Session 3: Embodiment and Settler Decolonization with Dr. Denise Nadeau

What do our bodies have to do with decolonization? In this session we focused on how white body supremacy and the institution of private property shape settler colonial attitudes and behaviour. Decolonization of the body needs to be addressed before settlers can begin to engage with Indigenous ethics of relationality and reciprocity and what Indigenous sovereignty means.

Dr. Nadeau is an educator, writer and activist of mixed European ancestry from Quebec, currently living in unceded Lkwungen territory on Vancouver Island. She is an Affiliate Assistant Professor in the Religions and Cultures Department at Concordia University in Montreal. She is the author of the recently released Unsettling Spirit: A Journey into Decolonization( MQUP, 2020). Denise is a trained somatic movement therapist and this work informs her research and practice interests which include include Indigenous- settler relations, decolonization of the body, the politics of trauma and the deconstruction of whiteness and settler colonialism in Christianity.

To learn more, find a copy of Denise's recent book "Unsettling Spirit" at your local book store, library or online.