Discursive Infrastructures of Settler Colonialism: The Coastal Gaslink Pipeline, Indigenous Workers, and the Ongoing Promise of Integration.

This article examines how the mainstream media and many Liberal and Conservative federal politicians marshalled narratives of Indigenous oil and gas workers during large-scale mobilizations against the Coastal GasLink pipeline in the winter of 2020. The author identifies a dominant vision of Canada...

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Published in:Journal of Canadian Studies Vol. 58; no. 2; pp. 366 - 392
Main Author: Lajoie-O'Malley, Alana
Format: Article
Published: University of Toronto Press Jul2024
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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        Imperialism
        Natural gas pipelines
        Canadian Pacific Railway Co.
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        This article examines how the mainstream media and many Liberal and Conservative federal politicians marshalled narratives of Indigenous oil and gas workers during large-scale mobilizations against the Coastal GasLink pipeline in the winter of 2020. The author identifies a dominant vision of Canada as a technologically capable nation of people who work hard to derive wealth from the land, and the author shows how narratives about Indigenous oil and gas workers became important parts of this vision. The author interprets these findings through the writings of Indigenous resurgence scholars as well as through work in science and technology studies that documents and theorizes the co-constitution of dominant technoscience, colonial power, and the ethical stances towards work and land that both require. Through this interpretive lens, the author invokes the historical example of the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railroad to highlight continuities between the discourse from 2020 and older discursive, institutional, and material assertions of colonial power. In 2020, the mainstream media and many politicians' narratives about Indigenous oil and gas workers helped naturalize the idea that working hard to extract value from land is a universally shared stage in human development through which all peoples must pass. This helped legitimize mechanisms of assimilation by presenting them as meaningful steps in the process of reconciliation.
        Le présent article décrit comment les médias traditionnels et de nombreux politiciens libéraux et conservateurs fédéraux ont monopolisé les récits des travailleurs autochtones du pétrole et du gaz lors des mobilisations à grande échelle contre le gazoduc Coastal GasLink à l'hiver 2020. L'autrice met en évidence une vision dominante du Canada, perçue comme une nation compétente sur le plan technologique et constituée de personnes qui travaillent fort pour tirer de la richesse du territoire, et elle démontre que les récits sur les travailleurs autochtones du pétrole et du gaz se sont retrouvés au cœur de cette vision. Elle interprète ces observations à partir des écrits des scientifiques de la résurgence autochtone et des travaux en études des sciences et de la technologie qui éclairent et théorisent la cocréation des technosciences dominantes, du pouvoir colonial et des positions morales envers le travail et le territoire dont tous deux ont besoin. Par ce regard interprétatif, l'autrice invoque l'exemple historique de la construction du chemin de fer du Canadien Pacifique pour souligner la continuité entre le discours de 2020 et les affirmations discursifs, institutionnels et matériels plus anciens du pouvoir colonial. En 2020, les médias traditionnels et de nombreux récits de politiciens sur les travailleurs autochtones du pétrole et du gaz ont contribué à naturaliser l'idée selon laquelle un travail acharné pour dégager plus de valeur du territoire est une étape universelle du développement humain, par laquelle chacun doit passer. Cette vision a contribué à légitimer les mécanismes d'assimilation, présentés comme des étapes importantes dans le processus de réconciliation.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
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    language: English
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