Michael Asch

Last updated
Michael Asch
Born
Michael I. Asch

(1943-04-09) April 9, 1943 (age 81)
New York City, New York, United States
EducationB.A. University of Chicago
Ph.D. Columbia University
OccupationAnthropologist
SpouseMargaret Asch
Parent Moses Asch
Family Sholem Asch (grandfather)

Michael I. Asch (born April 9, 1943) is an anthropologist in Canada. [1] He became Professor Emeritus at the University of Alberta [2] and works as a professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Victoria. [3] Much of his work over the years has focused on issues of Indigenous rights and indigenous-settler relations in Canada. [4] [5] [6] [7]

Contents

Asch received a B.A. in anthropology from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. [8] [1] He has been a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada since 2002 as a part of the Academy of Social Sciences. [9]

He has been a part of several research projects and non-profit initiatives such as Intellectual Property Issues in Cultural Heritage (iPinCH) [8] and Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. [10] Asch is also credited as being one of the founding members the Canadian Anthropology Society/la société canadienne d'anthropologie (CASCA). [11]

Life and family

Asch was born on April 9, 1943, in New York City, New York. [1] He is the son of Moses Asch, the founder of Folkway Records, and the grandson of Sholem Asch, a Polish-Jewish novelist, dramatist, and Yiddish language essayist. [12] Asch was an only child and does not have any siblings. [12] He is married to Margaret Asch. [13]

Career

Academics

Asch received his B.A in anthropology from the University of Chicago and later went on to earn his Ph.D from Columbia University. [1] [8] He joined the University of Alberta in 1971, [1] where he became the anthropology department chair from 1982-1986. [14] He moved to Victoria, British Columbia, in the late 1990s, [15] where he now works as a Professor at the University of Victoria. [3] He received a B.A. in anthropology from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. from Columbia University.

CASCA

Asch, along with 120 other anthropologists, launched the Canadian Ethnology Society/société canadienne d’ethnologie (CESCE) in 1974. which would later become which would later become the Canadian Anthropology Society/la société canadienne d'anthropologie (CASCA). [11] He was honoured as a Founding Fellow at CASCA 2013 at the University of Victoria. [16]

Asch's first fieldwork project was with the Dene at Fort Wrigley in 1969. In the years following his initial fieldwork, Asch would be called upon to give testimony in a number of legal proceedings concerning the Dene of the Makenzie River Valley, as well as working with them in numerous negotiations with the Federal Government throughout the 1980s. [4] After its commission by the Canadian Government in 1974, Asch along with another anthropologist, Scott Rushforth, were called upon as expert witnesses by the Indian Brotherhood of the Northwest Territories to give testimony during the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry. His arguments on the matter included explanations about the importance of country food sources to Indigenous communities as well as disputing claims by Gemini North that the Indigenous food economy was dying. Asch's thought was that it was not appropriate to compare the share of overall food value produced through traditional methods between rural and urban communities, as urban centers would have a larger non-Indigenous population who were unlikely to get their food through methods such as hunting, trapping, or fishing. He further argued that the use of modern technology, such as guns or snowmobiles, by the Indigenous peoples of the region was not a sign of acculturation, as adopting new technology does not mean they are adopting new values. [17]

In 1985 he gave testimony at Dick v. La Reine, a case involving a non-treaty member of the Esk'etemc First Nation, who was charged with killing a deer out of season without a permit. His testimony included statements about the importance of hunting and fishing as Indigenous cultural practices. He also provided further context to the testimonies of the Esk'etemc First Nation members by describing them in terms of their relationship to their cultural framework. [18]

Asch worked as a senior research associate with the Royal Commission on Aboriginals Peoples (RCAP) from 1993-1994. [1]

Non-profit and research initiatives

Asch convinced his father, Moses Asch, to donate the entirety of his Folkways Records collection shortly before his death in 1986. Part of the collection went to the University of Alberta, where Asch was currently serving as the Anthropology Department chair. [19] He served on the board of the FolkwaysAlive initiative, founded in 2004 at the University of Alberta by Professors Regula Qureshi and Michael Frishkopf (with financial support from then VP Research Gary Kachanoski), in partnership with Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, during this time. [20] Asch continues to hold a position as an advisory board member for Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, [10] where he has hosted a number of radio shows and podcasts. [21]

Asch worked with iPinCH, a seven-year research initiative spanning from 2008-2016, based at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. His work on the project included researching historical documents relating to a number of treaties, Treaty 4, Treaty 6, and Treaty 11. [8] He did a presentation on Treaty Relations as a Method of Resolving IP Issues Project at the iPinCH Fall Gathering in 2014. [22]

Awards and recognitions

Works

Books

Podcasts

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indigenous peoples in Canada</span> North American Indigenous peoples within the boundaries of present-day Canada

Indigenous peoples in Canada are the Indigenous peoples within the boundaries of Canada. They comprise the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis, representing roughly 5.0% of the total Canadian population. There are over 600 recognized First Nations governments or bands with distinctive cultures, languages, art, and music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavey</span> First Nation in Western Canada

The Slavey are a First Nations group of Indigenous peoples in Canada. They speak the Slavey language, a part of the Athabaskan languages. Part of the Dene people, their homelands are in the Great Slave Lake region, in Canada's Northwest Territories, northeastern British Columbia, and northwestern Alberta.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kainai Nation</span> First Nation in Alberta, Canada

The Kainai Nation is a First Nations band government in southern Alberta, Canada, with a population of 12,965 members in 2024, up from 11,791 in December 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Métis</span> Mixed Indigenous ethnic group of Canada and the US

The Métis are an Indigenous people whose historical homelands include Canada's three Prairie Provinces extending into parts of Ontario, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and the northwest United States. They have a shared history and culture, deriving from specific mixed European and Indigenous ancestry, which became distinct through ethnogenesis by the mid-18th century, during the early years of the North American fur trade.

First Nations in Alberta are a group of people who live in the Canadian province of Alberta. The First Nations are peoples recognized as Indigenous peoples or Plains Indians in Canada excluding the Inuit and the Métis. According to the 2011 Census, a population of 116,670 Albertans self-identified as First Nations. Specifically there were 96,730 First Nations people with registered Indian Status and 19,945 First Nations people without registered Indian Status. Alberta has the third largest First Nations population among the provinces and territories. From this total population, 47.3% of the population lives on an Indian reserve and the other 52.7% live in urban centres. According to the 2011 Census, the First Nations population in Edmonton totalled at 31,780, which is the second highest for any city in Canada. The First Nations population in Calgary, in reference to the 2011 Census, totalled at 17,040. There are 45 First Nations or "bands" in Alberta, belonging to nine different ethnic groups or "tribes" based on their ancestral languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treaty 6</span> Treaty between the First Nations and Canadian Crown

Treaty 6 is the sixth of the numbered treaties that were signed by the Canadian Crown and various First Nations between 1871 and 1877. It is one of a total of 11 numbered treaties signed between the Canadian Crown and First Nations. Specifically, Treaty 6 is an agreement between the Crown and the Plains and Woods Cree, Assiniboine, and other band governments at Fort Carlton and Fort Pitt. Key figures, representing the Crown, involved in the negotiations were Alexander Morris, Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba and The North-West Territories; James McKay, The Minister of Agriculture for Manitoba; and William J. Christie, a chief factor of the Hudson's Bay Company. Chief Mistawasis and Chief Ahtahkakoop represented the Carlton Cree.

University of Alberta Press is a publishing house and a division of the University of Alberta that engages in academic publishing.

<i>Delgamuukw v British Columbia</i> 1977 Supreme Court of Canada case

Delgamuukw v British Columbia, [1997] 3 SCR 1010, also known as Delgamuukw v The Queen, Delgamuukw-Gisday’wa, or simply Delgamuukw, is a ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada that contains its first comprehensive account of Aboriginal title in Canada. The Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en peoples claimed Aboriginal title and jurisdiction over 58,000 square kilometers in northwest British Columbia. The plaintiffs lost the case at trial, but the Supreme Court of Canada allowed the appeal in part and ordered a new trial because of deficiencies relating to the pleadings and treatment of evidence. In this decision, the Court went on to describe the "nature and scope" of the protection given to Aboriginal title under section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982, defined how a claimant can prove Aboriginal title, and clarified how the justification test from R v Sparrow applies when Aboriginal title is infringed. The decision is also important for its treatment of oral testimony as evidence of historic occupation.

The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) was a Canadian royal commission established in 1991 with the aim of investigating the relationship between Indigenous peoples in Canada, the Government of Canada, and Canadian society as a whole. It was launched in response to status and rights issues brought to light following events such as the Oka Crisis and the failure of the Meech Lake Accord. The commission culminated in a final report of 4,000 pages, published in 1996 and set out a 20-year agenda for implementing recommended changes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Speck</span> American anthropologist (1881–1950)

Frank Gouldsmith Speck was an American anthropologist and professor at the University of Pennsylvania, specializing in the Algonquian and Iroquoian peoples among the Eastern Woodland Native Americans of the United States and First Nations peoples of eastern boreal Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canadian Aboriginal law</span> Canadian law regarding indigenous people

Canadian Aboriginal law is the body of law of Canada that concerns a variety of issues related to Indigenous peoples in Canada. Canadian Aboriginal Law is different from Canadian Indigenous law: In Canada, Indigenous Law refers to the legal traditions, customs, and practices of Indigenous peoples and groups. Aboriginal peoples as a collective noun is a specific term of art used in legal documents, including the Constitution Act, 1982, and includes First Nations, Inuit and Métis people. Canadian Aboriginal law provides certain constitutionally recognized rights to land and traditional practices. Canadian Aboriginal Law enforces and interprets certain treaties between the Crown and Indigenous people, and manages much of their interaction. A major area of Aboriginal law involves the duty to consult and accommodate.

The Intellectual Property Issues in Cultural Heritage (IPinCH) Project is a seven-year international research initiative based at Simon Fraser University, in British Columbia, Canada. IPinCH's work explores the rights, values, and responsibilities of material culture, cultural knowledge, and the practice of heritage research. The project is directed by Dr. George P. Nicholas, co-developed with Julie Hollowell and Kelly Bannister and is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada's (SSHRC) major collaborative research initiatives (MCRI) program.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Folkways Records</span> American record label (1948–1987)

Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987 and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moses Asch</span> American record producer (1905–1986)

Moses Asch was an American recording engineer and record executive. He founded Asch Records, which then changed its name to Folkways Records when the label transitioned from 78 RPM recordings to LP records. Asch ran the Folkways label from 1948 until his death in 1986. Folkways was very influential in bringing folk music into the American cultural mainstream. Some of America's greatest folk songs were originally recorded for Asch, including "This Land Is Your Land" by Woody Guthrie and "Goodnight Irene" by Lead Belly. Asch sold many commercial recordings to Verve Records; after his death, Asch's archive of ethnic recordings was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution, and released as Smithsonian Folkways Records.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zoe Todd</span>

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Making Treaty 7 is an arts collective that stemmed from the Calgary's nomination as one of the Cultural Capitals of Canada in 2012. The collective seeks to draw attention on the creation of Treaty 7 and its continuing effects on Indigenous populations of Alberta, in hopes of dispelling misunderstandings, myths and falsities that originate from a lack of awareness. The collective produces works of art and theatre projects to encourage greater attention to this ongoing dialogue. It has been described by CTV News as "one of the city's – and the country's – most important companies."

Leroy Little Bear is a Blackfoot researcher, professor emeritus at the University of Lethbridge, founding member of Canada's first Native American Studies Department, and recognized leader and advocate for First Nations education, rights, self-governance, language and culture. He has received numerous awards and recognition for his work, including the Officer Order of Canada, and the Alberta Order of Excellence.

Brian Thom is a Canadian anthropologist, former land claims negotiator and Indigenous title, rights and governance advisor.

Sally Weaver (August 24, 1940 in Ontario – May 5, 1993 in Cambridge, Ontario, was a Canadian anthropologist, the first Canadian woman with an anthropology PhD, a former chair of the University of Waterloo Anthropology Department, and an authority on Canadian First Nations.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Michael I. Asch | The Canadian Encyclopedia". www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. Retrieved 2022-11-13.
  2. ↑ "Faculty and Instructors | Department of Anthropology". www.ualberta.ca. Retrieved 2022-11-13.
  3. 1 2 "Other faculty - University of Victoria". UVic.ca. Retrieved 2022-11-13.
  4. 1 2 Asch, Michael (1993). Home and native land : aboriginal rights and the Canadian constitution. UBC Press. OCLC   680765223.
  5. ↑ Asch, Michael (2014). On being here to stay : treaties and Aboriginal rights in Canada. University of Toronto Press. ISBN   978-1-4426-4028-3. OCLC   905527198.
  6. ↑ Asch, Michael. Aboriginal and treaty rights in Canada : essays on law, equity, and respect for difference. ISBN   978-0-7748-5307-1. OCLC   949648199.
  7. ↑ Asch, Michael; Borrows, John; Tully, James (2018). Resurgence and reconciliation: indigenous-settler relations and earth teachings. University of Toronto Press. ISBN   978-1-4875-0433-5. OCLC   1077280863.
  8. 1 2 3 4 "IPinCH PROFILE — Anthropologist Michael Asch". Intellectual Property Issues in Cultural Heritage. Retrieved 2022-11-13.
  9. 1 2 "Member Directory | Page 5 | The Royal Society of Canada". rsc-src.ca. Retrieved 2022-11-13.
  10. 1 2 "Staff and Leadership". Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Retrieved 2022-11-13.
  11. 1 2 "History". www.cas-sca.ca. Retrieved 2022-11-13.
  12. 1 2 Pareles, Jon (1986-10-21). "MOSES ASCH, WHO FOUNDED FOLKWAYS RECORDS, DIES AT 81". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2022-11-14.
  13. ↑ COW - Jul 15 - 2013.pdf (oakbay.ca)
  14. ↑ "Leadership - Ualberta Anthropology History". sites.google.com. Retrieved 2022-11-14.
  15. ↑ Hawthorn, Tom (2010-01-04). "Keeping the music alive". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2022-11-14.
  16. 1 2 "Fellows". www.cas-sca.ca. Retrieved 2022-11-13.
  17. ↑ https://caid.ca/BergerV1ch8.pdf
  18. ↑ Canada, Supreme Court of (2001-01-01). "Supreme Court of Canada - SCC Case Information - Search". scc-csc.lexum.com. Retrieved 2022-11-14.
  19. ↑ "Voices of the World". sites.ualberta.ca. Retrieved 2022-11-14.
  20. ↑ "FolkwaysAlive! appoints new director – curious arts | The Curious Culture In Canada". 2014-11-13. Retrieved 2022-11-14.
  21. ↑ "Sounds to Grow On: A Radio and Podcast Series Hosted by Michael Asch from the CKUA Radio Network". Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Retrieved 2022-11-14.
  22. ↑ "Presentations | Intellectual Property Issues in Cultural Heritage". www.sfu.ca. Retrieved 2022-11-14.
  23. ↑ "Information". www.cas-sca.ca. Retrieved 2022-11-15.
  24. ↑ "Winners for Canada Prizes announced | FHSS". www.federationhss.ca. Retrieved 2022-11-15.
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