Do Nothing

Doing nothing will not dismantle coloniality, or the structures of settler colonialism that continue to present barriers for some people, while posing advantages for others. Doing nothing doesn't render us innocent. Nor does doing "something" with the intentions.

Working as a white, settler guest on matters of wildlife conservation, especially in Indigenous contexts, places me in a particular lineage of administrative and scientific agents that have historically played a disruptive role in Indigenous human/nature relationships -often under the flag of bringing the ‘right’ intentions or acting from morally ‘innocent’ position.

Considering this cultural inheritance, I have had to come to terms with my choice to insert myself in the Arctic as an international student as an action that has implicated me directly in the material dynamics of ongoing settler-colonialism, and reconciliation in Inuit Nunangat (the Inuit homelands).

It has been challenging to realize that, despite my cautious and critical positioning towards the complex relationship between the apparatus of western wildlife conservation and Indigenous rights, I still have had to (and continue to have to) undo many colonial imaginaries and narratives about ‘research’ and ‘the Arctic’.

Such realizations come with an awareness to tread carefully and with openness to being held accountable- the latter of which I understand as a commitment to embracing my role as a researcher to be non-innocent.

Such an embrace entails learning to become comfortable with discomfort, incommensurability and unlearning, while also applying myself and my research towards a futurity of meaningful settler/Indigenous decolonization-reconciliation- with a willingness to learn and adapt my direction on the way.

"Return" and find another path to stay with the trouble of "recognition".

Return: Politics of recognition