Power from the North ― Territory, Identity, and the Culture of Hydroelectricity in Quebec

In the 1970s, Hydro-Quebec declared in a publicity campaign
"We Are Hydro-Quebecois." The slogan symbolized the extent
to which hydroelectric development in the North had come to both
reflect and fuel French Canada's aspirations in the South. The
slogan helped southerners relate to the province's northern
territory and to accept the exploitation of its resources.

In Power from the North, Caroline Desbiens explores how
this culture of hydroelectricity helped shape the material landscape
during the first phase of the James Bay hydroelectric project. She
analyzes the cultural forces that contributed to the transformation of
the La Grande River into a hydroelectric complex. Policy makers and
Quebecers did not, she argues, view those who built the dams as mere
workers - they saw them as pioneers in a previously uninhabited
landscape now inscribed with the codes of culture and spectacle.

This dynamic book reveals that drawing power from the North involves
not only the cultural erasure of Aboriginal homelands but also
rewriting the region's history in the language of identity and
territoriality. To reverse this trend, Desbiens calls for a truly
sustainable resource management, one in which all actors bring an
awareness of their own cultural histories and visions of nature, North,
and nation to the negotiating table.

Caroline Desbiens is a professor of geography at Laval
University. She holds the Canada Research Chair in Historical Geography
of the North.

Caroline Desbiens is a professor of geography at Laval University. She holds the Canada Research Chair in Historical Geography of the North.