Race, Ethnicity, Indigenous Peoples and Politics

L08 - Nationalism, Culture, Belonging

Date: May 31 | Time: 08:45am to 10:15am | Location: Classroom - CL 418 Room ID:15761

Chair/Président/Présidente : Steve White (Carleton University)

Discussant/Commentateur/Commentatrice : Steve White (Carleton University)

Cultural Non-essentialism: An Intervention in the Culture Debate: Dianne Lalonde (Western University)
Abstract: The concepts of culture and cultural membership are important for theories of multiculturalism and the politics of identity, but definitions of culture either seem stuck in essentialist understandings or wholly lacking. Cultural essentialists posit that there is a set definition of culture, often determined on a genetic basis. Many theorists have rightly critiqued essentialism, but it still seems to have a popular hold. In part, that may be because critiques of cultural essentialism do not often offer another basis through which to understand and define culture. In my intervention, I advance a non-essentialist account of culture grounded in the genealogical method. Non-essentialism best enables there to be some definition of culture, which is important to addressing cultural oppression, while still maintaining that cultures change, grow, and adapt. By utilizing the genealogical method, cultural non-essentialism draws on history to show how culture is embodied and changing, as opposed to set and reified.

Canada and Israel: Two States, One Settler Colonialism?: TBA ()
Abstract: Zionist settler colonial narratives of Palestinians as terrorist “invaders” and Israelis as belonging to the land seek to justify Israel’s ever-expanding illegal military occupation of Palestine, erasure of Palestinian spaces, and theft of Palestinian lands along with dispossession of Palestinian people. In Canada, settler colonialism is comprised of efforts to eliminate Indigenous Nations through economic and environmental violence, land theft, gendered physical and sexual violence, incarceration and forced assimilation. While settler colonialism is commonly understood to be a closed system within a specific nation state, this paper examines the idea that, in fact, the settler colonial enterprise between the states of Canada and Israel is a single system with interdependent economic and political policies and actions. Colonial control over, and simultaneous economic violence against, Indigenous Nations in Canada is indivisible from Canada’s financial and political support for the Jewish National Fund which participates in the funding of illegal settlements and forcible displacement of Palestinians in Jerusalem and the West Bank. The signing of the Canada-Israel Public Security Partnership has further intertwined mutual military support, including the military violence of occupation and against Indigenous resistance. While Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has publicly declared his intention to fight anti-Zionism; Zionism being the political movement determined to empty Palestine of Palestinians. Is Canadian-Israeli settler colonialism is a single endeavor aimed at successfully controlling lands and natural resources for the benefit of both colonial States? This paper explores the possibilities.

Redefinition Of Belonging In South Africa: Israel Ekanade (University of Venda South Africa)
Abstract: The operationalisation of Black belonging was different during the apartheid era as Africans were united in the liberation struggle, utilising African brotherhood to quell White supremacist rule in South Africa. With the demise of apartheid, South Africa was opened up and thus became a choice destination to other nations of the world especially African nations. Socio-economic, political and other forms of challenges facing African states has propelled movements into South Africa. These movements have led to contestations between locals and Black non-South Africans for scarce economic opportunities especially at the informal level leading to a series of violence executed by the indigent populace against other nationals especially blacks from other African countries. Xenophobic violence in 2008, 2015 and 2017 has redefined belonging patterns in the former apartheid enclave. These episodes resulted to internal displacements, loss of lives and properties, forced repatriation and loss of confidence in the South African state. Using social identity theory to explain this study, locals resented blacks from other African states because of competition for jobs and housing in informal settlements. Qualitative research methods inform of interviews discovered that non-South Africans were being discriminated against on the basis of nationality, blamed for economic woes and transmission of diseases, stereotyped negatively, and were victims of abuse in the hands of government security agencies and disenchanted locals. The paper concludes by advising government to address service delivery and unemployment issues. Keywords: African brotherhood, belonging, contestations, migration, service delivery, xenophobia