Our Home on Native Land: Navigating Tensions between Reconciliation and the Liberal Democratic State
Date
2018-08-15
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Abstract
Historically, reconciliation has helped states transition from authoritarian regimes to democratic regimes after a period of violent conflict. More recently, settler states, including Canada, have adopted this approach to try to heal relationships between settler and Indigenous populations. How reconciliation can be used in a non-transitional setting (in an already-established democracy), however, is uncertain. As such, this thesis analyzes points of tension between liberal democratic principles and reconciliation, focusing on liberal individualism, private property, political institutions, and multiculturalism. I then offer a reconceptualization of reconciliation informed by the work of Hannah Arendt to clarify the role of forgiveness, show reconciliation as relational, and introduce non-reconciliation as a genuine possibility. The thesis ends by scrutinizing the role that private property and political institutions play in themselves creating roadblocks on a path toward reconciliation. Ultimately, my argument is twofold. First, I argue that reconciliation is not suitable for the Canadian context when defined traditionally, and that Canadian liberal democratic principles must also be subject to change, adaptation, or removal. Second, I argue that substantive reconciliation will only come about through a radical and fundamental shift in Indigenous-settler relations that allows for the emergence of Indigenous sovereignty and puts an end to the power and control that the Canadian state currently exerts over Indigenous nations.
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Reconciliation, Settler-Colonial Reconciliation, Indigenous-Settler Relations, Liberal Democracy, Canadian Politics, Hannah Arendt, Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Citation
Thiessen, D. W. (2018). Our Home on Native Land: Navigating Tensions between Reconciliation and the Liberal Democratic State (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/32822