MEDIA INDIGENA 343
Added 2024-03-24 17:11:45 +0000 UTCWhy the real problem isn’t Indigenous “identity” but settler insatiability / MI 343
ON THIS WEEK’S PROGRAM:
A plethora of pretendianism! So much, in fact, it’s going to take two whole episodes to fit it all in. And here in part one, we take our deepest dive yet into the ultimate underpinnings of pretendianism—the political imperatives of whiteness. Driving the insatiable settler urge to possess every last thing, fueling the desire to assume and consume imagined Indigenous 'identities.' Indeed, such self-serving self-indigenization is very much a byproduct of the colonial imagination, a contorted construct which privileges the individual over the collective, the racial over the relational, and possession over peoplehood.
So says MI regular Kim TallBear, who, by the end of this episode, so thoroughly unpacks the problematic formulation and foundation of so-called Indigenous "identity"—a hyper-individualized right to resources invoked in isolation from those it performatively pantomimes—you may never want to use the term again. A talk she delivered last month in Ottawa, it took place at a two-day symposium convened by the Wabano Centre—an Indigenous Centre for Excellence in Health Service based in the national capital region. One of four core presenters at the event, Kim shared the stage with Drew Hayden Taylor, Brenda Macdougall and Pam Palmater, with MI's Rick Harp as emcee/moderator for the event.
Links referenced/consulted this episode:
“Identity is a poor substitute for relating: Genetic ancestry, critical polyamory, property, and relations” Routledge Handbook of Critical Indigenous Studies
Becoming Indian: The Struggle over Cherokee Identity in the Twenty-first Century (by Circe Storm) School for Advanced Research Press (via UBC Press)
Playing Indian (by Philip J. Deloria) Yale University Press
Native American DNA: Tribal Belonging and the False Promise of Genetic Science (by Kim TallBear) University of Minnesota Press
“Eight Stages of White Settler-Colonial Denial” (viewable at reddit.com)
“The Pretendian Problem” Canadian Journal of Political Science
The White Possessive: Property, Power, and Indigenous Sovereignty (by Aileen Moreton-Robinson) University of Minnesota Press
Contemplating the Consequences of Colonial Cosplay MEDIA INDIGENA 245
Creating Culpability for Colonial Cosplay MEDIA INDIGENA 246
“Playing Indian Constitutes a Structural Form of Colonial Theft, and It Must be Tackled” Unsettle on Substack
“Indigenous Identity Fraud” (by Jean Teillet) University of Saskatchewan [PDF]
“Indigenous Voices on Indigenous Identity: What Was Heard [at the National Indigenous Identity Forum]” First Nations University of Canada [PDF]
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