"Decolonizing the Intersectional Blogosphere; A Settler's Perspective" by Gabrielle Esther Egan B.A., Concordia University, 2013 A Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of Political Science © Gabrielle Esther Egan, 2015 University of Victoria All rights reserved. This thesis may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without the permission of the author. !ii SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE Decolonizing the Intersectional Blogosphere; A Settler’s Perspective By Gabrielle Esther Egan B.A., Concordia University, 2013 Supervisory Committee Heidi Kiiwetinepinesiik Stark, Supervisor (Department of Political Science) Janni Aragon, Departmental Member (Department of Political Science) !iii ABSTRACT Supervisory Committee Heidi Kiiwetinepinesiik Stark, Supervisor (Department of Political Science) Janni Aragon, Departmental Member (Department of Political Science) Abstract There is a tendency within intersectional blogging discourse for settlers to ignore the ongoing colonial process occurring on Turtle Island. This pattern is bound up in a settler common sense that understands settler occupancy as inherent and natural. Such an approach to intersectional-type work ignores the manner in which all oppressive actions on Turtle Island are occurring on Indigenous lands. Regardless of a settler’s intersections, their presence on Indigenous lands indicates that they are implicated in an ongoing process of colonization. This thesis identifies and examines how intersectional bloggers are writing about issues pertaining to Indigenous peoples and nations. It is argued that through the exploration of Indigenous feminist writing, intersectional settler blogging has the potential to work towards decolonization and solidarity with Indigenous nations. This thesis draws from the work of Indigenous feminist blogs in order to gain insight on how settlers can begin to decolonize their own work. !iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Supervisory Committee ii Abstract iii Table of Contents iv Acknowledgments vi Chapter 1 1 Self Location 5 My Position as an Ashkenazi Settler 12 Methods and Methodology 13 Interpretive Methods 13 Methods 14 Discourse Analysis 15 Thematic Analysis 16 Methodology 17 Methodological Challenges 17 Data Collection 22 Indigenous Feminist Approach 24 Native Feminist Theories 26 Andrea Smith 27 Intersectional-Type Approach 29 Settler Colonial Studies Approach 32 Settler Common Sense 33 Significance 34 Chapter Outline 37 Chapter 2: Ignoring the Political Nature of Indigenous Identities 42 Intersectional-Type Literature Review 45 Politics of Recognition to Politics of Refusal 54 Settler Blog Analysis 59 Identity Politics 61 Chapter 3: Naturalizing Settler Subjectivities 81 Cultural Appropriation 84 Stereotypes and Mascots 103 Transnational Solidarity and Colonialism Abroad 112 Chapter 4: Indigenous Feminism 127 Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women 133 Gender and Sexuality 146 Respect for Indigenous Land 152 !v Conclusion 158 Bibliography 166 Appendix 185 Appendix A 185 Appendix B 196 Appendix C 197 !vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am indebted to the amazing women who have helped me throughout this process. The classes that I took with both Janni Aragon and Heidi Stark were formative to my journey in this program. Janni’s class allowed me to explore my initial topic and helped me transform it into what I wanted and needed it to be. Her passion as a feminist and as a teacher have inspired me to continue teaching others about the importance of feminist work. Heidi’s class introduced me to the term settler and helped me face my own settler occupancy. Heidi pushed me to be accountable to this position, and was incredibly supportive and patient with me throughout my learning process. I would also like to express my gratitude to Rita Dhamoon whose guidance has been deeply formative. Rita challenged me to face the intricacies of my own positionality and to accurately integrate this position within my work. Janni, Rita and Heidi all helped me in my struggle to fit into the requirements of mainstream academia, while also allowing me to stay true to my voice. I am so grateful for their guidance and willingness to mentor me throughout my time at Uvic. These women have been such important role models for me and I could not have accomplished this without them. I am grateful to the vibrant and dedicated activists and academics at Uvic who continuously challenged me and helped me to form the ideas that I bring forth in this thesis. The dedication that so many of them have to decolonization played an important role in inspiring me to do this work. I would also like to thank my partner, my friends and my family who have all supported and tolerated me throughout my writing process. Their love has carried me through. INTRODUCTION: CHAPTER 1 I was first introduced to the term intersectionality when I was in the second year of my undergraduate degree, engaged in support work at an anti-oppressive sexual assault centre in Montreal. It felt as though the term “intersectionality” was used in every anti- oppression workshop that I attended and was treated as the germinal part of anti- oppression activism. Perhaps this is because, as Wendy Hulko notes, intersectionality seeks to recognize that: “we each possess different degrees of oppression and privilege based on our relative positioning along axes of interlocking systems of oppression, such as racism, classism, sexism, ethnocentrism, and ageism. Where each of us lies in relation to the center and the margin... —our social location—is determined by our identities, which are necessarily intersectional.”1 At this time, I was amazed at how, what seemed to be such a simple theory, could explain the foggy questions that had perplexed me for so long. When I was young, I can recall knowing I had economic privilege. I didn’t have the words to describe what I was perceiving, but I was aware of economic injustices. As I matured, my understanding of systemic injustice deepened and I became increasingly passionate about social justice. Intersectionality provided me with a language to express many of the things that I already sensed, helping me understand that “identity, oppression, and privilege are not solely abstract concepts” and that “they have real, complex, and often-disputed meanings in our daily lives.”2 For the first time, I was able Wendy Hulko, "Social science perspectives on dementia research: Intersectionality,” Dementia and social inclusion (2004): 238. 2 Wendy Hulko, ”The Time- and Context-Contingent Nature of Intersectionality and Interlocking Oppressions,” Affilia 24 (2009): 44. !2 to position myself in relation to others and understand that we did not solely exist on a single-axis with one another, but that our identities were linked to one another in a complex web determined by interlocking systems of power beyond our control. When I moved back to Victoria after finishing my undergraduate degree, I realized that the manner that I had learnt about privilege and oppression was lacking an essential component: recognition of the colonial reality of the very place we were occupying. An example of this is the organizing that occurred surrounding the Occupy movement3 in Montreal. Though I was not directly involved with the Occupy Movement, many radical4 activists were. Activists had set up a tent city in the financial district of downtown Montreal, where they were protesting the economic disparities that existed in Montreal. Despite the fact that the word “occupy” was a central part of their movement, they did not recognize the irony of “occupying” stolen land - and neither did I, at the time.5 When I moved to Victoria, the political atmosphere was completely different. Every meeting or gathering would begin with a territorial acknowledgment, which recognized that most people in attendance were not from Lekwungen or WSANEC land and that this needed to be recognized.6 Conversations about intersectionality did not 3 The “Occupy” movement is short term for Occupy Wall Street, a protest movement that began in 2011 in Zuccotti Park, in the financial district of New York City. This protest originated as a means of protesting economic disparities in the United States but expanded into a global movement, protesting global financial inequalities. 4 The term radical is meant to denote those who embody anti-oppressive politics 5 Sirma Bilge. “Intersectionality Undone: Saving Intersectionality from Feminist Intersectionality Studies." Du Bois Review 10 (2013): 406. 6 There are problems with this expectation as well, as it can be perfunctory. !3 ignore colonialism and did not treat Indigenous identity as a category comparable to gender or race. Soon after my move, I realized that the way that activists in Montreal were speaking about intersectionality was unintentionally naturalizing and reproducing settler subjects by masking over indigenous peoples and colonialism. This realization prompted me to find a more responsible, respectful and accountable way to speak about privilege and oppression. My realization also prompted me to think about how intersectional theory meets practice, and how the gap between the two is represented in social media. It seemed to me that the same patterns of colonial erasure that I had noticed in Montreal, were also present in the online intersectional feminist community. Because of these realizations, I became interested in interrogating the work of intersectional feminist bloggers who are settlers. In my thesis I analyze how issues