Category Indigenous Studies
“How do I play these” (with your thumbs, asshole): Attending to the Indigenous structure of video games within the contexts of digitālis nullius
For me, the process of writing about Indigenous games begins with thinking about the relationship between gaming, code, and settler colonialism, as well as the ways in which I am complicit in what I call digitālis nullius, the erasure of Indigenous presence from technological spaces. As I hope to make evident as I progress through this blog post, code, narratology, and game mechanics are not abstract from larger conversations about settler colonialism and Indigenous sovereignty.
The Theatre of Regret Now Available from UBC Press
I am thrilled to announce that my first monograph, The Theatre of Regret: Art, Literature and the Politics of Reconciliation in Canada is now available from UBC Press. Hardcover and ebook are available for purchase here. Paperback available via Massy Books. A few of the chapters first found their way into the world via this […]
Writing in Relation: FNIS 300—A Summary of Engagement
Dear FNIS 300, Thank you for all of your work and attention this term. FNIS 300 can be a challenging course, both for the students and for the instructor, because it aims to weave writing fundamentals (clarity, concision, summary, citation, etc.) together with theoretical approaches to writing as developed within, or alongside, Indigenous studies. We […]
Recoding Relations: Dispatches from the Symposium for Indigenous New Media
David Gaertner and Melissa Haberl In June 2018, scholars, developers, artists, and community members from over twenty institutions and three continents gathered on the ancestral and unceded territory of the WSÁNEĆ, Lkwungen, and Wyomilth peoples to participate in the inaugural Symposium for Indigenous New Media (SINM). As part of the University of Victoria’s annual Digital […]
“the road to reconciliation is paved with g—dintentions”: Lack as Resistance in Joshua Whitehead’s Full-Metal Indigiqueer
Joshua Whitehead’s inaugural book of poetry, Full-Metal Indigiqueer is a series of poems told through Zoa, a trickster figure rendered through the lens of technology. Whitehead combines the figures of the singularity, virus, and hacker into a narrator that inhabits and deconstructs the Western literary cannon and popular media culture by infiltrating and re-writing the […]
Decolonial DH?: The Maker Movement Across Indigenous Studies and the Digital Humanities
Text from my keynote for DHSI@Congress. June 5, 2019. Good morning! It is so wonderful to be here with here with you during Congress 2019. This community has meant so much to me in my career, first as a grad student and now as a teacher and researcher, so it’s an honour to be with […]
Best Practices for Approaching Indigenous Studies through the Digital Humanities
The following list was compiled out of the Symposium for Indigenous New Media (#SINM18), which was held as part of the Digital Humanities Summer Institute (DHSI) in June, 2018. We welcome your feedback and suggestions in the comments below. 1) Be a good relation: build meaningful relationships with community and individuals and resist parachute DH-ing. […]
Reconciliation: “Like an Echo Turned Inside Out”
On the penultimate page of her 2017 dystopian speculative fiction novel, The Marrow Thieves, Métis author and editor Cherie Dimaline evokes the sound of an echo as a means elucidate the reunification of two residential school surviours: The scene is significant for a number of reasons, not least of all because it contains the only […]
Towards a Methodology of Closure
The colonial gaze is characterized not only by scopophilia, a drive to look, but also by an urge to penetrate, to traverse, to know, to translate, to own and exploit. The attitude assumes that everything should be accessible to those with the means and will to access them. (David Garneau, “Imaginary Space of Conciliation and […]
FNIS 220: Representation and Indigenous Cultural Politics
FNSP 220 explores the ways that Indigenous peoples seek to overcome the legacies of settler colonialism and claim sovereignty and self-determination through cultural production and critique. In this course, we will examine contemporary articulations of Indigenous identity, politics, and cultural traditions in the fields of literature, film, video games, and other modes of resurgent cultural […]
Novel Alliances 