Representing Ecocides in Settler Colonial Arts and Literatures.
The panel, "Representing Ecocides in Settler Colonial Arts and Literatures", will be organised at the 2024 NeMLA Conference, from March 7-10, 2024, in Boston, MA.
The panel aims at examining literary and artistic representations of ecocides in settler colonial literatures. Destabilizing the traditional settler colonial narrative, opposing white settlers to Indigenous peoples, the panel will interrogate how the overexploitation of natural resources and the destruction of endogenous fauna and flora are perceived by the various communities who co-exist in settler colonies, whether they are Indigenous peoples, white settlers, non-white settlers, migrants, or political and environmental refugees. Too often, ecocides are framed in the ‘dying’ discourse settler colonialism itself constructs to justify inaction, exactions, and overexploitation of local natural and human resources. Sometimes, the national narrative denies them altogether, as in Aotearoa New Zealand which continues to herald its “100% Pure” myth despite the fragility of many endogenous species, massive agricultural production, and the growing number of endangered endemic plants.
Ecocides are ecological genocides whose narratives can be analysed from various standpoints, such as environmental humanities, trauma studies, disaster studies, postcolonial and decolonial studies, and Indigenous studies. Grace Dillon (Anishinaabe) refers to settler colonialism as a “Post-Native Apocalypse World”, a concept which is pertinent for this panel as Indigenous epistemologies promoting a form of symbiosis between humans and the land have persisted over the years despite massive land confiscation, the loss of sovereignty, a long process of assimilation, and genocides. In this context, the roles women and girls from various communities have in settler colonies to preserve local fauna and flora can be examined from Indigenous and non-Indigenous ecofeminist perspectives.
To participate, please submit a 300 word abstract alongside a short biography to the NeMLA website: