Disjunctures: Indigenous Redirections in Political Theory

As some settler states set out on the difficult and highly contested political project of reconciliation--seeking a legitimate way of living and sharing the land among the Indigenous peoples, settlers, and others who now call these places home--it is important to evaluate the reality which will shape the path forward. In Disjunctures, Yann Allard-Tremblay argues that, even given the variations within Indigenous and Euro-modern political traditions, the two are fundamentally too different to offer any theoretical or practical political options for a middle ground. Allard-Tremblay terms these irreconcilable and inconsistent paths toward reconciliation disjunctures. While dominant Euro-modern political structures are modeled on justice, sovereign autonomy, and non-reciprocal and non-responsive governance, Indigenous traditions emphasize harmony and are non-hierarchical, non-coercive, and responsive to other humans, other-than-humans, and ecological contexts. These disjunctures do not make reconciliation impossible, but reveal that reconciliation can only be achieved by undertaking a deep transformation of dominant political structures and identities, and ways of being, doing, and knowing. Because Indigenous politics provide vital alternatives to oppressive and ecologically destructive relationships, Allard-Tremblay makes the case for a redirection of political theory and conduct toward Indigenous systems and decolonization.

Yann Allard-Tremblay is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at McGill University and a Senior Research Associate of the African Centre for Epistemology and Philosophy of Science at the University of Johannesburg. He is a member of the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists of the Royal Society of Canada. He holds a PhD in Philosophy from the Universities of St Andrews and Stirling. As a member of the Huron-Wendat First Nation, his work is committed to the decolonization and Indigenization of political theory.