ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I place the contemporary struggle over Indigenous fishing rights within historical contexts of contact and conflict in Australia, New Zealand and the United States. In doing so, I emphasize the deep-seated cultural, spiritual and economic importance of fishing to the Indigenous populations in these three countries and trace how these longstanding interests ultimately clash with the more exclusively monetary concerns of the colonial governments and private stakeholders. This background discussion sets the stage for the chapters that follow by delving into the historical processes of colonization in the three countries and by demonstrating how control over Indigenous lands and natural resources is inherently connected to the subjugation of Indigenous peoples. This chapter also provides a summary of the current state of Indigenous fishing in the three countries, including a brief discussion of the political context of the contemporary conflict and the key characteristics of Indigenous mobilization across the three cases.
