Diamond J enness and 'useful anthropology' in Canada 1930-1950 Diamond Jenness ( 1886-1969) was a New Zealand Anthro- pologist who conducted research in Canada among Indians and Inuit. Towards the end of his career he devoted himself to research with policy implications . Tite Anthropology De- partment at Victoria University ofWeUington is named after Jenness. BARNETf RICHLING In June 1969 a revolution began in Canadian Aboriginal affairs. The recently-elected Liberals under P.E. Ttudeau set things in motion by releasing a statement on federal Indian policy, the aptly-named White Paper'. They proposed an all- new course for relations with Indians, a course consistent with the high ideals of the Prime Minister's Just Society and aimed at righting the cumulative wrongs of the past. Declar- ing that equality alone was the solution to the nation's 'Indian Problem', the Government proposed makin g Indians ordi- nary citizens by doing away with the complex legal and administrative apparatus that underlay their historic ward- From left: Grace Jenness , New Zealand-bom anthropologist Diamond Jenness , May BaUantyne holding baby AUan. and Andrew BaUantyne on Goodenough Island, Canada, 1911 . [BaUantyne Family] ship status, and contributed to their sub-standard living conditions, economic marginality, low educational achieve- ment, and welfare dependency. Indians did not herald the White Paper as a blueprint for liberation. Instead, they condemned it as the old national policy of assimilation wrapped in a thin cloak of egalitarian rhetoric. They argued that the policy repudiated the special Aboriginal and treaty rights of Canada's First Nations, rights they believed essential to social and cultural survival and to their proper status as 'citizens plus'.' Far from a cure-all for a persistent social problem, the White Paper actually ener- gized widespread protest among Aboriginal peoples, spawn- ing a new era of ethnopolitics aimed at the constitutional entrenchment of Aboriginal rights. Government withdrawal ofits policy was an early victory, but the revolution continues. STOUT CENTRE REVIEW 5