Carcerality and the elimination of Indigenous people in Canada

Abstract

Drawing from the logic of carcerality, and refined through theories of settler colonialism, I argue in this paper the following. First, carcerality is not just a tactic of settler colonization in Canada for bodily controlling populations, but a key feature of settler colonial claims to land and territory; imposing carceral spaces on Indigenous people is a fundamental necessity for the expectations and ambitions of settler colonization, and as settler colonization in Canada is ongoing, the expansion of these carceral spaces likewise continues. Second, carceral theory can be used to analyze how Indigenous people are made to “disappear” from settler-dominated spaces, and expose the interlocking roles of state power and social prejudice in these “eliminations.” As all kinds of frontier spaces—urban, rural, and otherwise—are assimilated into the settler colonial assemblage, Indigenous people are forced into mobility that itself is both carceral and eliminatory. Understanding carcerality as something pervasive in settler society, and not just limited to the criminal justice system, changes how we must approach decolonization.