BIO
Tania Searle is a PhD candidate at Flinders University, South Australia. Her interest is in identifying decolonising practices employed by non-Indigenous professionals who work with Indigenous peoples in the ‘contact zone’. Her doctoral research aims to capture the strategies and innovations employed by non-Indigenous allies in two international sites that prioritise Indigenous sovereignty in natural resource management. In 2018 Tania received the Jerzy Zubrzycki Postgraduate Award from The Australia Sociological Association for research that promotes cultural pluralism.
TITLE
“Facilitating Posthuman Agency through Indigenous Sovereigns”
ABSTRACT
The European construction of human as superior and separate to nature underpins Western sovereignty. This justified the colonisation of Indigenous lands and the oppression of Indigenous peoples across the globe. Today, in the age of the anthropocene and the environmental crisis, Western governments are increasingly collaborating with Indigenous sovereigns on issues of natural resource management (NRM). Previous work in this space has highlighted that conflicts between Western and Indigenous ontologies hinder successful partnerships and NRM largely remains a dominant colonising mechanism. Posthumanism offers an innovative theoretical framework to examine this space, capturing both inter-human and intra-human relationships. Further, posthuman philosophy finds common ground with Indigenous epistemologies that have understood human and non-human connectivity for millennia. In this qualitative study, I examine two international sites that prioritise Indigenous sovereignty in NRM, 1) the Kungun Yunnan Ngarrindjeri (Listen to Ngarrindjeri Speaking) Agreement, South Australia, and 2) the Transboundary Columbia River Treaty, United States of America and Canada. Non-Indigenous participants at these sites articulate a deep understanding of how Indigenous sovereignty is underpinned by an epistemology of relation and connection and concur that Western culture is underpinned by an epistemology of separation and domination. Through their work in government, academia and law, participants at these sites exercise their agency within Western structures to prioritise Indigenous sovereignty. While trapped inside Western culture, participants exercise minimal posthuman agency directly but facilitate posthuman agency through Indigenous sovereigns. In their efforts to make room for Indigenous decision-making they begin to lean into the posthuman turn.
EVENT
NYU Global Posthuman 2020
Tania Searle is a PhD candidate at Flinders University, South Australia. Her interest is in identifying decolonising practices employed by non-Indigenous professionals who work with Indigenous peoples in the ‘contact zone’. Her doctoral research aims to capture the strategies and innovations employed by non-Indigenous allies in two international sites that prioritise Indigenous sovereignty in natural resource management. In 2018 Tania received the Jerzy Zubrzycki Postgraduate Award from The Australia Sociological Association for research that promotes cultural pluralism.
TITLE
“Facilitating Posthuman Agency through Indigenous Sovereigns”
ABSTRACT
The European construction of human as superior and separate to nature underpins Western sovereignty. This justified the colonisation of Indigenous lands and the oppression of Indigenous peoples across the globe. Today, in the age of the anthropocene and the environmental crisis, Western governments are increasingly collaborating with Indigenous sovereigns on issues of natural resource management (NRM). Previous work in this space has highlighted that conflicts between Western and Indigenous ontologies hinder successful partnerships and NRM largely remains a dominant colonising mechanism. Posthumanism offers an innovative theoretical framework to examine this space, capturing both inter-human and intra-human relationships. Further, posthuman philosophy finds common ground with Indigenous epistemologies that have understood human and non-human connectivity for millennia. In this qualitative study, I examine two international sites that prioritise Indigenous sovereignty in NRM, 1) the Kungun Yunnan Ngarrindjeri (Listen to Ngarrindjeri Speaking) Agreement, South Australia, and 2) the Transboundary Columbia River Treaty, United States of America and Canada. Non-Indigenous participants at these sites articulate a deep understanding of how Indigenous sovereignty is underpinned by an epistemology of relation and connection and concur that Western culture is underpinned by an epistemology of separation and domination. Through their work in government, academia and law, participants at these sites exercise their agency within Western structures to prioritise Indigenous sovereignty. While trapped inside Western culture, participants exercise minimal posthuman agency directly but facilitate posthuman agency through Indigenous sovereigns. In their efforts to make room for Indigenous decision-making they begin to lean into the posthuman turn.
EVENT
NYU Global Posthuman 2020
