RESEARCH DESCRIPTION
The Alliances Project aims to understand relationships between Aboriginal peoples and organizations engaged in the fight for Indigenous rights and social and environmental justice. Alliances and coalitions have become more common in the past decades, yet little research has been done to understand these working relationships, particularly what works well and what challenges are faced in forming relationships.
There are three parts to this research:
- Case studies that document specific coalitions and alliances.
- Individual interviews with Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal leaders and activists who have experience in working in coalitions and alliances.
- A conference that brings together Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people involved in grassroots coalitions, students and academics.
These experiences are being analyzed and used to produce grassroots publications, academic articles, and books on alliances and coalitions. It is intended that Aboriginal people and social/environmental justice activists will benefit directly from this research to understand the nature and quality of working relationships.
The Principal Investigator of this research is Lynne Davis, a faculty member at Trent University in the Department of Indigenous Studies. Inquiries related to this research should be addressed to her at lydavis@trentu.ca or at 705- 748-1011 Ext. 7241.
The author acknowledges the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council who have awarded a research grant to cover costs of conducting this study.
