‘Energy Without Injustice’? Indigenous Ownership of Renewable Energy Generation

In this paper we explore and assess trends toward Indigenous ownership of large-scale 'green’ energy projects as a response to the encroachment, displacement and dispossession wrought by the extractivist orientation of contemporary settler capitalism. Taking the case of the Chinodin Chigumi Nodin Kitagan (Bow Lake Wind Farm), an initiative of the Batchewana First Nation in Ontario Canada, the chapter explores the potential of Indigenous ownership of renewable energy resources to promote a wider distribution of economic, social and political power in society. It identifies opportunities to promote environmental stewardship, the fulfillment of duties to future generations and less hierarchical governance compatible with Indigenous legal orders. Fundamentally, however, we identify a tension between, on one side, the project's crafting with careful attention to equity, environmental and energy justice and as an expression of the Anishinaabe community’s inherent jurisdiction and, on the other, measured questions raised within the community about ecological impacts and the risks associated with operating within the parameters of dominant settler-state economic and legal frameworks. Ultimately, it is our contention that real promise exists in transforming energy generation/power relations through Indigenous ownership of renewable energy projects insofar as Indigenous communities initiate and control those projects, govern them and benefit from them collectively, and operate them, without state interference, according to their own legal and political orders