Afterword: Beyond Gestural Politics

• Published in: Eighteenth-Century Fiction
• Main Author: Richardson, Robbie
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) 2020
• Subjects: Literature and Literary Theory; First Nations
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.3138/ecf.33.2.227; https://utpjournals.press/doi/pdf/10.3138/ecf.33.2.227

In recent years, a growing number of academic institutions have been more proactive about “decolonizing” and “indigenizing” the academy in the interest of being more inclusive of Indigenous knowledges and topics. Such shifts in stated institutional priorities or raised consciousness among settler scholars have not corresponded, however, to significant changes in the material conditions in which First Nations people live; in fact, we are in some cases witnessing an intensification of state and settler violence against First Nations’ efforts to uphold treaty rights, many first negotiated in the eighteenth century, and to protect sovereign lands. More radical change than superficial acknowledgments and openness to new epistemologies is needed if academia is to contribute meaningfully to Indigenous survivance.