Glen Coulthard, Red Skin, White Masks (selections) PHIL 102, UBC Christina Hendricks Spring 2017 Except for images licensed otherwise, this presentation is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 Idle No More , Flickr photo shared by OFL Communications Department, licensed CC BY 2.0
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Glen Coulthard, Red Skin, White
Masks (selections)
PHIL 102, UBC Christina Hendricks
Spring 2017
Except for images licensed otherwise, this presentation is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Idle No More, Flickr photo shared by OFL Communications Department, licensed CC BY 2.0
Overall question What changes when we look at civil disobedience from the perspective of people who are fighting for their right to self-government?
o So they may not accept the “agreement” with the laws Socrates talks about…State
Disobed-ients
IndigenousNation
State
IndigenousCommunity
Learning Catalytics• Coulthard notes that many think of
anger and resentment as negative emotions that could harm efforts at reconciliation, but he argues that they can serve a specific purpose for Indigenous peoples.
• What do you recall from the reading of what that purpose is?
Red Skin, White Masks Chpt. 4Need to move away from usual way of thinking of relations between Indigenous nations & Canadian state:• Canadian state has ultimate
sovereignty and grants rights to Indigenous peoples
Anger, resentment, protest & struggle as legitimate ways to do this
Reconciliation• “restoring estranged or damaged social
or political relationships” (107)• Creating “agreement, concord, or
harmony”; making things “consistent or compatible” (107)
Image from pixabay.com, licensed CC0
How to make consistent Indigenous nationhood with Canadian state claims to sovereignty?
Fanon & internalized colonialismFrantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks (1952)• “internalization”: “the social relations of
colonialism … come to be seen as ‘true’ or ‘natural’ to the colonized themselves” (110-111).State
IndigenousCommunity
Fanon & internalized colonialism
PovertyViolenceHealth
problems
Due to “own cultural
deficiencies” (114)
Effects of colonialism
Resentment“the externalization of what was previously internalized” by forming an “enemy” (114)
PovertyViolenceHealth
problems
Due to colonial system!
ResentmentThe process of externalization can support rejection of colonial values and efforts to “revalue and affirm Indigenous cultural traditions and social practices” (114) First Nations Woman Demonstrates Drum, Flickr photo shared by Mark Klotz, licensed CC BY 2.0
Crise d’Oka, by Samuel Freli, Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 3.0
1676 Catholic mission1716-1717: King of France provides land for Indigenous peoples, then gives it to Catholic priests1780: Catholic community starts selling land to colonists1787: Mohawk chiefs claim land; title not recognized despite multiple efforts over 200 years1961-1989: building of golf course; plans for condos
Crise d’Oka, by Samuel Freli, Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 3.0
March 1990: protestors occupy “The Pines” April: barricaded road into the areaJune 30: court injunction to remove barricadeJuly 11: Quebec provincial police arrive; tear gas & gunfire; one police officer killed
• Focus has been on healing psychologically, not changing conditions (121)o Treat problems as belonging to past; just need to
“get over it”
• Reaffirms ultimate sovereignty of Canadian stateo Indigenous sovereignty limited to what is
“integral to their unique cultures, identities, traditions, languages, institutions” (123).
More recent Supreme Court Case
Tsilhqot’in Nation granted Aboriginal title to over 1700 square kilometres in BC, June 2014Title granted to “all the territory a First Nation regularly and exclusively used when the Crown asserted sovereignty”
Supreme Court of Canada, public domain on Wikimedia Commons
Idle No More, Flickr photo shared by OFL Communications Department, licensed CC BY 2.0
Omnibus Bill C-45 passed Dec. 2012: changes to rules for leasing indigenous land, environmental protectionsFlash mobs (dancing, drumming), teach-ins, conferencesMultiple blockades of roads, railwaysChief Theresa Spence, Attawapiskat Cree Nation, hunger strike and “Declaration of Commitment” that ended it
C.D. in Indigenous protestsBack to the question at the beginning:• What changes when we look at civil
disobedience from the perspective of people who are fighting for their right to self-government?
Do you think of civil disobedience and whether/when it’s legitimate differently in this context vs. the ones we’ve discussed so far (e.g., civil rights in the U.S., Edward Snowden)?