BEDROCK STORIES: A CRITICAL GEOGRAPHY OF RADIUM AND URANIUM MINING IN THE SAHTU REGION, NORTHWEST TERRITORIES by © CARMELLA GRAY-COSGROVE A thesis submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Geography Memorial University St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador August 2015 Power and domination have to be produced, made up, composed. Asymmetries exist, yes, but where do they come from and what are they made of? (Bruno Latour, 2005:64) ABSTRACT This thesis is aimed at answering two questions: how did uranium mining in the Sahtu region of the Northwest Territories contribute to the normalization of northern industrialization in the Canadian imagination? And, how is this historical normalization iterated in current policy decisions and negotiations around health and environmental assessments near radioactively contaminated sites in the Sahtu? Through a critical geography of visual representations and the discursive production of an industrial north, and employing visual methodologies, I unpack the rise of an industrial discourse surrounding Northern Canada in the twentieth century. Through an anti-colonial and de- colonizing theoretical framework I follow this discourse into current Sahtúot'ine (Sahtu Dene)-state negotiations around impact assessments of Port Radium and map the transactions of this controversy between the Délı̨nę First Nation and the Canadian government. In the first half of this thesis I examine how representations of uranium and the Sahtu have worked not only to paint the region as a terra nullius, but, more importantly, how these representations have worked to confine the Sahtu region within a discourse of industrial development. I conduct a close study of A.Y. Jackson's paintings of Port Radium and argue that the institutionalized dissemination of Port Radium minescapes has facilitated the emergence of a national discourse in Canada that privileges the interests of the mining industry, while marginalizing Sahtu Dene and 'non-scientific' knowledge systems and ways of being. In Chapter 3, I turn to a consideration of how these discourses are implicated in the ongoing controversy around the historical, environmental, and health legacies surrounding uranium mining in the Sahtu. I map the contours of the controversy around ionizing radiation and explore how scientific knowledge claims have collided with Sahtúot’ine experience and claims to knowledge throughout negotiations over mine site remediation at Port Radium and redress for the health impacts of the mine. The focal point of this controversy is the competing knowledge claims about the health effects of radiation exposure at Port Radium: while many Sahtúot'ine, former residents and workers at the mine attest to a drastic increase in cancer and death rates after living and working at Port Radium, government and third party reports continually discount these claims with epidemiological and statistical evidence. Examining both the historical origins and the contemporary iterations of industrial colonialism in the Sahtu, this thesis uses images, maps, and policy documents to understand the processes that have oppressed Sahtúot'ine knowledge in industrial development and in Sahtúot'ine-state negotiations around environmental and health assessment over the past century. ' ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost I must thank Morris and Bernice Neyelle for welcoming me into their home for three months; for their kindness, generosity, and wisdom; and for feeding me the most delicious fish I have ever eaten. To Morris, thank you for telling me stories that changed my life; for teaching me to fish and snare; and for building a wall-tent for me in the backyard. To Bernice for teaching me how to sew and bead and for being my Dene mother when I was so far from home. Mahsi-cho. I extend this thanks to the Délı̨nę First Nation for approving and supporting my research, and specifically to Paulina Roche, Orlena Modeste, Gloria Neyelle-Gaudet, Danny Gaudet, and Swanee Fink who made my time in Délı̨nę so wonderful and who guided me through the early phases of this project. Also, thank you to my youth-researchers who never ceased to surprise me with their insights, abilities, and creativity. In St. John’s, where the slogging happened, I am indebted to Arn Keeling who tirelessly believed I could finish this thesis despite the never-ending hurdles and who supported every aspect of this project as it traversed provinces, territories, and too many years. Thank you. Thanks are also owed to my committee: to Josh Lepawsky for being an inspired and wonderful teacher, for introducing me to the work of Bruno Latour, and for the editing of all and sundry; and to John Sandlos for support, encouragement, and insightful feedback. I must extend a special thank you to John O’Brian for showing me atomic art and for the seminar that started it all. Also to Allie Winton, my confidante in 2011-12, thank you for the well-timed gift of A.Y. Jackson’s Eldorado Sketches, this was a turning point. I would also like to acknowledge the precious financial support provided ' by the Department of Geography at Memorial University of Newfoundland, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the GNWT Education Culture and Employment program, and the Abandoned Mines Project. This and all other undertakings would be impossible without my parents, Joyce and Stephen, whose love and insights, as well as passion for ideas, life, and art, are at the foundation of everything. Thank you. I must also thank John and Patrice for housing and feeding me along the way; Isaac for unending support; and Mary and Len for being my family on the East Coast. Lastly my greatest thanks are owed to David who has read every draft and who has been my sounding board at all hours and phases of jubilance and despair. My steadfast partner in adventure and creativity: may the next one be even better. ' CONTENTS ABSTRACT........................................................................................................................iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.................................................................................................v LIST OF FIGURES..........................................................................................................viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.............................................................................................ix LIST OF APPENDICES......................................................................................................x PREFACE...........................................................................................................................xi CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................1 1.1 Historical Context...............................................................................................6 1.2 Methods and Methodology...............................................................................14 1.3 Theoretical Position..........................................................................................22 1.4 Thesis Structure................................................................................................28 1.5 Co-authorship Statement..................................................................................31 1.5 Bibliography.....................................................................................................31 CHAPTER 2. THE ART OF SEEING URANIUM: MINING, IMPERIALISM, AND VISION IN ELDORADO..................................................................................................37 2.1 An Interview with Maurice Haycock...............................................................38 2.2 Introduction......................................................................................................41 2.3 Geology and Landscape Painting: A Note on Disciplinary Boundaries..........46 2.4 Painting a Nation: A.Y. Jackson and a Gilded North.......................................52 2.5 Bibliography.....................................................................................................75 CHAPTER 3. MAPPING THE CONTROVERSY: IONIZING RADIATION AND COLONIALISM IN SAHTÚOT'INE-STATE RELATIONS...........................................81 3.1 Workshop Transcript: Morris Neyelle.............................................................83 3.2 Introduction......................................................................................................85 3.3 The Intergovernmental Committee on Environmental Contaminants.............94 3.4 Time, Knowledge, and Bureaucracy: Délı̨nę is in the House........................102 3.5 The Canada-Deline Uranium Table...............................................................111 3.6 Bibliography...................................................................................................124 THESIS CONCLUSIONS...............................................................................................128 Bibliography.........................................................................................................134 ' LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Map locating Délı̨nę (Northwest Territories, Canada)......................................xii Figure 2. Photograph of the shoreline of Délı̨nę, NWT...................................................xiii Figure 3. Map locating Délı̨nę and Port Radium (Northwest Territories, Canada)........xvii Figure 4. Photograph