Colonial Erasure in Canada: Recognizing Disavowal and Respecting Indigenous Critique

Why does violence against Indigenous Peoples disappear so quickly from popular memory in Canada? Building on his book, Shaping the Future on Haida Gwaii and more recent writing, Joseph Weiss will suggest that part of the project of settler colonialism on countries in Canada is based on a continual process of disavowal, the systematic and ongoing denial of the realities of colonial domination even though these realities are always, at the same time, evident and obvious.

Moving between historical and contemporary narratives of colonial disavowal, Weiss will explore how the erasure of violence shapes the ability for Canadians to characterize and represent their country as legitimate, equitable, and tolerant, as capable of “reconciliation,” even as police and military actions are consistent and recurrent across the country. In order to recognize and call out this violence, Weiss will argue, settler need to listen to the many different modalities of Indigenous critique and resistance that refuse, and have always refused, ongoing colonial attempts to make the violence of domination disappear.