Indigenous Feminist Philosophy in Idle No More: Theorizing the Space-Time of Canada’s Settler Colonial Politics and Alternative Decolonial Imaginaries

Abstract

In this thesis, I explore Indigenous feminist philosophy from the ground up through a case study of Indigenous women’s political organizing through Idle No More (INM). Specifically, I examine the ways in which Indigenous feminist resistance in INM identifies a spatiotemporal configuration of both Canadian settler state politics and decolonial alternatives. To do so, I use state, media, and public responses, rhetoric, and actions that emerged in response to the Idle No More movement, as well as the actions, rhetoric, written works, and Indigenous political orders of the Idle No More protestors. These interventions illustrate that: (1) settler colonialism constitutes the spatiotemporal configuration of Canadian politics, functioning to contain and eliminate Indigenous political life; (2) Idle No More was configured by the spatiotemporal configuration of Indigenous political orders, which express temporal relations that span the past, present, and future, enabling them to create alternative, decolonial imaginaries with novel forms of politics and power. Drawing on Idle No More’s political interventions, I theorize new Treaty imaginaries.