North American Indigenous Perceptions of the Apocalypse and a Renewal of Kinship Relationships through the Imagination
Keywords:
Apoalypse, Climate change, Settler colonialism, Canada, Indian resident schools, Indigenous kinship, Imagination
Abstract
Interweaving ecocriticism, settler-colonial studies, and Indigenous studies, this essay interrogates the concepts of climate change and the apocalypse, repositioning them alongside Indigenous experiences of broken kinship relationships. Focusing on the Canadian Indigenous context, first, I discuss the settler-colonial implications of environmental apocalypse, arguing that Indigenous peoples are already living in a post-apocalyptic condition. Secondly, I explore the Indian Residential School policy as an example of how settler-colonialism contributed to creating the post-apocalyptic situation with which Indigenous peoples live today. Thirdly, through analysis of Lee Maracle’s “The Void” and Daniel H. Justice’s “The Boys Who Became the Hummingbirds”, I discuss how both stories employ imagination to place environmental disasters in conversation with settler-colonial practices, thus re-shaping understandings of the past, present, and future. Ultimately, both stories, as I argue, promote Indigenous traditional knowledge systems and kinship values as a way to maintain respectful and reciprocal kinship relationships among humans and between humans and the land.
Downloads
Download data is not yet available.
References
Armstrong, Jeannette, “Land Speaking” (1998), Read, Listen, Tell: Indigenous Stories from Turtle Island, McCall, Sophie – Reder, Deanna – Gaertner, David - L’Hirondelle Hill, Gabrielle, Eds., Waterloo, Wilfried Laurier University Press, 2017: 141–156.
Bauer, Andrew M. – Ellis, Erle C., “The Anthropocene Divide: Obscuring Understanding of Social-Environmental Change”, Current Anthropology, 59.2 (2018): 209-227.
Buell, Lawrence, The Environmental Imagination: Thoreau, Nature Writing and the Formation of American Culture, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1995.
Capitaine, Brieg - Vanthuyne, Karine (eds.), Power through Testimony. Re-framing Residential Schools in the Age of Reconciliation, Chicago, Uni-versity of Chicago Press, 2017.
Chakrabarty, Dipesh, “The Climate of History: Four Theses”, Critical In-quiry, 35 (2009): 197–222.
Ead.,(2016) “The Human Significance of the Anthropocene”, Reset Mo-dernity!, Ed. Bruno Latour, Cambridge, MIT Press, 2016, 189–199.
Crutzen, Paul J., “Geology of Mankind”, Nature, 415.51 (2002): 23.
Crutzen, Paul J. - Stoermer Eugene F., “The ‘Anthropocene’”, Global Change Newsletter, 41 (2000): 17–18.
Driskill, Qwo-Li, “Doubleweaving Two-Spirit Critiques: Building Alli-ances between Native and Queer Studies”, GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, 16.1-2, (2010): 69-92.
Garrard, Greg, Ecocriticism, 2nd ed., London-New York, Routledge, 2011.
Hunt, Sarah, An Introduction to the Health of Two-Spirit People: Historical, Contemporary, and Emergent Issues, Prince George, National Collabo-rating Centre for Aboriginal Centre, 2016.
Jacobs, Sue-Ellen – Wesley, Thomas – Lang, Sabine, Two-Spirit People. Native American Gender Identity, Sexuality, and Spirituality, Urbana-Chicago-Springfield, University of Illinois Press, 1997.
Justice, Daniel H., “The Boys Who Became the Hummingbirds”, Love Be-yond Body, Space & Time. An Indigenous LGBT Sci-Fi Anthology, Hope Nicholson, Ed., Winnipeg, Bedside Press, 2016: 54-59.
Ead., Why Indigenous Literatures Matter, Waterloo, Wilfried Laurier Uni-versity Press, 2018.
Latour, Bruno, “Agency at the Time of the Anthropocene”, New Literary History, 45.1 (2014): 1-18.
Ead., “Telling Friends from Foes in the Time of the Anthropocene”, The Anthropocene and the Global Environmental Crisis: Rethinking Moderni-ty in a New Epoch, Eds. Hamilton, Clive - Bonneuil Christophe - Ge-menne, François, London, Routledge, 2015: 145–155.
Maracle, Lee, “The Void”, Mitêwâcimowina: Indigenous Science Fiction and Speculative Storytelling, McLeod, Neal, Ed., Penticton, Theytus Books, 2016: 9-25.
McGregor, Deborah, “Reconciliation and Environmental Justice”, Jour-nal of Global Ethics, 14.2 (2018): 222-231
Miller, James R., Shingwauk's Vision: A History of Native Residential Schools, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1996.
Milloy, John S., ‘A National Crime’: The Canadian Government and the Resi-dential School System, 1879-1986, Winnipeg, University of Manitoba Press, 1999.
Monchalin, Lisa, The Colonial Problem : An Indigenous Perspective on Crime and Injustice in Canada, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2016.
Morgensen, Scott L., Spaces between Us. Queer Settler Colonialism and In-digenous Decolonization, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 2011.
Niezen, Ronald, Truth and Indignation: Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Indian Residential Schools, 2nd ed., Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2017.
Regan, Paulette, Unsettling the Settler Within. Indian Residential Schools, Truth Telling, and Reconciliation in Canada, Vancouver, UBC Press, 2010.
Roscoe, Will, Changing Ones: Third and Fourth Genders in Native North America, New York, St. Martin’s Press, 1998.
Senehi, Jessica, “Constructive Storytelling in Intercommunal Conflicts: Building Community, Building Peace”, Reconcilable Differences: Turning Points in Ethnopolitical Conflict, Byrne, Sean – Irvin, Cyn-thia L., West Hartford, Kumarian Press, 2000: 110.
Simpson, Leanne B., As We Have Always Done. Indigenous Freedom through Radical Resistance, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 2017.
Sinclair, Niigaan, “Returning to Ourselves: Two Spirit Futures and the Now”, Love Beyond Body, Space & Time. An Indigenous LGBT Sci-Fi Anthology, Hope Nicholson, Ed., Winnipeg, Bedside Press, 2016: 12-19.
Stout, Madeline D. – Kipling, Gregory, Aboriginal People, Resilience and the Residential School Legacy, Ottawa, Aboriginal Healing Founda-tion, 2003.
Tafoya, Terry, “Native Gay and Lesbian Issues: The Two Spirited”, Eth-nic and Cultural Diversity Among Lesbians and Gay Men, Greene, Bev-erly, Ed., Thousand Oaks, Sage Publishing,1997: 1-10.
Todd, Zoe, “Indigenizing the Anthropocene”, Art in the Anthropocene: Encounters among Aesthetics, Politics, Environments and Epistemolo-gies, Eds. Davies, Heather – Turpin, Etienne, London, Open Humani-ties Press, 2015: 241-254.
Trischler, Helmuth, “The Anthropocene. A Challenge for the History of Science, Technology, and the Environment”, NTM 24.3 (2016): 309-335.
Whyte, Kyle, “Indigenous Climate Change Studies: Indigenizing Futures, Decolonizing the Anthropocene”, English Language Notes, 55.1-2 (2017): 153-162.
Winter, Christine J., “Does Time Colonise Intergenerational Environ-mental Justice Theory?”, Environmental Politics 29.2 (2019): 278-296.
Woolford, Andrew, This Benevolent Experiment Indigenous Boarding Schools, Genocide, and Redress in Canada and the United States, Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 2015.
Sitography
Aboriginal Healing Foundation, The Healing Has Begun, Ottawa, Aboriginal Healing Foundation, 2002, https://www.ahf.ca/publications/residential-school-resources, web (last accessed 25/03/2022).
Mitchell, Audra, “Decolonizing the Anthropocene”, 2015 https://worldlyir.wordpress.com/2015/03/17/decolonising-the-anthropocene/, web (last accessed 28/02/2022).
National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Report, Volume A, 2019, https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/final-report/, web (last accessed 20/03/2022).
The Canadian Encyclopedia, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/sun-dance, web (last accessed 10/03/2022).
TRC Reports, 2015, https://nctr.ca/records/reports/#trc-reports, web (last accessed 20/03/2022).
Whyte, Kyle, “To solve the climate crisis, we must first repair our rela-tionships”, Grist, 08.09.2021, https://grist.org/climate/to-solve-the-climate-crisis-we-must-first-repair-our-relationships/, web (last accessed 25/03/2022).
Winter, Christine J., The Paralysis of Intergenerational Justice: Decolonising Entangled Futures (PhD Thesis), University of Sydney, retrieved from https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/handle/2123/18009, web (last accessed 25/03/2022).
WMO (World Meteorological Organization), “State of the Global Climate 2020”, 2021, https://library.wmo.int/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=21880#.Ydxrf_4o_rd, web, (last accessed 28/03/2022).
Bauer, Andrew M. – Ellis, Erle C., “The Anthropocene Divide: Obscuring Understanding of Social-Environmental Change”, Current Anthropology, 59.2 (2018): 209-227.
Buell, Lawrence, The Environmental Imagination: Thoreau, Nature Writing and the Formation of American Culture, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1995.
Capitaine, Brieg - Vanthuyne, Karine (eds.), Power through Testimony. Re-framing Residential Schools in the Age of Reconciliation, Chicago, Uni-versity of Chicago Press, 2017.
Chakrabarty, Dipesh, “The Climate of History: Four Theses”, Critical In-quiry, 35 (2009): 197–222.
Ead.,(2016) “The Human Significance of the Anthropocene”, Reset Mo-dernity!, Ed. Bruno Latour, Cambridge, MIT Press, 2016, 189–199.
Crutzen, Paul J., “Geology of Mankind”, Nature, 415.51 (2002): 23.
Crutzen, Paul J. - Stoermer Eugene F., “The ‘Anthropocene’”, Global Change Newsletter, 41 (2000): 17–18.
Driskill, Qwo-Li, “Doubleweaving Two-Spirit Critiques: Building Alli-ances between Native and Queer Studies”, GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, 16.1-2, (2010): 69-92.
Garrard, Greg, Ecocriticism, 2nd ed., London-New York, Routledge, 2011.
Hunt, Sarah, An Introduction to the Health of Two-Spirit People: Historical, Contemporary, and Emergent Issues, Prince George, National Collabo-rating Centre for Aboriginal Centre, 2016.
Jacobs, Sue-Ellen – Wesley, Thomas – Lang, Sabine, Two-Spirit People. Native American Gender Identity, Sexuality, and Spirituality, Urbana-Chicago-Springfield, University of Illinois Press, 1997.
Justice, Daniel H., “The Boys Who Became the Hummingbirds”, Love Be-yond Body, Space & Time. An Indigenous LGBT Sci-Fi Anthology, Hope Nicholson, Ed., Winnipeg, Bedside Press, 2016: 54-59.
Ead., Why Indigenous Literatures Matter, Waterloo, Wilfried Laurier Uni-versity Press, 2018.
Latour, Bruno, “Agency at the Time of the Anthropocene”, New Literary History, 45.1 (2014): 1-18.
Ead., “Telling Friends from Foes in the Time of the Anthropocene”, The Anthropocene and the Global Environmental Crisis: Rethinking Moderni-ty in a New Epoch, Eds. Hamilton, Clive - Bonneuil Christophe - Ge-menne, François, London, Routledge, 2015: 145–155.
Maracle, Lee, “The Void”, Mitêwâcimowina: Indigenous Science Fiction and Speculative Storytelling, McLeod, Neal, Ed., Penticton, Theytus Books, 2016: 9-25.
McGregor, Deborah, “Reconciliation and Environmental Justice”, Jour-nal of Global Ethics, 14.2 (2018): 222-231
Miller, James R., Shingwauk's Vision: A History of Native Residential Schools, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1996.
Milloy, John S., ‘A National Crime’: The Canadian Government and the Resi-dential School System, 1879-1986, Winnipeg, University of Manitoba Press, 1999.
Monchalin, Lisa, The Colonial Problem : An Indigenous Perspective on Crime and Injustice in Canada, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2016.
Morgensen, Scott L., Spaces between Us. Queer Settler Colonialism and In-digenous Decolonization, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 2011.
Niezen, Ronald, Truth and Indignation: Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Indian Residential Schools, 2nd ed., Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2017.
Regan, Paulette, Unsettling the Settler Within. Indian Residential Schools, Truth Telling, and Reconciliation in Canada, Vancouver, UBC Press, 2010.
Roscoe, Will, Changing Ones: Third and Fourth Genders in Native North America, New York, St. Martin’s Press, 1998.
Senehi, Jessica, “Constructive Storytelling in Intercommunal Conflicts: Building Community, Building Peace”, Reconcilable Differences: Turning Points in Ethnopolitical Conflict, Byrne, Sean – Irvin, Cyn-thia L., West Hartford, Kumarian Press, 2000: 110.
Simpson, Leanne B., As We Have Always Done. Indigenous Freedom through Radical Resistance, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 2017.
Sinclair, Niigaan, “Returning to Ourselves: Two Spirit Futures and the Now”, Love Beyond Body, Space & Time. An Indigenous LGBT Sci-Fi Anthology, Hope Nicholson, Ed., Winnipeg, Bedside Press, 2016: 12-19.
Stout, Madeline D. – Kipling, Gregory, Aboriginal People, Resilience and the Residential School Legacy, Ottawa, Aboriginal Healing Founda-tion, 2003.
Tafoya, Terry, “Native Gay and Lesbian Issues: The Two Spirited”, Eth-nic and Cultural Diversity Among Lesbians and Gay Men, Greene, Bev-erly, Ed., Thousand Oaks, Sage Publishing,1997: 1-10.
Todd, Zoe, “Indigenizing the Anthropocene”, Art in the Anthropocene: Encounters among Aesthetics, Politics, Environments and Epistemolo-gies, Eds. Davies, Heather – Turpin, Etienne, London, Open Humani-ties Press, 2015: 241-254.
Trischler, Helmuth, “The Anthropocene. A Challenge for the History of Science, Technology, and the Environment”, NTM 24.3 (2016): 309-335.
Whyte, Kyle, “Indigenous Climate Change Studies: Indigenizing Futures, Decolonizing the Anthropocene”, English Language Notes, 55.1-2 (2017): 153-162.
Winter, Christine J., “Does Time Colonise Intergenerational Environ-mental Justice Theory?”, Environmental Politics 29.2 (2019): 278-296.
Woolford, Andrew, This Benevolent Experiment Indigenous Boarding Schools, Genocide, and Redress in Canada and the United States, Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 2015.
Sitography
Aboriginal Healing Foundation, The Healing Has Begun, Ottawa, Aboriginal Healing Foundation, 2002, https://www.ahf.ca/publications/residential-school-resources, web (last accessed 25/03/2022).
Mitchell, Audra, “Decolonizing the Anthropocene”, 2015 https://worldlyir.wordpress.com/2015/03/17/decolonising-the-anthropocene/, web (last accessed 28/02/2022).
National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Report, Volume A, 2019, https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/final-report/, web (last accessed 20/03/2022).
The Canadian Encyclopedia, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/sun-dance, web (last accessed 10/03/2022).
TRC Reports, 2015, https://nctr.ca/records/reports/#trc-reports, web (last accessed 20/03/2022).
Whyte, Kyle, “To solve the climate crisis, we must first repair our rela-tionships”, Grist, 08.09.2021, https://grist.org/climate/to-solve-the-climate-crisis-we-must-first-repair-our-relationships/, web (last accessed 25/03/2022).
Winter, Christine J., The Paralysis of Intergenerational Justice: Decolonising Entangled Futures (PhD Thesis), University of Sydney, retrieved from https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/handle/2123/18009, web (last accessed 25/03/2022).
WMO (World Meteorological Organization), “State of the Global Climate 2020”, 2021, https://library.wmo.int/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=21880#.Ydxrf_4o_rd, web, (last accessed 28/03/2022).
Published
2022-12-03
How to Cite
Mussi, F. (2022). North American Indigenous Perceptions of the Apocalypse and a Renewal of Kinship Relationships through the Imagination. Between, 12(24), 401-422. https://doi.org/10.13125/2039-6597/5158
Section
Essays
Copyright (c) 2022 Francesca Mussi
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Copyright Notice
You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work, and to adapt the work. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
