An Anishinaabe Politics of the International: Odaenuah, Akina, miniwaa Gchi’naaknigewin

Abstract

In the discipline of International Relations (IR) Indigenous philosophy and politics has been excused, marginalized and categorized as domestic, at best. Indeed, IR is implicated in both spawning and sustaining settler colonialism in Canada. But Indigenous philosophies of the international are beginning to re-emerge and respond. The first half of this dissertation is an attempt to re-articulate an “authentic” Anishinaabeg international politics. Considering stories, treaty history, and diplomatic practice reveals that relationships within Anishinaabe communities and among non-Anishinaabe individuals and communities (including non-humans) demand autonomy, fluidity and obligation. This is a challenge to core IR concepts of state, sovereignty, and anarchy. The second half of the dissertation shifts attention to settler colonialism and the attendant technologies and discursive fields that support it. While it is clear that Canadian legal and political orders have resulted in tremendous disruption, Indigenous peoples nonetheless continue to enforce their vision of self-determination by manipulating and sabotaging the institutions of settler colonialism. This is a contemporary form of Anishinaabe and Indigenous international politics.