Storying Violence explores the 2016 murder of Colten Boushie and the subsequent trial of Gerald Stanley. Through an analysis of relevant socio-political narratives in the prairies and scholarship on settler colonialism, the authors argue that Boushie's death and Stanley's acquittal were not isolated incidents but are yet another manifestation of the crisis-ridden relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Saskatchewan, ones that evidence the impossibility of finding justice for Indigenous peoples in settler colonial contexts. We situate Indigenous peoples' presence as a threat to the type of security that settler colonial societies promise settler citizens, pointing to the Stanley case as one instance where such threats are operationalized as mechanisms to sanction violence against Indigenous peoples and communities.
What People Are Saying
"Storying Violence carefully and methodically detonates the colonial narratives of the Stanley Trial?a speaking of Indigenous truths to a trial and a country. From the ashes of tragedy, Starblanket and Hunt have ethically intervened, centred the prairie Indigenous experience and the Boushie and Baptiste families? incredible bravery and advocacy in the face of unspeakable loss. Storying Violence demands that we create a safer world for our beloved Indigenous youth, who just like Colten Boushie, have every right to go swimming with friends, laugh and feel joy in their ancestral territories. This is simply a must read for all Canadians." Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, author of As We Have Always Done
"Accessible and theoretically astute, Starblanket and Hunt bring to life the meaning of Treaties and Indigenous relationships to land and life, while demonstrating that settlers such as Stanley have long been provided license to disregard our humanity though the deeply embedded colonial and racist practices of Canadian law, founded in its primacy of private property and defended by judges, lawyers, prosecutors and police officers." Verna St. Denis, Professor of Critical Race Studies, University of Saskatchewan
About the Authors
Dr. Gina Starblanket is Canada Research Chair in the Politics of Decolonization and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Calgary. Gina is Cree/Saulteaux and a member of the Star Blanket Cree Nation in Treaty 4 territory. She is co-editor of the 5th edition of Visions of the Heart: Issues Involving Indigenous People in Canada and has publications in the Canadian Journal of Political Science, the American Indian Culture and Research Journal, and Constitutional Forum. Her research focuses on Indigenous and Canadian politics, and takes up issues surrounding treaty implementation, gender, Indigenous feminism, decolonization, and Indigenous resurgence.
Dallas Hunt is Cree and a member of Wapsewsipi (Swan River First Nation) in Treaty 8 territory in Northern Alberta, Canada. He has had creative and critical work published in the Malahat Review, Arc Poetry, Canadian Literature, Settler Colonial Studies, and the American Indian Culture and Research Journal. His first children's book, Awâsis and the World-Famous Bannock, was published through Highwater Press and was nominated for the Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Canadian Picture Book Award.