Biocultura as anticolonialism: Yessica Dahiana Rostan, Towards Pedagogies of the Living: An Anticolonial Biocultura Approach to Settler Colonialism, Land Movements and Community Re-organization, MA Dissertation, University of Toronto, 2017

18Nov17

Abstract: Biocultura is an anticolonial theory, praxis and pedagogical framework that brings settler colonialism ‘home’ through the interrogation of biocultural Humxn relationships to Nature – Self, Land, and one another – as Living. EuroWestern Lifeviews (biology, science, philosophy, and politics) that produce colonial biopower are imposed in schooling and society at large, making the biological-cultural complex a necessary front for resistance. I connect principles between Indigenous/ancestral ethnobiology (as opposed to Western ethnobiology) and anticolonial thought to develop the biocultura framework, centering subjectivity, diversity, interconnection/community, co-learning/co-creating, and continual change. Anticolonial biocultura in (what is colonially known as) Canada must locate us bioculturally within settler colonialism and respond to First Nations, Metis and Inuit Nations of Canada, as well as Indigenous Land movements of Turtle Island and Abya Yala. Biocultura is learning and re-organizing as Living communities, with dreams of tangibly connecting Indigenous resistance to the responsibilities of settlers, diaspora and migrants.