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2009 Student Paper Competition,
Indigenous Peoples Specialty Group

Student Paper Competition > 2009

Winner: Laurie Richmond, University of Minnesota

Fishscapes and Power: Place-making and Alaska Native resistance in the Pacific halibut fishery on Kodiak Island

Abstract:

Much research exploring the colonial spatial strategies of indigenous control and resistance examine the ways that territory has been expressed and denied over land.  This paper examines on the way these processes have been enacted in the ocean by focusing on the relationship between the Alaska Native village of Old Harbor and the Pacific halibut fishery over time.  I will explore the way that particular postulations of fish in space - fishscapes - have impacted and been initiated by indigenous fishing communities who utilize the resource.  I examine how top down understandings of halibut by fishery scientists who focus on particular scales, who define stocks, and who delineate regulatory areas have come to affect the lives of fishermen in places such as Old Harbor.  In addition, fishery managers, often swayed by financial interests from urban areas, have developed policy strategies that are unfavorable to or inconsiderate of these rural fishing places. Following the privatization of the halibut fishery in 1996, fishing quota left Alaska Native villages at disproportionately high rates, leading to a "checker-boarding" of indigenous fishing access. I will examine the ways Alaska Native communities on Kodiak have acted to resist and create their own understandings of fish in space both outside and within these power centers.  Spatial strategies have included the development and usage of lively local geographies, the delineation of fishing territory though aggressive fishing techniques, involvement in the political fishery process, and the development of community quota entities which buy back fishing access for the village.

General Information:

The Student Paper Award is given for a meritorious student paper which addresses geographic research, education, mapping, theory and/or applications by, for and/or about indigenous people(s).

Criteria: The award is based on evaluation of a written manuscript by the IPSG Chair and Board. Papers will be evaluated based on their overall contribution to new knowledge and understanding in the geographies of indigenous peoples. That contribution may be theoretical, empirical or methodological in nature.

Eligibility: To be eligible for this competition, papers must be presented at the AAG meeting, regional geography meetings or other professional conference, and the student must be the first or sole author of the paper. Student participants do not have to be members of the IPSG to enter the competition. The same individual may receive the award twice in different years for different papers.

Award Committee: The award committee shall consist of the IPSG Chair(s) and the Board of Directors. In the event that there are Co-Chairs, those Co-Chairs shall submit only one evaluation, for a total of four possible paper evaluations from the committee. Members of the award committee must recuse themselves from judging the papers of current or former students, but they may participate in discussions during which final selections are made.

Award. The Student Paper Award shall consist of $150 and a one-year honorary student membership in the IPSG. Whenever possible, the award recipient will also receive recognition in the AAG Newsletter.