Decolonizing blockades: Settler-citizen solidarities with indigenous blockades

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.