Indigenous Geographies Research Center

Being-together-in-place: A geohumanistic exploration of place-based politics in postcolonial settler-states

Our central research question asks how the politics at work in these place-based struggles are creating new possibilities for postcolonial relations by transforming the meanings and value of place.

Place-based struggle is at the heart of Indigenous political and social movements for the revitalization of community, recovery of territory, and negotiation of coexistence in postcolonial societies. This joint research and publication project will focus on three specific place-based struggles, the Cheslatta Carrier Nation in northern British Columbia, the Waitangi Treaty Grounds in New Zealand, and the Wakarusa wetlands in Kansas. Our central research question asks how the politics at work in these three place-based struggles are creating new possibilities for postcolonial relations of coexistence by transforming the meanings and value of place, the interactions with and stewardship of the landscape, and the social relationships invested in place, including both human and non-human actors as well as the multiple and emerging networks of activism. Our final product will be a co-authored book, being-together-in-place.

Contributors:

• Center Director, Prof. Jay T. Johnson, University of Kansas, Department of Geography & Atmospheric Science
• Prof. Soren Larsen, University of Missouri - Columbia, Department of Geography