Synopsis:
Michael Connors Jackman’s and Nishant Upadhyay’s (2014) article works to describe the inherent hypocrisy of Canadian activist’s criticisms of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. This is because Canada has its own issues with colonialism and pinkwashing that often go unacknowledged in these conversations. Here in Canada we have a legacy of ongoing violence and exploitation of Indigenous lands and cultures, and in many cases the movement to condemn pinkwashing in Israel has “worked to normalize and invisibilize settler colonialism in the Canadian context and to reproduce Canada as a progressive queer-friendly liberal state,” (195) thus feeding into the same issues it seeks to condemn.
Rationale:
I believe that Jackman and Upadhyay touch on a very important issue when they highlight that there is a hypocrisy in the way that we criticize pinkwashing in Israel without acknowledging our involvement in the same issues here in Canada. The reality is that we live on stolen and unceded Indigenous land which is legitimized and enforced through violence and exploitation by the government and its various power structures (RCMP and police, military, resource industries, etc). However, these are issues that are often ignored or silenced, especially in mainstream queer and trans movements, by feigning alliance with social justice causes and promoting liberalism. We have a responsibility as activists to recognize how these issues impact Indigenous communities on these lands if we want to criticize it elsewhere.
URL/Link: https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/stable/24365002?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents
Keywords: Pinkwashing, Liberalism, Colonialism, Decolonization, Queer (Settler) Politics
Author: Ashelyn Latam
I think this post is key in understanding how feminist activists and academics can fail to adequately address Indigeneity, effectively normalizing the perception of state permanence that is inherent to colonialist thought. The article brings to mind Idle No More, which is one example of an important grassroots movement that challenges settler colonialism in Canada. Idle No More addresses important issues like Indigenous sovereignty and women’s governance while ensuring that colonial state powers are not normalized and accepted. In order for transnational feminism to be effective, it must also be decolonial, and academics and activists must act in solidarity and support of Indigenous decolonial movements. Harsha Walia highlights the importance of this in her book, Undoing Border Imperialism, citing that…