Laura Phillips - A settler view from ongoing colonized lands

Presentation by Laura Phillips at the Unsettled Objects: post-colonial perceptions of belonging, exile and home global forum 28-30 September 2021. Organised by the UNESCO Chair in RILA at the University of Glasgow in collaboration with Glasgow Museums. Laura Phillips is a PhD candidate in Cultural Studies at Queen's University, an instructor on the Masters in Museum Studies at the University of Toronto and a co-instructor for Decolonizing Museums in Practice at museumstudy.com.

1. A SETTLER VIEW
FROM ONGOING
COLONIZED LANDS
LAURA PHILLIPS,
PH.D.CANDIDATE, CULTURAL STUDIES, QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY
& INSTRUCTOR, M.ST. MUSEUM STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO,
& CO-INSTRUCTOR, DECOLONIZING MUSEUMS IN PRACTICE,
MUSEUMSTUDY.COM

2. “…a statement of positionality that seeks to make visible the ways by which
non-Indigenous people have benefitted from colonial policy such as the
Indian Act in Canada and the genocidal policies of Indian Residential
Schools…the term “settler” has been adopted as a form of self -
identification by those who were not, historically, the first settlers of
the already occupied Indigenous lands now known as Canada, but nevertheless
understand their complicity in and benefit from ongoing colonial policies
that continue to constrain Indigenous rights and resurgence….”
Hungry Listening: Resonant Theory for Indigenous Sound Studies
(Minnesota University Press, 2020), pp. 38.
DYLAN ROBINSON (STÓ:LŌ)

3. COREY SNELGROVE (SETTLER)
“When reflecting on the meaning of ‘settle’, I think about what it means to
materially take up residence, to take up abode in a foreign country, which I have done.
‘To settle’ is an attitude, a way of being that gets fixed in one’s heart and mind, such
that I don’t have to think about the violence against Indigenous peoples if I choose not
to; it is to presume permanency, a temporality without an end; it is a way to establish
authority over others, as the State and its settlers seek to do over Indigenous peoples;
it is a mode of masculinity in which the land is married to exploitative capital; to
settle does not require all settlers to own private property, but like many settlers I
do. I now have citizenship in Canada, I was born and educated in the UK, and later
further educated in Canada, I speak English with a western accent, I have a middle -class
income, I carry no overt religious markings, and I have settled on stolen Indigenous
land.”
Snelgrove, Corey, et al. “Unsettling Settler Colonialism: The Discourse and Politics of
Settlers, and Solidarity with Indigenous Nations.”
Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society , vol. 3, no. 2, 2014, pp. 1 –32.
Also referenced: Terri -Lynn Brennan, Kingston First Peoples: Purposeful Dialogues:
Relationship Building: Phase 1 , Kingston: Community Engagement & Education,
CulturalServices, City of Kingston, 2015.

4. VANESSA WATTS
(MOHAWK / BEAR CLAN & ANISHINAABE)
“According to Haudenosaunee, Sky Woman fell from a hole in the sky. John Mohawk (2005) writes of her
journey towards the waters below. On her descent, Sky Woman fell through the clouds and air towards
water below. During her descent, birds could see this falling creature and saw she could not fly. They
came to her and helped to lower her slowly to waters beneath her. The birds told Turtle that she must
need a place to land, as she possessed no water legs. Turtle rose up, breaking through the surface so
that Sky Woman could land on Turtle’s back. Once landed, Sky Woman and Turtle began to form the earth,
the land becoming an extension of their bodies.
Amongst the Anishnaabe, a similar history is shared. Leanne Simpson (2011) retells the Anishnaabe
Creation Story, within the historical framework of the Seven Fires of Creation. The two fires that I
would like to relate to this idea of Place -Thought, is the Fifth and Sixth Fire. In the Fifth Fire,
Gizhe-Mnidoo (the Creator) placed his/her thoughts into seeds. In the Sixth Fire, Gizhe -Mnidoo created
First Woman (Earth), a place where these seeds could root and grow.
Before continuing, I would like to emphasize that these two events took place. They were not imagined or
fantasized. This is not lore, myth or legend. These histories are not longer versions of “and the moral
of the story is….”. This is what happened.”
“Indigenous Place-Thought and Agency Amongst Humans and Non Humans
(First Woman and Sky Woman Go On a European World Tour!),”
Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society , vol. 2, no. 1, 2013, pp. 21. My emphasis.

5. DEBORAH DOXTATOR
(BAY OF QUINTE MOHAWK)
“In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries explorers kept notebooks concerning local flora
and fauna, geological features and meteorological observations. Indian utensils, clothings,
customs, languages were also noted and specimens selected for safekeeping in Europe. Those
objects were kept as examples of the types of things one could expect to encounter in North
America with little or no interpretation of their cultural meaning…By the seventeenth
century, Europeans had certain fixed ideas about what an Indian was supposed to look like.
The physical remoteness of Indians to Europeans made it possible to create representations of
abstract ‘Indians’ that bore no resemblance to reality.”
Fluffs and Feathers: An Exhibit on the Symbols of Indianness: A Resource Guide
(Brantford, Ont: Woodland Cultural Centre, 1988): 20, 61.
Also referenced: Deborah Doxtator, “Inclusive and Exclusive Perceptions of Difference Native
and Euro-Based Concepts of Time History and Change,” Decentring the Renaissance: Canada and
Europe in Multidisciplinary Perspective, 1500 -1700 (University of Toronto Press, 2001).

6. TRC/ UNDRIP / OCAP
•UNDRIP Articles 11; 12; 13; 15; 19; 31
•Indigenous peoples have the right to protect their culture
•Redress/ restitution / repatriation is required by states
•Free, informed consent is required for all cultural matters
•Truth & Reconciliation Commission Call to Action 67:
“We call upon the federal government to provide funding to the Canadian Museums
Association to undertake, in collaboration with Aboriginal peoples, a national
review of museum policies and best practices to determine the level of compliance
with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and to
make recommendations. ”
•First Nations Information Governance Centre –Principles of OCAP
“The First Nations principles of ownership, control, access and possession [OCAP]
assert that First Nations have control over data collection processes, and that
they own and control how this information can be used ”.

7. EVE TUCK (UNANGAX̂, ST. PAUL ISLAND ALEUT) &
K. WAYNE YANG (SETTLER)
“Decolonization brings about the repatriation of Indigenous land and life; it
is not a metaphor for other things…Because settler colonialism is built upon
an entangled triad structure of settler -native-slave, the decolonial desires
of white, non-white, immigrant, postcolonial, and oppressed people, can
similarly be entangled in resettlement, reoccupation, and reinhabitation that
actually further settler colonialism. The metaphorization of decolonization
makes possible a set of evasions, or “settler moves to innocence”, that
problematically attempt to reconcile settler guilt and complicity, and rescue
settler futurity.”
“Decolonization Is Not a Metaphor,”
Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society ,
vol. 1, no. 1, 2012, pp. 1.

8. DAVID GARNEAU
(MÉTIS)
“The colonial attitude is characterized not only by scopophilia, a drive
to look, but also an urge to penetrate, to traverse, to know, to
translate, to own and exploit. The attitude assumes that everything should
be accessible to those with the means and will to access them; everything
is ultimately comprehensible, a potential commodity, resource, or salvage.
The academic branch of the enterprise collects and analyses the
experiences and things of others; it transforms story into text and
objects-in-relation into artifacts to be catalogued and stored or
displayed.”
“Imaginary Spaces of Conciliation and Reconciliation:
Art, Curation, and Healing”, Arts of Engagement: Taking Aesthetic Action
In and Beyond the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada ,
edited by Dylan Robinson and Keavy Martin
(Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2016): 23.

9. DAVID GARNEAU
(MÉTIS)
“Rather than accept the idea that there was a prior period of conciliation, we recognize the fact that the need
for conciliation is perpetual . Conciliation is an ongoingprocess, a seeking rather than the restoration of an
imagined agreement. The imaginary produced without Reconciliation emphasizes post -contact narratives: the
moment of conciliation settled as if it were a thing rather than a continuousrelationship…”
“…Conciliation is not the erasure of difference or sovereignty. Conciliation is not assimilation…The treaties
are historical facts, but honouring them requires a continuous relationship, which includes interpretation,
reinterpretation, and renegotiation. This is a perpetual concilation.”
“…Settlers who become unsettled -who are aware of their inheritance and implication in the colonial matrix , who
comprehend their unearned privileges and seek ways past racism -are settlers no longer ….they have become
respectful guests, which in turn allows Indigenous peoples to be graceful hosts.”
“Imaginary Spaces of Conciliation and Reconciliation:
Art, Curation, and Healing”, 31 -32; 28-29. My emphasis.