Healing and Decolonization

Abstract

Chapter Five makes a claim for the therapeutic value of Indigenous cinemas by drawing on the body of Indigenous scholarship which conceives of decolonization as healing process. This chapter foregrounds Barry Barclay’s theory of Fourth Cinema which emphasizes the centrality of traditional Indigenous values to Indigenous filmmaking, and asks how such values can be affectively embedded in a film for political and therapeutic effect. Kanakan Balintagos’ film Palawan Fate serves as an intercessor for thinking about cinema’s contribution to social projects for healing and decolonization across the Fourth World, from Canada to the Philippines and beyond.