Our Spiritual Relations : Challenging Settler Colonial Possessiveness of Indigenous Spirituality/Religion

• Published in: Anthropologica
• Main Authors: LeBlanc, Jeanine, Gareau, Paul L.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: University of Victoria 2023
• Subjects: Indigenous spirituality/religion; white possessiveness; eroticanalysis; Indigenous feminisms; research creation; self-portraiture; archives; nationhood/peoplehood; kinship governance; Mi’kmaq Nation; Métis Nation; spiritualité et religion autochtone; possessivité blanche; analyse érotique; féminismes autochtones; création de recherche; autoportrait; nation/peuple; gouvernance de la parenté; nation mi’kmaq; nation métisse; Mi’kmaq
• Online Access: http://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1109802ar; https://doi.org/10.18357/anthropologica65120232599

Indigenous spirituality is often appropriated and deployed in support of white settler values that possess and dispossess Indigenous knowledges, materiality, and socio-political relations. As Kim TallBear explains, this settler property regime maintains a colonial exceptionalism that justifies settler naturalization to Indigenous territories. Indigenous spirituality/religion represents situated knowledges and socio-political relations that cannot be abstracted from collective and co-constitutive relations. LeBlanc and Gareau turn to their respective communities to articulate how relations are central to understanding Indigenous spirituality/religion. LeBlanc employs Savage (Tracy) Bear’s eroticanalysis to see Mi’kmaq women’s spiritual/religious relations in the settler archives as well as situate herself in these relations through photographic self-portraiture. Gareau unpacks the spiritual/religious relations of the Métis fiddle in Maria Campbell’s Road Allowance story of “La Beau Sha Shoo” where a Métis fiddler dies and goes to heaven to drink and visit with Jesus. Throughout, spirituality/religion represents the self-determination of separate but related collective and co-constitutive nations/peoples. La spiritualité autochtone est souvent détournée et déployée pour soutenir les valeurs des colons blancs qui possèdent et dépossèdent les savoirs, la matérialité et les relations sociopolitiques autochtones. Comme l’explique Kim TallBear, ce régime de propriété des colons maintient un exceptionnalisme colonial qui justifie la naturalisation des territoires autochtones par les colons. La spiritualité/religion autochtone représente des connaissances et des relations sociopolitiques situées qui ne peuvent être abstraites des relations collectives et co-constitutives. LeBlanc et Gareau se tournent vers leurs communautés respectives pour expliquer comment les relations sont essentielles à la compréhension de la spiritualité/religion autochtone. LeBlanc utilise l’analyse érotique de Savage (Tracy) Bear pour voir les ...