Event Date: March 19, 2019 - 12:00pm to 1:30pm
Location: FSS4004, 120 University Private, Ottawa

Presented by CIPS and the International Theory Network

Borders are often understood as ‘tools’ of sovereign power and as establishing the very possibility for authority in the international system of sovereign states. This talk seeks to problematise this perspective by looking at the case of the Unist’ot’en Action Camp in northern British Columbia, which has engaged bordering practices including having established a checkpoint on the roadway into the Unist’ot’en territory and actively policing helicopter traffic into the territory. Looking at the Camp, the talk argues that such bordering practices draw upon traditional Indigenous ways of being in order to contest and undo settler sovereign authority, in contrast to the traditional understanding of borders as working to organise settler authority. Understood this way, the paper argues that when inscribed with Indigenous knowledge and when relying on Indigenous authorities, borders and bordering practices can be read as gateways to ‘meaningful decolonisation.’

Liam Midzain-Gobin is a PhD Candidate in IR at McMaster University. His work brings critical International Relations theory to the study of settler colonialism, seeking both to analyze the way in which the settler state is reproduced, as well as Indigenous disruptions to these processes.

This event is free and open to the public.