Rogue Diamonds

Ellen Bielawski, Vancouver: Douglas and McIntyre, 2003, 256 pages.Reviewer: Sally Cole Concordia UniversityEllen Bielawski builds on early classic experiments in reflexive anthropological writing on Canadian north in Rogue Diamonds, a critical and personal account of her years working as anthropologist, researcher and treaty negotiator with Akaitcho Treaty 8 of Lutselk'e. Following on Hugh Brody's one-man tradition of writing political landscape of Canadian north in The People's Land (1975) and Maps and Dreams (1981), on Jean Briggs' writing of emotional landscapes of northern family and community life in Never in Anger (1970) and Frederica de Laguna's personal response northern land itself in Voyage Greenland (1977), Bielawski crafts a reflexive ethnography around meeting of miners, bureaucrats, Dene, and non-Native consultants during events surrounding development of Canada's first diamond mine. She compresses a narrative of greed and spirituality, of bad faith and good faith--the Janus face of human condition--into time line of sixty-day countdown from August 6, 1996, when Indian Affairs Minister Ron Irwin gave conditional approval Ekati diamond mine. The approval was subject significant progress in reaching agreements between Broken Hill Proprietary Ltd. of Australia (BHP, mining company), First Nations, Inuit and Northwest Territories government--in 60 days. In book, chapters that closely follow events of those 60 days alternate with essays on history and culture.The of Lutselk'e are no strangers development. The 300 speakers of Sulin yati (called Chipewyan in English) who live on a granite point on east arm of Great Slave Lake 180 kilometres east of Yellowknife worked in fur trade as the migrant workers of their hunting grounds (p. 37) from early 1700s until most recent collapse of fur market in 1990s. For more than a century, have worked as stakers for prospectors large and small [who] have long relied on local labour carry out unskilled parts of mineral exploration business (p. 27). witnessed gold rush in 1930s which led founding of city of Yellowknife itself on land. Oil extraction began shortly after 1930 at Norman Wells on Mackenzie River as did uranium mining at points all along Mackenzie River drainage in which Dene went work moving burlap bags of radioactive ore on and off barges up and down Mackenzie River, along what became known as uranium road (p. 38). By 1990s, Lutselk'e's cancer rate was three times what might be expected for a community of its size. Lead zinc mining followed uranium in 1950s, tungsten in 1970s. In 1991 diamonds were discovered 300 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife under a small lake near Lac de Gras in Coppermine River drainage system. The announcement triggered biggest staking rush world has ever seen--bigger than California and Klondike gold rushes, bigger than rush South Africa for diamonds. Lac de Gras lies on migration route of Bathurst caribou herd, winter food of Akaitcho Dene. knowledge connects Lac de Gras watershed of Desnethche, sacred river of and site of an annual pilgrimage, Spiritual Gathering of Lutselk'e at Old Woman Falls.Rogue Diamonds explores various ways that have responded to all this searching for and selling stuff that didn't move or grow (p. 39). They seek negotiate relationships with each new intrusion while daily fighting with legacies of poverty and disease. They face new challenges of conflicts between youth and elders and between the money faction and those who want more information about long-term impacts before agreeing proposed developments

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