Abstract

This thesis explores the contribution of the regional Indian, Metis and Inuit newspapers to the development of an alternative political public sphere for Aboriginal peoples in Canada. It argues that although the development of the newspapers was an important aspect of the political and cultural development, these newspapers were, to use Habermas' terminology, "feudalized" by the political organizations that created them, the Canadian state that funded them and the marketplace that determines their fate today. Using Jurgen Habermas' concept of the public sphere, this thesis considers the contribution that these publications made to the process of public opinion at the regional and national levels in Canada. It concludes that the regional newspapers did contribute to the national Aboriginal public sphere, but that state policies and financial exigencies limited their contribution and prevented them from realizing their full potential in the lives of Aboriginal Canadians.