“Ears wide open”: Territorial development and relations between the Innu and non-Innu on the site of the Romaine River hydroelectric project
This paper examines the relationship between the Innu and non-Innu peoples in the context of the Romaine River hydroelectric project in Quebec’s Côte-Nord region. It is interested in the dialectical relationship between territorial development and intercultural relations. With a focus on Nitassinan, the ancestral territory of the Innu, and the regional county municipality (RCM) Minganie, this project bears witness to the multi-ethnic territorial and cultural reality shaping regional and northern governance. Using a qualitative approach that involved in-depth interviews held with regional players as well as Innu and non-Innu workers, this exploratory research demonstrates that the Romaine River construction site, as a place of encounter, has not yet proven to be particularly fruitful in enhancing the relationships between these participants. While there has been some rapprochement between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous decision-makers, the intercultural links between the workers at the construction site are still tenuous. Nevertheless, our results suggest that these institutional and everyday inter-ethnic relations are inescapable components of the territorial development of northern Quebec.