Colonialism, Indigenous Knowledge and Environment

This seminar is about the impact of colonialism on the environment and on the relationship between people and the environment in settler colonial contexts in particular. We start out by taking a look at the foundation of post- and decolonial theory, covering colonial situations in different areas of the world. The focus is here on the role of scientific knowledge as an element of colonial control, and the way that academia and academic and cultural institutions have often enabled the acquisition and use of such knowledge over colonial others, in particular in the case of Indigenous, First Nations and Aboriginal people and groups. To put this in context, we will examine Indigenous concepts of the environment and their relationship with it in contrast to those in the West, but also take a critical look at the idea of Indigenous people as the stewards of the environment.