Islands of resistance: challenging hegemony from the Johnstone Strait to the Salish Sea

Abstract

This thesis examines how three unique, isolated maritime communities located off the coast of British Columbia, Canada have responded to significant obstacles. Over a century ago, disillusioned Finnish immigrants responded to the lethal conditions of the coal mines they laboured in by creating Sointula, a socialist utopia. The ‘Namgis First Nation in Alert Bay, a group of the Kwakwaka’wakw peoples, have recently developed a land-based fish farm, Kuterra, in response to an ocean-based fish farming industry that threatens the wild salmon they have survived on since time immemorial. Lasqueti Island residents have responded to exclusion from access to traditional power sources by implementing self-generating, renewable energy into their off-grid community. Through contemporary and historic analysis, a common theme emerges that explains what unites these three disparate cultural communities in response to impediments faced: “Your neighbours are your insurance.”