Everyday Exposure
Indigenous Mobilization and Environmental Justice in Canada’s Chemical Valley
Format:Paperback
Publisher:University of British Columbia Press
Published:1st Apr '17
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
In chronicling a First Nation’s fight for health and environmental justice, this book makes a compelling case for how policy making needs to be transformed to incorporate the concerns of Indigenous communities.
Everyday Exposure documents the adverse health effects experienced by Aamjiwnaang citizens in the heart of Canada’s Chemical Valley and argues for a transformative and experiential “sensing policy” approach that takes the voices and experiences of Indigenous citizens seriously.
Near the Ontario-Michigan border, Canada’s densest concentration of chemical manufacturing surrounds the Aamjiwnaang First Nation. Living in the polluted heart of Chemical Valley, Indigenous community members express concern about a declining rate of male births in addition to abnormal incidences of miscarriage, asthma, cancer, and cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses.
As this book reveals, Canada’s dark legacy of inflicting harm on Indigenous bodies persists through a system that fails to adequately address health and ecological suffering in First Nations’ communities like Aamjiwnaang.
Everyday Exposure uncovers the systemic injustices faced on a daily basis in Aamjiwnaang. Exploring the problems that Canada’s conflicting levels of jurisdiction pose for the creation of environmental justice policy, analyzing clashes between Indigenous and scientific knowledge, and documenting the experiences of Aamjiwnaang residents as they navigate their toxic environment, this book argues that social and political changes require an experiential and transformative “sensing policy” approach, one that takes the voices of Indigenous citizens seriously.
Everyday Exposure provides a thorough analysis of the lack of health and environmental protections for First Nations peoples at all levels of government and identifies the need for government regulation to redress what have become complex reporting practices, a better understanding of cumulative environmental effects, and improved health services being administered by Health Canada. -- Nadine Hoffman, Natural Resources, Bennett Jones Library, University of Calgary * Canadian Law Library Review (volume 43 No. 3) *
Based on extensive time spent in the community learning directly from Aamjiwnaang’s citizens and experiencing the community’s pollution crisis in an embodied and empathetic way, this book is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the legacies of environmental racism in Canada today. -- Warren Cariou is an associate professor of English at the University of Manitoba * Canadian Literature Volume 235, Concepts of Vancouver Special Issue *
- Winner of Charles Taylor Book Award 2017 (United States)
ISBN: 9780774832649
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 420g
280 pages