**Please note: This event has now booked out. If you would like access to the online recording when it becomes available please contact Lauren Sanders at the details below**
In settler colonial states, such as Australia, Canada, and the United States, Indigenous peoples continue to suffer the effects of dispossession and a lack of self- determination. Yet within these colonised spaces, Indigenous peoples also find and create spaces of independence in which they exercise sovereignty through a range of political practices. This panel will explore the rich political dynamics of Indigenous ‘refusal’, ‘resurgence’, and ‘renewal’, moving debate away from the deficit discourse that frames contemporary debate towards a focus on Indigenous defiance, resilience, and independence.
Dr Sana Nakata, The University of Melbourne
Dr Nakata is a Torres Strait Islander, trained lawyer, and academic
interested in how children appear, and are understood, within political
debates. Early findings from her current research suggest that
Indigenous Australian children are represented as different from the
‘neutral’ and ‘universal’ category of children. Nakata is interested in
these conceptualisations’ implications and how they can be challenged
and reclaimed.
Associate Professor Sheryl Lightfoot, The University of British Columbia
Associate
Professor Lightfoot is Anishinaabe, a citizen of the Lake Superior Band
of Ojibwe. She is Canada Research Chair in Global Indigenous Rights and
Politics and Acting Co-Director of the Institute for Critical
Indigenous Studies at UBC. In addition to her academic work, Lightfoot
has fifteen years’ experience with many American Indian tribes and
community-based organisations. Her work examines the history of the
Indigenous rights movement and the importance of Indigenous rights
implementation to transformational Indigenous, national, and global
politics.
Professor Audra Simpson, Columbia University
Professor Simpson is an anthropologist interested in declarative
claims and practices of independent citizenship and nationhood which
occur regardless of state sanctioned recognition. Her work is motivated
by the Kahnawake Mohawks’ struggle to afford political recognition to
each other in various places and the challenges of such membership
against a history of colonial imposition.