Year: 2016
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This thesis is an exploration of Nishnaabeg geography in what is now known as Southern Ontario that takes into consideration the dominating settler colonial context. Using a mixed method of textual document analysis, and embodied research, I develop a Nishnaabeg geography of a region colonized by a the Trent Severn Waterway (TSW), a large canal composed of several locks and dams that connect natural lakes, and dense settlement in the form of privately owned cottages. The TSW was integral to establishing settlement in the region and is commemorated as a part of Canada’s nation-building project over Indigenous lands. This research considers how the colonization of the water contributed to the creation of a built colonialscape and helped to spatialize Indigenous land relations as belonging “somewhere else.” I argue that in spite of these imagined spatializations, the Indigenous landscape continues to live on beneath the built colonialscape in geographical layers.
Source: TSpace (University of Toronto)
Author: Madeline Whetung
Language: English
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2610764779