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Visual Legalities of Race and Reparations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2014

Carmela Murdocca
Carmela Murdocca*
Affiliation:
Associate Professor of SociologySocio-Legal Studies and Social and Political Thought York University Canada
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Abstract

Drawing attention to the legal and psychoanalytic genealogy of reparations, this article examines the relationship between reparations and racial difference through an analysis of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s documentary series 8th Fire: Aboriginal People, Canada and the Way Forward. The representational life of reparations in liberal settler colonialism is a repository for addressing the broader landscape of legality—sovereignty, self-determination and anti-colonialism—beyond the confines of international human rights mechanisms. This article considers the following questions: How do forms of testimony animate connections between reparations and racial difference? In what ways do visual and representational practices operate through racial and colonial temporalities central to reparative juridics? What is the relationship between reparations and possibilities for anti-colonialism? I argue that the social, legal, cultural, and representational life of reparations in settler colonialism is structured by racial difference.

Résumé

Évoquant la généalogie juridique et psychanalytique des réparations, cet article examine la relation entre les réparations et les différences raciales à partir d’une analyse de la série documentaire 8th Fire : Aboriginal People, Canada and the Way Forward du Réseau anglais de Radio-Canada. Au sein du colonialisme de peuplement libéral, la vie représentative des réparations est un mécanisme permettant d’examiner l’ensemble des questions touchant la légalité—soit la souveraineté, l’autodétermination et l’anticolonialisme—au-delà des limites des mécanismes internationaux de promotion des droits humains. Cet article tente de répondre aux questions suivantes : Comment les différents types de témoignages animent-ils les liens entre les réparations et les différences raciales ? De quelles manières les pratiques visuelles et représentationnelles opèrent-elles à travers les temporalités raciales et coloniales centrales aux réparations judiciaires ? Quelle est la relation entre les réparations et les possibilités d’agir de manière anticoloniale ? Les dimensions sociales, juridiques, culturelles et représentationnelles des réparations sont, à mon avis, structurées par les différences raciales au sein du colonialisme de peuplement.

Keywords

reparationssettler colonialismracerepresentationtestimonylegalityréparationscolonialisme de peuplementracereprésentationtémoignagelégalité
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Law and Society / La Revue Canadienne Droit et Société , Volume 29 , Issue 2: Law and Decolonization / Droit et décolonisation , August 2014 , pp. 219 - 234
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Law and Society Association / Association Canadienne Droit et Société 2014 

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References

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11 Bruce DeMara, “CBC Series 8th Fire Aims to Dispel Native Stereotypes,” Toronto Star, January 17, 2012, http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/2012/01/17/cbc_series_8th_fire_aims_to_dispel_native_stereotypes.html.

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29 Ibid., 565.

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33 Ibid., 564.

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72 Ibid. These measures are consistent with the significant Statement of the Government of Canada on Indian Policy (The White Paper) (Government of Canada, 1969), http://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100010189/1100100010191.