An Introduction to Critical Indigenous Theory

(1/27/18)

This past week I began the Critical Indigenous Theory course I’d been longing to take for years. I work with the professor pretty regularly, the syllabus is dazzling, and I get to be with my Co-President for the Native American and Indigenous Student Group. The professor also happens to be the Director of the Native Studies Forum at NYU upon my clubs recommendation, so again, I’m very comfortable with his style although I have never actually taken one of his courses.

His favorite introduction exercise has been what I will call the “Three Names Exercise.”   Basically, we go around the room and tell our peers about our name, the name of a place we hold dear, and the name of a person we hold dear. It becomes a pretty personal experience and luckily I’ve been through it a few times, but it had a couple people in the course pretty flustered. That, however, is the thing about more advanced Indigenous courses. People have no idea what to expect so in this exercise they take their combination of curiosity and anxiety and turn it into a platter of word vomit typically presented at introductions or shortly after. Two cases stuck in my mind in particular. Please note that neither critique a newly found interest in Indigenous identity nor are they particularly constructive.

Case 1: The individual begins with their name. They rush through their first and middle names to point out that their last name was given to their ancestor upon their arrival in the United States. The ancestor was an orphan. The individual then identifies themself as a settler, then attempts to differentiate themselves from the other settlers in the room because their ancestor was a 9 year-old orphan that apparently forgot the country their boat left from. The individual continues with the other two names.

Analysis: Things become interesting when people try to differentiate settlers. Aside from the descendants of slavery, settlers chose to come here, built a life for themselves through the system of settler colonialism, and today their descendants still benefit from all the broken treaties and genocide it took to free up the land. All in all, the info was non-essential and came from a place of privilege as this individual said these things while staring at multiple children of the African diaspora.  

Case 2: Young woman begins with her name then moves on to her special place. Identifies the special place as the veggie co-op she grew up on. Young woman proceeds to talk about her “spirit vegetable” and wished to know everyone’s “spirit vegetable.”

Analysis: I got nothin.

These two cases alone are an introduction to critical Indigenous theory. We have stereotypes, appropriation of spirituality, settler guilt, concepts in food accessibility, and white privilege. Without a doubt many of my diary entries will come from this course as Indigenous courses at NYU tend to draw diverse groups of people from every corner of the campus. Things will get interesting.