Unstable Properties: Aboriginal Title and the Claim of British Columbia

A clear-eyed study that dissects the unstable ideologies of settler-Indigenous land and title arrangements in British Columbia.

The question of land dominates political discourse in British Columbia. Unstable Properties upends the usual approach--investigating Aboriginal claims to Crown land--to reframe the issue as attempts by the Crown to solidify claims to Indigenous territory.

First Nations political and intellectual leadership has exposed the fragility of British Columbia's property regimes, insisting that the province grapples with diverse interpretations of sovereignty, governance, territory, and property.

From British Columbia's historical-geographic processes to key events of the twenty-first century, Unstable Properties incisively exposes the unstable ideological foundation of land and title arrangements, employing critical human geography to educate readers about settler colonialism.

Patricia Burke Wood is professor of geography at York University. David A. Rossiter is professor of geography at Western Washington University.