Abstract
Over the last 30 years, the self-determination efforts and objectives of Indigenous peoples in Canada have increasingly been cast in the language of ‘recognition’ — recognition of cultural distinctiveness, recognition of an inherent right to self-government, recognition of state treaty obligations, and so on. In addition, the last 15 years have witnessed a proliferation of theoretical work aimed at fleshing out the ethical, legal and political significance of these types of claims. Subsequently, ‘recognition’ has now come to occupy a central place in our efforts to comprehend what is at stake in contestations over identity and difference in colonial contexts more generally. In this paper, I employ Frantz Fanon's critique of Hegel's master–slave dialectic to challenge the now hegemonic assumption that the structure of domination that frames Indigenous–state relations in Canada can be undermined via a liberal politics of recognition. Against this assumption, I argue that instead of ushering in an era of peaceful coexistence grounded on the Hegelian ideal of reciprocity, the contemporary politics of recognition promises to reproduce the very configurations of colonial power that Indigenous demands for recognition have historically sought to transcend.
Notes
In the Canadian context, I use the terms ‘Indigenous’, ‘Aboriginal’ and ‘Native’ interchangeably to refer to the descendants of those who traditionally occupied the territory now known as Canada prior to the arrival of Europeans settlers. I also occasionally use these terms in an international context to refer to those peoples who have suffered under the weight of European colonialism more generally. I use the term ‘Indian’ and phrase ‘First Nation’ to refer to those legally recognized as Indians under the Canadian federal government's Indian Act of 1876.
In the following pages, I use the terms ‘colonial’ and ‘imperial’ interchangeably to avoid repetitiveness. However, I do so acknowledging the important distinction that Edward Said (1994), Robert Young (2001), James Tully (2004) and others have drawn between these two interrelated concepts. In their work, a colonial relationship is characterized as a more direct form of imperial rule. Imperialism is thus a broader concept, which may include colonialism, but could also be carried out indirectly through non-colonial means. Following this logic, a significant amount of the world's population can now be said to live in post-colonial condition despite the persistent operation of imperialism as a form of ‘political and economic’ dominance (Young, 2001, 27). Canada, of course, remains a settler colony in which indirect imperialism has never typified the relationship between Indigenous peoples and the settler-state and society.
A number of studies have mapped the similarities and differences between the dialectic of recognition as conceived by Fanon and Hegel, but relatively few have applied Fanon's insights to critique the groundswell appropriation of Hegel's theory of recognition to address contemporary questions surrounding the recognition of cultural diversity. Even fewer have used Fanon's writings to problematize the utility of a politics of recognition for restructuring hierarchical relations between disparate identities in colonial contexts. For a survey of the available literature, see Gendzier (1974), Bulhan (1985), Turner (1996), Hanssen (2000), Kruks (2001), Oliver (2001), Gibson (2002, 2003), Chari (2004) and Schaap (2004).
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Coulthard, G. Subjects of Empire: Indigenous Peoples and the ‘Politics of Recognition’ in Canada. Contemp Polit Theory 6, 437–460 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.cpt.9300307
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.cpt.9300307