Mine remediation entails long-term risks associated with the containment and monitoring of dangerous materials. To date, research on mine remediation in Canada has focused primarily on technical fixes; little is known about the socio-political and colonial aspects of remediation. Using the Giant Mine in Yellowknife (Northwest Territories, Canada) as a case study, this research investigates the story of the Giant Mine ‘Monster’, how it was defined, how it has changed and how nearby communities will care for the mine in the future. Using a mixed-methods approach, this research combines literature reviews, archival analysis, key informant interviews and participant observation in analyzing the multiple experiences, practices and stories of the Giant Mine Remediation Project. Directed by the frameworks of ecological restoration, Indigenous environmental justice and science and technology studies theories of care, this research reveals that, by focusing on the technical containment of arsenic trioxide pollution, the Giant Mine Remediation Project sidelined community objectives for compensation, independent oversight and a perpetual care plan. However, through the ongoing activism of the Yellowknives Dene First Nations and community allies, the Giant Mine Monster is being creatively reframed as something to care for and live with for generations to come – a responsibility for mining wastes that settlers across Canada have yet to meaningfully reckon with. I argue that the Giant Mine case points to a critical reconceptualization of environmental remediation as an anti-colonial mechanism to (re)structure, or (re)mediate, relationships with both land and people. Without a community objectives based approach to remediation, such projects risk continuing systems of colonization, marginalization and environmental injustice.
Alternatives North and YKDFN (2011) From despair to wisdom: Perpetual care and the future of the Giant Mine. A Report on a Community Workshop, Dettah, Northwest Territories.
2.
BakerJMWestmanCN (2018)
Extracting knowledge: Social science, environmental impact assessment, and Indigenous consultation in the oil sands of Alberta,Canada. The Extractive Industries and Society5(1): 144–153.
3.
BavingtonD (2011) Managed Annihilation: An Unnatural History of the Newfoundland Cod Collapse.
Vancouver:
UBC Press.
4.
BeckettCKeelingA (2019)
Rethinking remediation: Mine reclamation, environmental justice, and relations of care. Local Environment24(3): 216–230.
5.
BenoitF (2015) Guardians of Eternity.
Canada:
Sheba Films.
6.
BirdG (2016)
The influence of the scale of mining activity and mine site remediation on the contamination legacy of historical metal mining activity.Environmental Science and Pollution Research23(23): 23456–23466.
7.
BlackJ (2016) Interview with author.
Yellowknife,
Northwest Territories.
8.
BorrowsJTullyJ (2018) Introduction. In: Resurgence and Reconciliation: Indigenous-Settler Relations and Earth Teachings. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
9.
BowkerLChambersD (2017)
In the dark shadow of the supercycle tailings failure risk & public liability reach all time highs. Environments4(4): 75.
BrownT (2016) Interview with author.
Yellowknife,
Northwest Territories.
12.
Carlson E (2017) Anti-colonial methodologies and practices for settler colonial studies. Settler Colonial Studies 7(4): 496–517.
13.
CarrollC (2015) Sovereign landscapes: Spiritual, material and political relationships to land. In: Roots of Our Renewal: Ethnobotany and Cherokee Environmental Governance. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp.171–182.
14.
CBC News (2016) No consensus yet on the use of Giant Mine lands after cleanup. CBC North, 18 February. Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.
15.
CheckerM (2007) ‘
But I know it’s true’: Environmental risk assessment, justice, and anthropology. Human Organization66(2): 112–124.
16.
CoombesBJohnsonJTHowittR (2012)
Indigenous geographies I: Mere resource conflicts? The complexities in Indigenous land and environmental claims. Progress in Human Geography36(6): 810–821.
17.
CoulthardG (2014) Red Skin White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition.
Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press.
18.
DaigleM (2016)
Awawanenitakik : The spatial politics of recognition and relational geographies of Indigenous self-determination. Canadian Geographer60(2): 259–269.
19.
DaigleMRamírezMM (2019) Decolonial geographies. In: Keywords in Radical Geography: Antipode at 50. New York: Wiley, pp.78–84.
20.
DaviesT (2018)
Toxic space and time: Slow violence, necropolitics, and petrochemical pollution. Annals of the American Association of Geographers108(6): 1537–1553.
21.
DavisH (2015)
Toxic progeny: The plastisphere and other queer futures. Philosophia5(2): 231–250.
22.
Degray A (2020) Indigenous risk perceptions and land-use in Yellowknife, NT. Masters Thesis. Memorial University, Newfoundland, Canada.
23.
de la BellacasaMP (2011)
Matters of care in technoscience. Social Studies of Science41(1): 85–106.
24.
de la BellacasaMP (2017) Introduction: The disruptive thought of care. In: Matters of Care: Speculative Ethics in More than Human Worlds. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp.13–20.
25.
de la CadenaM (2014)
Runa: Human but not only. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory4(2): 253–259.
DhillonJ (2018)
Introduction: Indigenous resurgence, decolonization, and movements for environmental justice. Environment and Society9(1): 1–5.
31.
DillonL (2014)
Race, waste, and space: Brownfield redevelopment and environmental justice at the hunters point shipyard. Antipode46(5): 1205–1221.
32.
DokisCA (2015) Where the Rivers Meet: Pipeline, Participatory Resource Management, and Aboriginal-State Relations in the Northwest Territories.
Vancouver:
UBC Press.
33.
EriksonK (1994) A New Species of Trouble: Explorations in Disaster, Trauma and Community.
New York:
W.W. Norton and Company.
34.
Flores P and Ureta S (2018) Don’t wake up the dragon! Monstrous geontologies in a mining waste impoundment. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 36(6): 1063–1080.
35.
FreemanR (2016) Interview with author.
Yellowknife,
Northwest Territories.
GavelMJPattersonRTNasserNA, et al. (2018)
What killed Frame Lake? A precautionary tale for urban planners. PeerJ6: e4850.
38.
GeoNorth Limited (2002) Developing options and recommendations to establish and operate a Giant Mine Community Liaison Committee. Final report, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.
Gray-CosgroveCLiboironMLepawskyJ (2015) The challenges of temporality to depollution and remediation. S.A.P.I.E.N.S 8(1): 1–10.
41.
GregsonNCrangM (2010)
Materiality and waste: Inorganic vitality in a networked world. Environment and Planning A42(5): 1026–1032.
42.
HallM (2005) Earth Repair: A Transatlantic History of Environmental Restoration.
Charlottesville:
University of Virginia Press.
43.
HiggsEFalkDAGuerriniA, et al. (2014)
The changing role of history in restoration ecology. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment12(9): 499–506.
44.
HooverE (2017) Introduction: Environmental justice, political ecology and the three bodies of a Mohawk Community.
Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, pp.1–28.
45.
HorowitzLS (2010) ‘
Twenty years is yesterday’: Science, multinational mining, and the political ecology of trust in New Caledonia. Geoforum41(4): 617–626.
46.
HoubenAJD’OnofrioRKokeljSV, et al. (2016)
Factors affecting elevated arsenic and methyl mercury concentrations in small shield lakes surrounding gold mines near the Yellowknife, NT, (Canada) region. PLoS ONE11(4): 1–16.
47.
HourdequinMHavlickDG (2015) Restoring Layered Landscapes: History, Ecology, and Culture.
Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
48.
HoustonLJacksonSJ (2016) Caring for the ‘next billion’ mobile handsets. In: Proceedings of the eighth international conferenceon information and communication technologies and development - ICTD ’16, Ann Arbor, MI, USA, June 2016, pp.1–11. New York: ACM.
49.
HyeckM (2016) Interview with author.
Yellowknife,
Northwest Territories.
50.
Indian and Northern Affairs Canada and Government of the Northwest Territories (2010) Giant Mine Remediation Project: Developer’s Assessment Report, October.
51.
JamiesonHE (2014)
The legacy of arsenic contamination from mining and processing refractory gold ore at Giant Mine, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories,Canada. Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry79(1): 533–551.
52.
JanesE (2016) Interview with author.
Yellowknife,
Northwest Territories.
53.
JolyT (2017) Making productive land: Utility, encounter, and oil sands reclamation in northeastern Alberta, Canada. PhD Thesis, University of Aberdeen, UK.
KeelingASandlosJ (2017) Ghost Towns and Zombie Mines: The historical dimensions of mine abandonment, reclamation, and redevelopment in the Canadian North. In: Bocking S and Martin B (eds) Ice Blink: Navigating Northern Environmental History. Calgary: University of Calgary Press, pp.377–420.
56.
Keeling A and Sandlos J (2018) Introduction: The complex legacy of mining in Northern Canada. In: Mining and Communities in Northern Canada, Calgary: University of Calgary Press, pp. 1–32.
57.
KefalasD (2016) Interview with author.
Yellowknife,
Northwest Territories.
58.
KemptonHBloomfieldTAHansonJL, et al. (2010)
Policy guidance for identifying and effectively managing perpetual environmental impacts from new hardrock mines. Environmental Science and Policy13(6): 558–566.
59.
KnowlesSG (2014)
Learning from disaster?: The history of technology and the future of disaster research. Technology and Culture55(4): 773–784.
60.
KossoffDDubbinWEAlfredssonM, et al. (2014)
Mine tailings dams: Characteristics, failure, environmental impacts, and remediation. Applied Geochemistry51: 229–245.
61.
KruparS (2013) Hot Spotters Report: Military Fables of Toxic Waste.
Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press.
62.
LaDukeW (2005) Recovering the Sacred: The Power of Naming and Claiming.
Cambridge:
South End Press.
63.
LarsenSCJohnsonJT (2017) Sacred ground. In: Being Together in Place: Indigenous Coexistence in a More than Human World. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp.51–74.
LiboironMTironiMCalvilloN (2018)
Toxic politics: Acting in a permanently polluted world.Social Studies of Science48(3): 331–349.
69.
LinesW (2016) Interview with author.
Yellowknife,
Northwest Territories.
70.
LivingstoneD (2016) Interview with author.
Yellowknife,
Northwest Territories.
71.
LottermoserBG (2010) Mine Wastes: Characterization, Treatment and Environmental Impacts.
New York:
Springer.
72.
Lutra Associates Ltd. (2002) Awareness testing: Findings from the Focus Groups on Giant Mine and the Arsenic Trioxide. Final Report, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.
73.
MartinAMyersNViseuA (2015)
The politics of care in technoscience.Social Studies of Science45(5): 625–641.
74.
McGregorD (2018)
Mino-Mnaamodzawin: Achieving indigenous environmental justice in Canada. Environment and Society9(1): 7–24.
75.
MenardENasserNAPattersonRT, et al. (2019)
Sub-bottom acoustic profiling as a remediation assessment tool for contaminated lakes. SN Applied Sciences1(6). DOI: 10.1007/s42452-019-0588-z.
76.
MurphyM (2015)
Unsettling care: Troubling transnational itineraries of care in feminist health practices.Social Studies of Science45(5): 717–737.
77.
MurphyM (2017)
Alterlife and decolonial chemical relations. Cultural Anthropology32(4): 494–503.
OppenheimerMOreskesNJamiesonD, et al. (2019) Discerning Experts: The Practices of Scientific Assessment for Environmental Policy.
Chicago and London:
University of Chicago Press.
87.
O’ReillyK (2015) Liability, legacy, and perpetual care: Government ownership and management of the Giant Mine, 1999–2015. In: Keeling A and Sandlos J (eds) Mining and Communities in Northern Canada: History, Politics, and Memory. Calgary: University of Calgary Press, pp.341–376.
88.
O’ReillyK (2016) Interview with author.
Yellowknife,
Northwest Territories.
89.
OttingerG (2013) Refining Expertise: How Responsible Engineers Subvert Environmental Justice Challenges.
New York:
New York University Press.
90.
PalmerMJGallowayJMJamiesonHE, et al. (2015)
The concentration of arsenic in lake waters of the Yellowknife area. NWT Open File2015-06: 29.
91.
ParadisA (2016) Interview with author.
Yellowknife,
Northwest Territories.
92.
PetticrewELAlbersSJBaldwinSA, et al. (2015)
The impact of a catastrophic mine tailings impoundment spill into one of North America’s largest fjord lakes: Quesnel Lake, British Columbia, Canada. Geophysical Research Letters42(9): 3347–3355.
93.
PlatoN (2016) Interview with author.
Yellowknife,
Northwest Territories.
94.
RenoJ (2015)
Waste and waste management. Annual Review of Anthropology44(1): 557–572.
95.
SandlosJKeelingA (2016)
Toxic legacies, slow violence, and environmental injustice at Giant Mine, Northwest Territories. Northern Review0(42): 7–21.
96.
SandlosJKeelingA (2017) The Giant Mine’s long shadow: Arsenic pollution and native people in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. In: Mcneill JR and Vrtis G (eds) Mining North America: An Environmental History since 1522. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp.280–310.
97.
SangrisF (2016) Interview with author.
Yellowknife,
Northwest Territories.
98.
SchoenbergerE (2016)
Environmentally sustainable mining: The case of tailings storage facilities. Resources Policy49: 119–128.
99.
SimpsonLB (2017) As We Have Always Done.
Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press.
100.
SlackT (2016) Interview with author.
Yellowknife,
Northwest Territories.
101.
SlaterB (2016) Interview with author.
Yellowknife,
Northwest Territories.
StarblanketGStarkHK (2018) Towards a relational paradigm-Four points for consideration: Knowledge, gender, land, and modernity. In: Asch M, Borrows J and Tully J (eds) Resurgence and Reconciliation: Indigenous-Settler Relations and Earth Teachings. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp.175–207.
ThienpontJRKorosiJBHarganKE, et al. (2016)
Multi-trophic level response to extreme metal contamination from gold mining in a subarctic lake. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences283: 20161125.
108.
TironiMRodríguez-GiraltI (2017)
Healing, knowing, enduring: Care and politics in damaged worlds. Sociological Review65(2_suppl): 89–109.
109.
ToddZ (2017)
Fish, kin and hope: Tending to water violations in amiskwaciwâskahikan and treaty six territory. Afterall43: 102–107.
110.
TsosieR (2015)
Indigenous peoples and the ethics of remediation: Redressing the legacy of radioactive contamination for native peoples and native lands. Santa Clara Journal of International Law13(1): 203–272.
111.
TuckE (2009)
Suspending damage: A letter to communities. Harvard Educational Review79(3): 409–428.
112.
TuckEMcKenzieM (2015) Place in Research: Theory, Methodology and Methods.
New York:
Routledge.
113.
UretaS (2014)
Normalizing Transantiago: On the challenges (and limits) of repairing infrastructures.Social Studies of Science44(3): 368–392.
114.
UretaS (2016)
Caring for waste: Handling tailings in a Chilean copper mine. Environment and Planning A48(8): 1532–1548.
115.
VoylesTB (2015) Wastelanding: Legacies of Uranium Mining in Navajo Country.
Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press.
116.
Weir J, Woelfle-Erskine C, Fuller S, et al. (2019) Investigating Best Practice: Doctoral Fieldwork Experiences With and Without Indigenous Communities in Settler-colonial Societies. ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies 18(6): 1300–1320.
117.
WellsC (2016) Interview with author.
Yellowknife,
Northwest Territories.
