Canada Research Chair in Aboriginal Studies

Dr. David Natcher

The conflict between aboriginal rights and industrial resource development remains at the forefront of national attention in Canada and serves as a point of ongoing political interpretation and debate. This issue is particularly poignant in Newfoundland and Labrador where the exploitation of natural resources - fisheries, minerals, forestry, and oil/gas - remains integral to the socio-economic viability of the provincial economy.

Dr. David Natcher, Memorial University's new Canada Research Chair in Aboriginal Studies will explore alternative models of community development that take into account not only the region's commercial development versus the subsistence needs of its aboriginal peoples, but also other human factors such as aboriginal health, nutritional status, educational achievement, access to desired resources, and aboriginal rights.

His work will involve policy analysis as well as ethnographic and community-based research and his research findings will be used to inform public policy, and promote efficiency in the use of public resources. He hopes that the research will lead to an improvement of the socio-economic and cultural development of aboriginal peoples in Newfoundland and Labrador and that his findings will help the province and the region manage its vast natural resources in an ethically sound and environmentally sustainable fashion without compromising the interests and fundamental rights of aboriginal peoples.