Decolonizing Smell

Abstract

Chapter 5 considers settler colonialism’s effects on the smellscape as a mode of atmospheric violence that targets a fundamental material contributor to Indigenous health, culture, and ecological relations. The chapter suggests that decolonizing smell requires both attending to Indigenous olfactory practices that have been decimated by colonial education and reshaping smellscapes that have been transformed by colonization. This argument unfolds through readings of Indigenous commentaries on smudging and the writings of Albert Wendt (Samoa), Haunani-Kay Trask (Kanaka Maoli), and Robin Wall Kimmerer (Potawatomi).