Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges: An Indigenous Critique of Liberal Multiculturalism

Abstract

In this dissertation I show that liberal frameworks of justice cannot adequately identify or address Indigenous concerns for justice because liberalism is complicit in the settler colonial project. I point to the structural incompatibility between liberal principles and key elements of FNMI lifeways including their conceptions of agency, personhood, animism, kinship, embeddedness, reciprocity, and the ontological priority of relationships. Classical and multicultural forms of liberal justice operate by first arriving at a set of foundational liberal values which are then by 'extension' prescribed as paradigms of justice for Indigenous Peoples. Liberal justice attempts to bridge the gap between liberal and FNMI lifeways by adopting mechanisms such as toleration, accommodation, dialogue, assimilation, or liberalization of 'diverse' groups. I argue that this methodology, at the heart of liberal logic, is flawed; it limits the presence and political participation of Indigenous agents as rooted relational selves, and results in a form of double injustice against Indigenous Peoples. Liberal methods of justice fail to address historical injustices and settler colonial realities, thereby overlooking the complex realities and false binaries in which Indigenous Peoples operate today. As a means to counteract colonial erasure I suggest a method of substantive engagement that pays close attention to the particularities of Indigenous lifeways, their colonial histories and legacies, and the complexities of settler colonialism revealing a richer, more nuanced, conceptual reality within which to situate concerns of Indigenous justice. I suggest an approach of active decolonization, which emphasizes the need for recognizing the uniqueness of Indigenous agents in settler colonial societies, is focused on reconciliation, is aimed at grounding praxis, and acknowledges that the work of decolonization is multifaceted, messy, and non-linear. Non-liberal worldviews in general, and Indigenous lifeways in particular, are underserved in theories of liberal justice, a flaw that active decolonization aims to rectify.