Publication details
(De)colonizing Turtle Island : Indigenous Veganism and Gender Activism
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| Year of publication | 2021 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | Indigenous scholars who incorporate critical animal perspectives in their work show that anthropocentrism was normalized in colonial North America together with patriarchy. In order to participate in the fur trade, fishing industry, and factory farming, Indigenous peoples had to adjust their practices and start viewing nonhuman animals as absent referents. This detachment from nonhuman animals also strengthened gender hierarchies. Therefore, Indigenous vegan scholars maintain that decolonization has to go hand in hand with the dismantling of patriarchy and anthropocentrism. This paper will argue that critical animal perspectives could shed light on the ongoing epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women on Turtle Island. Billy-Ray Belcourt proposes decolonial animal ethic to draw parallels between the colonization of Indigenous peoples and nonhuman animals. Employing Belcourt's theory to colonial gender violence unmasks the ways Indigenous women are confined to spaces of violence where they are rendered invisible. Furthermore, the paper will draw on Sunaura Taylor's concept of (in)dependence to highlight parallels between Indigenous women's and nonhuman animals' state-induced dependency that further ostracises and endangers them. Recalling Carol Adams, the paper will underscore the connection between the consumption of nonhuman animals and Indigenous women, both of whom are objectified and whose oppression is largely ignored both before and after they are turned into absent referents. On particular examples from Canada, the paper will show that gender activism flourishes alongside vegan activism as Indigenous vegans bring critical animal perspectives into decolonial movements and contest normalized anthropocentrism in academic and activist spaces. |
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