Trout as agents of settler coloniality: Rune Flikke, Cecilia Salinas, Javier Ciancio, Juana Aigo, ‘Remodeling nature: Trout, borders, and the ongoing colonization of Argentine Patagonia’, EPE: Nature and Space, 2026 | settler colonial studies blog

Trout as agents of settler coloniality: Rune Flikke, Cecilia Salinas, Javier Ciancio, Juana Aigo, ‘Remodeling nature: Trout, borders, and the ongoing colonization of Argentine Patagonia’, EPE: Nature and Space, 2026

12Sep26

Abstract: This article examines the introduction of trout from the northern hemisphere as part of the colonial ordering of Argentine Patagonia. Since 1904, trout have been mobilized not simply as ecological interventions but as tools of state-building that have reshaped rivers and lakes and contributed to the displacement of indigenous peoples. Stocking programs initially provided strategic food during border conflicts with Chile and later anchored projects that aimed to modernize and ‘whiten’ the Argentine nation, through elite tourism and conservation initiatives such as the establishment of Nahuel Huapi National Park in 1934. We argue that these practices reinforced a mode of life that cast Mapuche-Chewelche indigenous communities as outsiders to the nation. Through episodes spanning the so-called “Conquest of the Desert” (1878–1885) to recent disputes over Lago del Desierto, we show how human–trout relations give material form to ongoing asymmetries of power, belonging, and dispossession. By treating trout as agents of coloniality the article demonstrates how ecological change has been inseparable from strengthening national borders, practices of exclusion and the enduring erasure of indigenous sovereignty in Patagonia since the region’s military conquest.

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