Pathologizing Indigeneity in the Caledonia “Crisis”

Abstract

Disability studies scholarship in Canada continues to place the experiences, identities and embodiments of Indigenous peoples in places of marginality. This paper offers to correct this by centralizing land struggles and the activism done by Indigenous peoples in Caledonia, Ontario. The author will critically analyze texts in order to show how the news media reflects “Canadian” mythologies to its audience when discussing the Caledonia “crisis” in 2006 – 2007. This paper examines the Canadian news media’s use of disability tropes as it imbricates disability with Indigeneity. This imbrication acts as a tool to pathologize Indigenous peoples and ensure that settler colonialism remains immune to scrutiny. By connecting Indigenous peoples to pathology, settlers can continue to understand themselves as the rightful inhabitants and owners of Turtle Island in Caledonia. This paper offers a new theoretical standpoint within disability studies scholarship, one which centralizes decolonization so as to bring discursive constructions of Indigeneity and disability into conversation with each other.

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