VANISHING AT THE BORDER

• Main Author: Robinder Kaur Sehdev
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Canada; Steamboat; First Nations
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.695.7749; http://www.acrawsa.org.au/files/ejournalfiles/71RobinderKaurSehdev.pdf

Literature on Canadian nationalism suggests that living in Canada is living the border, a frustratingly self-conscious place to be. The border divides Canada from the U.S., but this is secondary to its colonial function. In parcelling out land between the two settler nations, it acts as a colonial border, a marker of settler power and entitlement on Native lands. First Nations are both at home on their lands and profoundly alienated from them within the settler state. Nowhere could this be more apparent than at Niagara Falls, where the image of a dying Native woman, known as the Maid of the Mist, helped to form the tourist industry. In 1996 the myth of the maid was abandoned by its chief promoter, the Maid of the Mist Steamboat Corporation. This abandonment sparks questions of visibility and representation, community and responsibility. What does the Maid of the Mist’s presence obscure or render invisible? What does her absence make visible? These questions contribute to the interrogation of the settler nation, and in acknowledging them, the settler nation is challenged to become the decolonial nation.