Toxic Legacies, Slow Violence, and Environmental Injustice at Giant Mine, Northwest Territories
For fifty years (1949–99) the now-abandoned Giant Mine in Yellowknife emitted arsenic air and water pollution into the surrounding environment. Arsenic pollution from Giant Mine had particularly acute health impacts on the nearby Yellowknives Dene First Nation (YKDFN), who were reliant on local lake...
Main Authors: | , |
---|---|
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Yukon College
2016
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://research.library.mun.ca/12250/ https://research.library.mun.ca/12250/1/Toxic.Legacies.pdf http://journals.sfu.ca/nr/index.php/nr/article/view/566 |
id |
ftmemorialuniv:oai:research.library.mun.ca:12250 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftmemorialuniv:oai:research.library.mun.ca:12250 2023-10-01T03:58:24+02:00 Toxic Legacies, Slow Violence, and Environmental Injustice at Giant Mine, Northwest Territories Sandlos, John Keeling, Arn 2016 application/pdf https://research.library.mun.ca/12250/ https://research.library.mun.ca/12250/1/Toxic.Legacies.pdf http://journals.sfu.ca/nr/index.php/nr/article/view/566 en eng Yukon College https://research.library.mun.ca/12250/1/Toxic.Legacies.pdf Sandlos, John <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Sandlos=3AJohn=3A=3A.html> and Keeling, Arn <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Keeling=3AArn=3A=3A.html> (2016) Toxic Legacies, Slow Violence, and Environmental Injustice at Giant Mine, Northwest Territories. The Northern Review, 42. pp. 7-21. ISSN 1929-6657 cc_by_nc Article PeerReviewed 2016 ftmemorialuniv 2023-09-03T06:48:40Z For fifty years (1949–99) the now-abandoned Giant Mine in Yellowknife emitted arsenic air and water pollution into the surrounding environment. Arsenic pollution from Giant Mine had particularly acute health impacts on the nearby Yellowknives Dene First Nation (YKDFN), who were reliant on local lakes, rivers, and streams for their drinking water, in addition to frequent use of local berries, garden produce, and medicine plants. Currently, the Canadian government is undertaking a remediation project at Giant Mine to clean up contaminated soils and tailings on the surface and contain 237,000 tonnes of arsenic dust that are stored underground at the Giant Mine. Using documentary sources and statements of Yellowknives Dene members before various public hearings on the arsenic issue, this paper examines the history of arsenic pollution at Giant Mine as a form of “slow violence,” a concept that reconfigures the arsenic issue not simply as a technical problem, but as a historical agent of colonial dispossession that alienated an Indigenous group from their traditional territory. The long-term storage of arsenic at the former mine site means the effects of this slow violence are not merely historical, but extend to the potentially far distant future. Article in Journal/Newspaper Northwest Territories Yellowknife Memorial University of Newfoundland: Research Repository Northwest Territories Yellowknife |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Memorial University of Newfoundland: Research Repository |
op_collection_id |
ftmemorialuniv |
language |
English |
description |
For fifty years (1949–99) the now-abandoned Giant Mine in Yellowknife emitted arsenic air and water pollution into the surrounding environment. Arsenic pollution from Giant Mine had particularly acute health impacts on the nearby Yellowknives Dene First Nation (YKDFN), who were reliant on local lakes, rivers, and streams for their drinking water, in addition to frequent use of local berries, garden produce, and medicine plants. Currently, the Canadian government is undertaking a remediation project at Giant Mine to clean up contaminated soils and tailings on the surface and contain 237,000 tonnes of arsenic dust that are stored underground at the Giant Mine. Using documentary sources and statements of Yellowknives Dene members before various public hearings on the arsenic issue, this paper examines the history of arsenic pollution at Giant Mine as a form of “slow violence,” a concept that reconfigures the arsenic issue not simply as a technical problem, but as a historical agent of colonial dispossession that alienated an Indigenous group from their traditional territory. The long-term storage of arsenic at the former mine site means the effects of this slow violence are not merely historical, but extend to the potentially far distant future. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Sandlos, John Keeling, Arn |
spellingShingle |
Sandlos, John Keeling, Arn Toxic Legacies, Slow Violence, and Environmental Injustice at Giant Mine, Northwest Territories |
author_facet |
Sandlos, John Keeling, Arn |
author_sort |
Sandlos, John |
title |
Toxic Legacies, Slow Violence, and Environmental Injustice at Giant Mine, Northwest Territories |
title_short |
Toxic Legacies, Slow Violence, and Environmental Injustice at Giant Mine, Northwest Territories |
title_full |
Toxic Legacies, Slow Violence, and Environmental Injustice at Giant Mine, Northwest Territories |
title_fullStr |
Toxic Legacies, Slow Violence, and Environmental Injustice at Giant Mine, Northwest Territories |
title_full_unstemmed |
Toxic Legacies, Slow Violence, and Environmental Injustice at Giant Mine, Northwest Territories |
title_sort |
toxic legacies, slow violence, and environmental injustice at giant mine, northwest territories |
publisher |
Yukon College |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
https://research.library.mun.ca/12250/ https://research.library.mun.ca/12250/1/Toxic.Legacies.pdf http://journals.sfu.ca/nr/index.php/nr/article/view/566 |
geographic |
Northwest Territories Yellowknife |
geographic_facet |
Northwest Territories Yellowknife |
genre |
Northwest Territories Yellowknife |
genre_facet |
Northwest Territories Yellowknife |
op_relation |
https://research.library.mun.ca/12250/1/Toxic.Legacies.pdf Sandlos, John <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Sandlos=3AJohn=3A=3A.html> and Keeling, Arn <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Keeling=3AArn=3A=3A.html> (2016) Toxic Legacies, Slow Violence, and Environmental Injustice at Giant Mine, Northwest Territories. The Northern Review, 42. pp. 7-21. ISSN 1929-6657 |
op_rights |
cc_by_nc |
_version_ |
1778531139369041920 |