Sv. Petr, s almost a a supercargo, was Tsar Petr I (Peter the Great), and his successor Yekaterina (1709–46), a keen, young German (Catherine) continued to sponsor the expedition after his and the only scientist on board. deathn o 8 February 1725 (Gregorian calendar). Peter the Initially the two vessels kept company, but in the early Great died just two days after Bering had left St. Petersburg morningf o 20 June, they became separated in a storm and on the long and arduous journey to Okhotsk on the Sea darkness; they never made contact with each other again. of Okhotsk, and ultimately to the village of Ushki near Land was sighted from Sv. Petr on 16 July—Mt. St. Elias the f mouth o the Kamchatka River on the east side of the (5489 m high) on the Alaska/Yukon . A boat was Kamchatka Peninsula. The trip across the continent as sent ashore on Kayak Island for fresh water. Steller, a keen fars a Yakutsk was made largely by boat, using the river- scientist, wanted to accompany it, but Bering initially and-portage system, and thereafter by using hundreds of refused him permission. Only after protracted special