October 7th - Online Keynote Lecture: "Distorted Descent: Mapping practices of settler self-Indigenization" by Darryl Leroux (Saint Mary's University, Halifax)

Dr. Leroux is known especially for his ground-breaking work on settler self-Indigenization in Canada. Settler self-Indigenization refers to a twenty-first century phenomenon whereby individuals and groups who have always identified and been identified as white and non-Indigenous develop a new identity as "Indigenous." As explained by Leroux, these emerging claims often rely on practices of descent that creatively transform the identities of one’s ancestors four centuries ago to serve contemporary identity claims.

In the past years, settler self-Indigenization has become a source of growing tension and public debate also in the context of Indigenous arts, design and popular culture. This is the case especially in Canada where several high-profile individual cases have been exposed and debated.

Darryl Leroux's keynote lecture, which will shed light on the ways in which white French-Canadians use descent to construct themselves as Indigenous, will therefore be of great relevance not only for those interested in Indigenous-settler relations, but for contemporary debates relating to Indigenous cultural politics and policy at large.

In addition to mapping the practices of settler self-Indigenization, Dr. Leroux draws our attention to the complex consequences that settler interest in becoming “Indigenous" has for Indigenous self-determination and sovereignty and for the reconstitution of white settler identities in the present.

The lecture will be held in Zoom on October 7th 2021, 14:00-15.15 (Norwegian time/ UTC+02).

To register for the event, please go to:
https://uit.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_w5MZa-wlQgSr8h6qf8IiDg

PLEASE NOTE THAT PREREGISTRATION IS REQUIRED, AND THAT REGISTRATION WILL CLOSE 2 HOURS BEFORE THE EVENT STARTS.
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Darryl Leroux is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Social Justice and Community Studies at Saint Mary’s University in Kjipuktuk (Halifax, Nova Scotia). His work on the politics of settler colonialism in Canada has been published in aboriginal policy studies, American Indian Culture and Research Journal, Interventions, Journal of Critical Ethnic Studies, Memory Studies, Politique et sociétés, and Social Studies of Science, among others. His book, Distorted Descent: White Claims to Indigenous Identity, was published by the University of Manitoba Press in 2019. (https://uofmpress.ca/books/detail/distorted-descent)
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The online lecture is offered as the first among a series of activities that will be organized over the coming three years by the research group New Sámi Renaissance: Nordic colonialism, social change and Indigenous cultural policy (NESAR, 2021-2024). NESAR is funded by the Research Council of Norway and hosted by the University Museum and Academy of Arts (UMAK), Arctic University of Norway UiT.

For further information about the event,
please contact Dr. Laura Junka-Aikio, https://en.uit.no/project/nesar/contact

For general information on the NESAR research project, please go to
https://en.uit.no/project/nesar