Reflections on the Illusory and Forgetful Geographies of Settler Colonialism

Nunn, Neil

doi:10.1177/194277861500800306

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…Two understandings are central to Native feminist theories: (1) the United States, Canada, Australia, and other countries are settler colonial nation states responsible for current and historical practices of land and resource dispossession, and (2) settler colonial logics are grounded in, and driven by, heteropatriarchy which permit ongoing racialized, gendered, and sexualized processes (Arvin et al, 2013; Barker, 2017; Morgensen, 2011). Primarily concerned with the “motive of elimination” and the dissolution of Native societies (Nunn, 2015; Wolfe, 2006), settler colonialism is defined as a “persistent social and political formation in which newcomers/colonizers/settlers come to a place, claim it as their own, and do whatever it takes to disappear the Indigenous peoples that are there” (Arvin et al, 2013: 12).…”

Section: Gendering and Indigenizing Necropoliticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Oil extraction and Indigenous women: Examining the necropolitics of the settler state in the Bakken region

Chase

Johnson

2023

Human Geography

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Emerging research shows that the health and well-being of Indigenous women is increasingly jeopardized in areas close to oil extraction due to heightened violence and criminal behavior. Our empirical findings reveal how the oil industry has impacted one Indigenous reservation located in the Bakken region—an area experiencing a major “boom” in shale extraction activities. We find that sexual assault and violence against Indigenous women has increased due to three settler tactics: (1) gendered economic inequalities and tribal divisiveness entrenched by structural poverty and uneven oil-derived wealth distribution, (2) industrialized “man-camps” and “risky” behaviors associated with transient oil workers, and (3) confusing jurisdictional spatialities structured by overlapping tribal authority and federal law. Employing a Native feminist reading of Mbembé's necropolitics, we argue that the above tactics coalesce to form a spatial formation where Indigenous women are made vulnerable to death through the necropower of the settler state, and tribal governments are not able to criminally prosecute non-Native individuals involved in violent crimes on tribal lands. Multi-scalar pathways forward include support for Indigenous-led activism that enhances public awareness and efforts that protect the livelihoods and futures of all Indigenous peoples. The restoration of tribal sovereignty is also supported with the understanding that, unfortunately, this form of sovereignty continues to be highly circumscribed by the settler state.

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Section: Gendering and Indigenizing Necropoliticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Oil extraction and Indigenous women: Examining the necropolitics of the settler state in the Bakken region

Chase

Johnson

2023

Human Geography

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“…In her apology, she includes a seemingly gratuitous nod to Canada's history of colonialism; however, unsurprisingly she never mentions that this violent legacy continues to unfold at the very moment her apology is delivered. Scholars have pointed out that settler colonial structures rely upon a masking of the very harms that colonial governments purport to ameliorate (Belcourt 2018;Coulthard 2014;de Leeuw et al 2013;Gahman 2016;Nunn 2015). As Bennett's apology demonstrates, the maintenance of settler colonial hegemony relies on compartmentalising various toxic encounters and framing these incidents as distinct and unrelated.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Scholars have pointed out that settler colonial structures rely upon a masking of the very harms that colonial governments purport to ameliorate (Belcourt ; Coulthard ; de Leeuw et al. ; Gahman ; Nunn ). As Bennett's apology demonstrates, the maintenance of settler colonial hegemony relies on compartmentalising various toxic encounters and framing these incidents as distinct and unrelated.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toxic Encounters, Settler Logics of Elimination, and the Future of a Continent

Nunn

2018

Antipode

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This paper engages the relationship between toxic geographies and settler colonialism. By bringing to light larger structures and histories that underpin the settler colonial project, I examine a series of toxic encounters and consider the racialised hegemonic narratives that enable the production toxicity. Among these is a methylmercury contamination in Northern Ontario, just upstream from Grassy Narrows First Nation, and a cluster of toxic conversations that bled through social media in the wake of the murder of Colten Boushie, a 22‐year‐old Cree man in Saskatchewan, Canada. I argue that examining the normative ideologies, settler narratives, and socio‐political structures that are involved in the production of toxicity provides valuable insight into the diffuse and relational colonial logics that define the lives that are privileged as the standard, and those that fall outside the regulatory category of the Human, and as a result, are subject to elimination.

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“…As a general rule, an analytic of settler-colonialism aligns with materialist scholarship to propose that the economy and the material conditions of a society strongly influences the direction of the beliefs, attitudes and discourses adopted, and not the other way around. With land as the fundamental material underpinning for settler-colonialism, settler-colonial discourses have the function of justifying and strengthening claims to land; examples include settler traditions of space (Seawright, 2014), societal ignorance and forgetfulness about colonial occupation (Nunn, 2015;Schaefli & Godlewska, 2014) and various other colonial myths (Austin, 2010;McLean, 2018;Morissonneau, 1978). I make use of materialist insights that settler-colonialism provides while not limiting myself to that framework.…”

Section: Research Questions and Analyticmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is the Water leaving? World-Making in the Settler-Colonial Context at Lake Abitibi, Québec, Unceded Abitibiwinni Aki (Anicinape Territory)

Bazinet¹

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By centring lake Abitibi (Abitibi Sakaikan) as a constant referent and by mobilizing what I call "water teachings," this thesis engages water as co-thinker in an effort to tell diverse versions of the lake in the context of settler-colonial occupation. I argue that telling diverse, including Indigenous, versions of the lake is critical to nurturing possibilities for other futures in which the lake -and the people -might live well. I demonstrate how settler-colonialism has reduced Abitibiwinnik access to and capacity for practicing world-making, that is, for sustaining their specific version of the Abitibi lake. This alienation has led to a generalized inability to recognize and respect Abitiwinnik ways of reclaiming and maintaining a connection with the lake. Settlercolonial world-making in relation to the lake, while diverse in its iterations and variable in its proximity to Indigenous versions, has consistently downplayed co-constitution of the lake by more-than-human forces; on the other hand, this aspect is often foregrounded in Indigenous understandings and practices.In interviews conducted with both local Indigenous and non-Indigenous participants who maintain relationships with the lake, I centre water as main referent and prism for my ethnography. Part I introduces my key question, methods, and theoretical concepts for thinking with water. Part II focuses on the assumptions concerning abandonment of important sacred sites, and proposes the concept of "fluid reclamation" for understanding how Abitiwinnik remain connected to the lake.The theory and method of thinking with water allows me to contest the perception, based on the area's unfenced and unkept appearance, that the National Historic Site of the Abitibi lake (Matcite8ia or Apitipik) is abandoned, based on its unfenced and unkept appearance. I propose that the site is being reclaimed in non-dominant ways by the Abitibiwinnik. My consideration of To my friend Johnny Wylde, and your family, Emilie Wylde, Joan Wylde. For your trust, for your courage. I did not meet Sindy Ruperthouse. But I know you are all asking for us all to not forget about her. I take this line to remind everyone that the inquiry has stopped and that the family is not given any news on the disappearance of Sindy Ruperthouse, since 2014. I wish your family justice and peace. Thank you, Johnny, for being such a pillar to so many people around you. Thank you for getting me "out of my head", as you like to say. Thank you for teasing me, as you know it works... To Frances Mowatt, for all the ways you show love around you, including for your language, Anicinapemowin. Kitci Mikwetc for taking the time to discuss together on all of these topics, but also on life. To Sophie, Louka and Sheldon, I am very grateful that we are part of each other's life now. To Dahlia Mcdougall, my fierce little neighbor. To Lorianne Trapper, for all the lightness and laughter you share around you, friend.To my love David Kistabish, laughing and being silly with you is one of life's sweetest gift. You have suppo...

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Reflections on the Illusory and Forgetful Geographies of Settler Colonialism

Cited by 4 publications

References 5 publications

Oil extraction and Indigenous women: Examining the necropolitics of the settler state in the Bakken region

Oil extraction and Indigenous women: Examining the necropolitics of the settler state in the Bakken region

Toxic Encounters, Settler Logics of Elimination, and the Future of a Continent

Is the Water leaving? World-Making in the Settler-Colonial Context at Lake Abitibi, Québec, Unceded Abitibiwinni Aki (Anicinape Territory)

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