Antisettler blockades: Peter Nyers, ‘Decolonizing blockades: Settler-citizen solidarities with indigenous blockades’, Politics and Space C, 2024 | settler colonial studies blog

Antisettler blockades: Peter Nyers, ‘Decolonizing blockades: Settler-citizen solidarities with indigenous blockades’, Politics and Space C, 2024

09Jun24

Abstract: In the Winter 2020, Canada witnessed an extraordinary number of blockades and solidarity
protests in support of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation. The Wet’suwet’en had for years been fighting
against the construction of an oil pipeline across their traditional territories. After a police raid
dismantled their blockade, the traditional chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en issued a call for solidarity and
support. The response was overwhelming with an enormous number of solidarity actions, including
blockades of critical infrastructure, organized across Canada and internationally. This paper
critically examines how settler-citizens engaged in acts of solidarity with Indigenous people, with a
particular focus on how these acts of solidarity can contribute to the decolonization of Canadian
citizenship. Since the Wet’suwet’en struggle involved the assertion of Indigenous sovereignty, the
solidarity actions of Canadians raise important questions about the meaning of settler forms of
citizenship. This paper takes a relational and decolonial perspective on solidarity blockades. Such an
approach allows us to ask questions that are outside the scope of assessments concerned with the
efficacy of a particular blockading action. The paper investigates the forms of solidarity found at the
blockades, noting that a wide range of antagonistic, agonistic, and spatio-temporal relations were
enacted at the various blockading actions. These relations allowed for a contentious production of
new political subjectivities, collectivities, and citizenships.

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