James Bay Crees’ Life Projects and Politics: Histories of Place, Animal Partners and Enduring Relationships

Abstract

In James Bay Cree struggles against transnational hydroelectric and forestry developments Cree leaders: address state institutions; forge access to trans­national forums; build alliances with other Indigenous, environmental and human rights movements; build relationships with international media; and negotiate access world financial centres. James Bay Cree leaders also draw on powerful paradigms for collective agency provided by Cree hunters and hunting leaders. In this case study, Indigenous practices are rooted in life projects that are closely linked to local places but that have wide connections to other places and broad political relevance. Cree hunters' lives and problems are place-based not universalist, they are concerned with communities and lands that are the intimate settings of their everyday lives. These hunters' relationships extend beyond the human world to the worlds of animals and other non-human beings that are part of the multi-­person process of the hunt.