Unsettling Spirit: A Journey into Decolonization

Unsettling Spirit: A Journey into Decolonization

by Denise M. Nadeau
Unsettling Spirit: A Journey into Decolonization

Unsettling Spirit: A Journey into Decolonization

by Denise M. Nadeau

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Overview

What does it mean to be a white settler on land taken from peoples who have lived there since time immemorial? In the context of reconciliation and Indigenous resurgence, Unsettling Spirit provides a personal perspective on decolonization, informed by Indigenous traditions and lifeways, and the need to examine one's complicity with colonial structures. Applying autoethnography grounded in Indigenous and feminist methodologies, Denise Nadeau weaves together stories and reflections on how to live with integrity on stolen and occupied land. The author chronicles her early and brief experience of "Native mission" in the late 1980s and early 1990s in northern Canada and Chiapas, Mexico, and the gradual recognition that she had internalized colonialist concepts of the "good Christian" and the Great White Helper. Drawing on somatic psychotherapy, Nadeau addresses contemporary manifestations of helping and the politics of trauma. She uncovers her ancestors' settler background and the responsibilities that come with facing this history. Caught between two traditions – born and raised Catholic but challenged by Indigenous ways of life – the author traces her engagement with Indigenous values and how relationships inform her ongoing journey. A foreword by Cree-Métis author Deanna Reder places the work in a broader context of Indigenous scholarship. Incorporating insights from Indigenous ethical and legal frameworks, Unsettling Spirit offers an accessible reflection on possibilities for settler decolonization as well as for decolonizing Christian and interfaith practice.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780228001577
Publisher: McGill-Queens University Press
Publication date: 04/02/2020
Pages: 344
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Denise M. Nadeau is affiliate assistant professor in the Department of Religions and Cultures at Concordia University.

Table of Contents

Figures vii

A Note on Copyright and Intellectual Property ix

Foreword xi

Acknowledgments xv

Introduction 3

Part 1 Mission Impossible

1 Missionary Musings 17

2 The Denendeh Seminar 29

3 Shifting Missions 40

Part 2 The Great White Helper

4 From Taking Space to Making Space 57

5 Healing and the Politics of Trauma 69

6 Decolonizing the Great White Helper and Reconciliation 86

Part 3 Going Home: Gespe'gewa'gi

7 Blood 101

8 Unmapping 120

9 Decolonizing Rivers 141

Part 4 Making Relations

10 Moccasins 153

11 Walking with Our Sisters 164

12 A Water Journey: Indigenous Water Laws 173

13 Ceremony 187

14 Reciprocity 206

15 Living Treaty 218

Part 5 Unsettling Spirit

16 Lejac Residential School and Rose Prince 231

17 Can You Hear the Drum? Indigenous Christianities 241

18 Returning to the Heart 251

Afterword 263

Notes 271

Bibliography 295

Index 323

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