Abstract

New self-government arrangements are said by government officials to call into question the traditionally colonialist state-aboriginal relationship. Is it the case? Available theories on the matter suggest that existing structures protect the primacy of the white majority's interests over aboriginal peoples' and impede such a change. But is this reading really reflecting reality? The task I am assigning myself is to unpack received conceptions of state-aboriginal relations by analyzing the content of the General agreement in principle between the Canadian, the Quebec government and a number of Innu First Nations. By doing so, I shall provide a description of the diverse dimensions the relationship between the Québec government and the signatory First Nations which that can be expected to emerge. Can this treaty mark the beginning of a more egalitarian relationship or can it only be characterized by the reproduction of a colonizer-colonised rapport? Providing new material for discussing the rapport between states and aboriginal peoples on the ground of empirical analysis has become increasingly pertinent. This is the case because the domain of aboriginal studies, within the discipline of political science at least, is dominated by a tendency to examine this topic from exclusively theoretical angles. I argue that single case analysis permits to understand singular trajectories in a manner that can help to apprehend other cases. In so-doing I hope to contribute enriching the literature on aboriginal-state relations by highlighting the relevant nuances the analysis of the Innu-Québec government interface sheds light upon