The stories told about ‘extinction’ matter greatly: they embody theories about what is causing the global-scale destruction of plants, animals and other beings, and what might stop it. Dominant Western scientific stories/theories frame this phenomenon as the unintended result of desirable human activities. They prescribe the scientific management of remaining ‘biodiversity’ within structures driven by colonization, extractivism and other violent logics. In contrast, Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Nêhiyaw and many other Indigenous stories/theories that address this issue understand ‘extinction’ as an expression of the breaking of laws, treaties and protocols between particular peoples, plants, animals, land, water and other beings. This relation-breaking violence is embedded in everyday manifestations of colonial violence and in the genocides of humans and nonhuman peoples. Centring Haudenosaunee, Anishinaabeg, Nêhiyaw and critical Western/settler stories/theories, this contribution argues that halting ‘extinction’ means not only dismantling structures of law-breaking and structural violence, but also repairing the relations that those laws, treaties and protocols uphold. It also honours the efforts of Indigenous resurgents doing the crucial work of repairing these relations.
Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 63 citations exist upstream.
Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.