Countering Colonial Control: Imagining Environmental Justice and Reconciliation in Indigenous and Canadian Writer-Activism
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Countering Colonial Control: Imagining Environmental Justice and Reconciliation in Indigenous and Canadian Writer-Activism by Alec Follett A Thesis presented to The University of Guelph In partial fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Literary/Theatre Studies in English Guelph, Ontario, Canada © Alec Follett, April, 2020 ABSTRACT COUNTERING COLONIAL CONTROL: IMAGINING ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AND RECONCILIATION IN INDIGENOUS AND CANADIAN WRITER-ACTIVISM Alec Follett Advisor: University of Guelph, 2020 Jade Ferguson This dissertation considers the role of Indigenous knowledge in Joseph Boyden’s, Thomas King’s, and Rita Wong’s counter-discourse to the colonial control over Indigenous peoples’ land relations. Boyden, King, and Wong are part of a long history of Canadian and Indigenous writer- activists who have turned to literature to comment on the intertwined social and ecological violences caused by mapping colonial and capitalist relations onto Indigenous land; however, I argue that Boyden’s, King’s, and Wong’s early-twenty-first century writing has been constructed in relation to the notion of reconciliation. As such, their writing not only demonstrates that the recovery and enactment of Indigenous knowledge without interference from state, corporate, or settler actors is a precondition for environmental and epistemological justice, but also that justice requires the participation of non-Indigenous peoples who are willing to partake in non-colonial acts of relation building. In addition, I also address each writer-activist’s extra literary efforts— some of which have proved contentious. I argue that studying the strategies and challenges associated with their cultural work is necessary to develop a critical understanding of the complicated and influential figure of the writer-activist. I conduct my analysis, as a white-settler scholar, by turning to environmental justice scholarship, which provides a framework for connecting social and environmental issues, as well as for understanding the function of self- positioning and marginalized knowledges in the justice and research processes. In chapter one, I consider how Thomas King (Cherokee) offers an intercultural alternative to resource extraction projects that are grounded in Indigenous cultural stories. In chapter two, I read self-proclaimed Indigenous author Joseph Boyden’s Mushkegowuk novels (after his fall from stardom) for the way food functions as an accessible but limited means of making legible alternatives to colonial institutions that have controlled Indigenous land relations. In chapter three, I engage with Rita Wong’s self-reflexive activism and poetry, in which Wong places knowledge systems in conversation to generate sustainable and equitable intercultural relations with water. In doing so, this dissertation contributes to the study of Canadian environmental literature, which has yet to adequately consider the relationship between activist literature, reconciliation, and environmental injustices affecting Indigenous peoples. iv DEDICATION To Amanda v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I acknowledge that this dissertation was written on the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, Attawandaron, and Haudenosaunee peoples. I acknowledge the two rivers and the Grand, and the vital work of Indigenous water protectors and land defenders here and around the world. My dissertation owes much to Jade Ferguson who unexpectedly and generously offered to supervise my thesis at a moment early in my degree when I was strongly considering leaving academia. Had I quit, I would not have had the life-changing opportunity to read, write, and take on the necessary task of thinking more deeply about how to be in relation. Thank you, Jade, for this initial kindness, and for your ongoing support and scholarly insights. Thank you to my committee members Christine Bold and Martha Nandorfy for your thoughtful attention to, and enthusiasm for, the project. Thank you also to Pablo Ramirez and Tim Struthers for your role on my qualifying exam committees. Your collective kindness, enthusiasm, and rigor has not gone unappreciated. I want to thank my colleagues at the University of Guelph for their friendship and assistance. Thank you, Mark Kaethler and Brian Lefresne, for the many days spent writing together in the library—a now cherished memory. Thank you, Tim Struthers, for the conversations over countless cups of coffee and for always remaining passionate about literature and scholarship, even when the work becomes arduous. Thank you, Catherine Bush, Ajay Heble, Gregor Campbell, Julie Carnie, Marianne Micros, Paul Salmon, Stephen Powell, Danny O’Quinn, and Ann Wilson, for the formal and informal training, advice, and support. Thank you, Olga Petrik, Phyllis Reynen, and Yvonne Yates, for keeping the ship afloat. Thank you to my fellow SETS graduate students for the discussions and comradery: Mirali Almaula, Margot Beckmann, Megan De Roover, Greg Fenton, Cynthia Ing, Ian Jones, Cameron Kroetsch, David Lee, Mauricio Martinez, Nevena Martinovic, Shane Neilson, Kimber Sider, Alessia Ursella, Anthony Virgilio, and Paul Watkins. Thanks to all of my students, especially to those at Laurier Brantford with whom I spent an enriching semester discussing Thomas King among many other Indigenous authors. Thanks to my co-editors at The Goose, Amanda di Battista and Melanie Dennis Unrau for their friendship, as well as their editing and community-building practices, the ethics of which I have absorbed and applied to the dissertation writing process and elsewhere. Thank you to Jenny Kerber, Cheryl Lousley, and the other established board and community members of the Association for Literature Environment and Culture in Canada (ALECC) for the collegiality extended to graduate students, such as myself, and for the opportunity to share early chapter drafts at the organization’s conferences. Thanks to Andrew O’Malley and Sophie Thomas at Ryerson University for supporting my early graduate work, through which laid many of the intellectual foundations for my dissertation. Further afield, I want to thank Paul Harpley and Rob Milne of the South Lake Simcoe Naturalists, and my fellow field researchers, especially Kristine, Mike, and Nate with whom I learned to listen to the more-than-human world. And even further afield, I want to thank the players—Joel, Kevin, Matt, Mark, and Mike—and the dancers. Newmarket punk rock was a crash course in community, art and activism, and the spirit of resistance, none of which has been forgotten. vi And of course, I want to thank my family. Amanda, your love and patience has amazed me and has made this dissertation possible, thank you. Sophia, who laughs and smiles, you are the reason I get up in the morning. No amount of thanks is enough to express my gratitude for the unending support my parents Glen and Sandra have provided me. But, thank you, nevertheless. Thank you also to Chris and Jess from whom I am always learning; Bernie, Linda, Mark, Oma, Sandra, and Wayne who have welcomed me with open arms; Caleigh, Joei, Ian, Ger, Gus, for the conversations and the place to stay; and my grandparents Al and Joan, and Joe and Ottavia—I am working hard. I received financial support for this project from the College of Arts, the School of English and Theatre Studies, the University of Guelph, and the Ontario Graduate Scholarship Program, for which I am grateful. I also acknowledge that sections of chapter three were previously published as “‘A life of dignity, joy and good relation:’ Water, Knowledge, and Environmental Justice in Rita Wong’s undercurrent” in Canadian Literature. This dissertation was made possible through myriad financial, professional, and personal relationships and acts of support; simply put, it was a group effort. Thank you, everyone. The support has been an ongoing gift that has allowed me to write with energy and care. However helpful, I take full responsibility for the words that follow and acknowledge that any faults are my own. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract .............................................................................................................................ii Dedication ........................................................................................................................iv Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ v Table of Contents ............................................................................................................. vii Preface ............................................................................................................................. 1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 6 The Colonial Management Regime, Land, and Literature ................................................. 11 Colonial Management, Neoliberalism, and Reconciliation ................................................ 27 Countering the Colonial Management Regime and the Language of Reconciliation ............. 38 Reading, Writing, Positioning ........................................................................................ 51 Chapter Summaries ...................................................................................................... 56 Chapter One: Responding to Environmental Ruin: Responsibility, Intercultural Relation Building, and Acts of Environmental Justice in Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water