Disjunctures

As some settler states set out on the difficult and highly contested political project of reconciliation—seeking a legitimate way of living and sharing the land among the Indigenous peoples, settlers, and others who now call these places home—it is important to evaluate the reality which will shape the path forward. In Disjunctures, Yann Allard-Tremblay argues that, even given the variations within Indigenous and Euro-modern political traditions, the two
are fundamentally too different to offer any theoretical or practical political options for a middle ground. Allard-Tremblay terms these irreconcilable and inconsistent paths toward reconciliation disjunctures.
While dominant Euro-modern political structures are modeled on justice, sovereign autonomy, and non-reciprocal and non-responsive governance, Indigenous traditions emphasize harmony and are non-hierarchical, non-coercive, and responsive to other humans, other-than-humans, and ecological contexts. These disjunctures do not make reconciliation impossible, but reveal that reconciliation can only be achieved by undertaking a deep transformation of dominant political structures and identities, and
ways of being, doing, and knowing. Because Indigenous politics provide vital alternatives to oppressive and ecologically destructive relationships, Allard-Tremblay makes the case for a redirection of
political theory and conduct toward Indigenous systems and decolonization.

Author Biography

Yann Allard-Tremblay is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at McGill University and a Senior Research Associate of the African Centre for Epistemology and Philosophy of Science at the University of Johannesburg. He is a member of the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists of the Royal Society of Canada. He holds a PhD in Philosophy from the Universities of St Andrews and Stirling. As a member of the Huron-Wendat
First Nation, his work is committed to the decolonization and Indigenization of political theory.