Main content

Prairie rising : indigenous youth, decolonization, and the politics of intervention

Available Formats:

Details:

  • Date:
    Created
    2017
    Summary:

    In 2016, Canada's newly elected federal government publically committed to reconciling the social and material deprivation of Indigenous communities across the country. Does this outward shift in the Canadian state's approach to longstanding injustices facing Indigenous peoples reflect a "transformation with teeth," or is it merely a reconstructed attempt at colonial Indigenous-settler relations? Prairie Rising provides a series of critical reflections about the changing face of settler colonialism in Canada through an ethnographic investigation of Indigenous-state relations in the city of Saskatoon. Jaskiran Dhillon uncovers how various groups including state agents, youth workers, and community organizations utilize participatory politics in order to intervene in the lives of Indigenous youth living under conditions of colonial occupation and marginality. In doing so, this accessibly written book sheds light on the changing forms of settler governance and the interlocking systems of education, child welfare, and criminal justice that sustain it. Dhillon's nuanced and fine-grained analysis exposes how the push for inclusionary governance ultimately reinstates colonial settler authority and raises startling questions about the federal government's commitment to justice and political empowerment for Indigenous Nations, particularly within the context of the everyday realities facing Indigenous youth.

    Contents:
    • Breakage : settler colonization, violence, and the possibility (still) of self-determined destiny
    • The making of crisis stories
    • The seduction of participation : they say the best is yet to come
    • Policing the boundaries and debates over what's "real"
    • Justice in a binder : cultural currency and urban indigenous youth
    • The dislocation of self.
    Original Publisher: Toronto, Buffalo, London, University of Toronto Press
    Language(s): English
    ISBN: 9781442646926, 1442646926, 9781442614710, 1442614714