University of Victoria

Indigenous and Settler: Identities and Relationships in Research II

Indigenous and Settler peoples in what is now North America have long interacted across porous and rigid boundaries, in conflict and cooperation, and these historic and present-day dynamics play a critical role in shaping collective identities. These "mutually constituted" identities, and the varied relationships that inform and are informed by them, create both challenges and opportunities for sociologists working within and across Indigenous and Settler subjectivities. Building on popular past CSA sessions in 2011 and 2012 ("Indigenous Peoples and Contemporary Canada," "Indigenous Peoples and Social Research"), this session aims to interrogate the impacts of Indigenous and Settler identities and relationships on research, and vice versa. How are identities operationalized in research? How do relationships between researchers and community members impact on identity formation and enactment? And what does empirical research tell us about the complexity, diversity and interconnections of Indigenous and Settler identities today (e.g., Anishinaabe, Kwak'waka'wakw, Metis, multi-generational Euro-Canadians, recent immigrants of colour)? Our goal is to open dialogue on these often-unseen or overlooked - yet fundamental - aspects of research, in order to critically assess who 'we' are and how 'we' work together, but also to envision respectful, creative partnerships for the future.

Session Organizer: Emma Battell Lowman, University of Warwick, e.j.b.lowman@warwick.ac.uk ; Jeff Denis, McMaster University, denisj@mcmaster.ca

Settling Through Oil: Canadian White Settler Colonialism and Structures of Extraction

Jen Preston, York University, jenpreston@gmail.com

The Canadian government commenced the treaty making process with the indigenous peoples of the Athabaska region in 1870, motivated by the Geological Survey of Canada’s reports that petroleum existed in the area. This, in addition to the discovery of gold in the Klondike region, spurred an influx of unregulated settlement and resource extraction in the north. The trajectory of this history has continued to bring the Canadian settler state - and its oil and gas industry stakeholders - into negotiation with indigenous nations over the Athabaska oil sands. This paper examines the widespread criticism of the industry by indigenous nations and settler-run environmental groups, as well as responses to these objections by the petrolium industry and its government allies. In particular, the public/private partnerships between oil and gas compaines, federal and provincial governments and their national security and counter-terrorism forces are examined. The paper argues that recognizing and naming contemporary forms of white settler colonialism, including these types of neoliberal partnerships, is required for new relations to become possible.

Wednesday June 5, 2013 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM Building: Elliott Building, Room: E-168

Where the Waters Divide Neoliberalism, White Privilege, and Environmental Racism in Canada

Michael Mascarenhas, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, mascam@rpi.edu

This research analyzes how contemporary neoliberal reforms (in the manner of de-regulation, austerity measures, common sense policies, privatization, etc.) are woven through and shape contemporary racial inequality in Canadian society. Using recent controversies in drinking water contamination and solid waste and sewage pollution, Where the Waters Divide illustrates in concrete ways how cherished notions of liberalism and common sense reform—neoliberalism—also constitute a particular form of racial oppression and white privilege. In particular, the book argues that neoliberalism represents a key moment in time for the racial formation in Canada, one that functions not through overt forms of state sanctioned racism, as in the past, but via the morality of the marketplace and the primacy of individual solutions to modern environmental and social problems.

Wednesday June 5, 2013 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM Building: Elliott Building, Room: E-168

Here and There: Settler Identities and Research Journeys

Emma Battell Lowman, University of Warwick, e.j.b.lowman@warwick.ac.uk

In the historical accounts of many colonial figures, whether biographical or autobiographical, travel and journey figures prominently. Missionaries, for example, left detailed accounts of their own journeys to their assigned missions, and have also been the subject of many contemporary histories that focus on their spatial transitions. In this paper, I investigate what travel, translocation (and dislocation), and the journey narrative reveal about Settler identities by engaging with my own experiences of travelling across Canada and to the United Kingdom. As a Settler Canadian researching the histories of Canadian colonisation, and also a dual Canadian-British citizen with strong family and historical ties to both the ‘Empire’ and the ‘Dominion,’ these journeys have proved to be highly affective, educational experiences. I first reflect on a trip across Canada by train, from Ottawa to Vancouver, during autumn and winter, 2010; this trip took me into contact with the landscapes that inform the settler colonial Canadian narrative. Then I turn to my experiences as a doctoral student at the University of Warwick, considering my own settler colonialism as a Settler person displaced and relocated into British society and academic discourse. I close with considerations of privilege, responsibility, and critical hope.

Wednesday June 5, 2013 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM Building: Elliott Building, Room: E-168