Care as Resistance: Indigenous Feminist and Queer Survivance in The Marrow Thieves

Abstract

“And I understood just what we would do for each other, just what we would do for the ebb and pull of the dream, the bigger dream that held us all. Anything,” ends Cherie Dimaline (Métis Nation of Ontario) The Marrow Thieves (2017). This mode of unrelenting intergenerational care and vision of Indigenous futurities is at the heart of the novel’s resistance to colonial violence. Dimaline reconfigures colonial trauma through an Indigenous feminist and queer lens that foregrounds intergenerational care and survivance (Vizenor 2008). Set in a dystopian future where the bone marrow of Indigenous people is extracted for settler survival, the novel positions Indigenous women and queer Elders as central for epistemic resistance. My article examines how Dimaline’s The Marrow Thieves disrupts dominant colonial and masculinist discourses of power and violence by situating intergenerational care as a productive form of counter-violence.
Drawing on Indigenous feminist theory (Leanne Betasamosake Simpson 2017; Anderson 2010, 2019), decolonial temporality studies (Million 2020; Lugones 2010, 2014), and queer Indigenous studies (Driskill 2010, 2011), I show how Dimaline frames the survival of the Indigenous nation as a collective, land-based process rooted in intergenerational care. Thereby, I situate the novel within the movement of Indigenous futurisms, wherein relational, embodied, and care-driven modes of existence, grounded in Indigenous epistemologies, are prioritized in the face of colonial violence. The focus of the article lies specifically on the experiences of subjugation and modes of resistance (both violent and non-violent) of women and queer Elders in Dimaline’s The Marrow Thieves.
My article additionally situates Dimaline’s work within a larger discourse of Indigenous resistance to colonial violence. In doing so, I argue that extant Indigenous feminine and queer epistemic practices function as a form of non-violent resistance to the violence of settler colonialism, particularly through care-based survival strategies that foreground relationality and land-based epistemologies. Ultimately, this article contributes to discourses on how Indigenous queer and women Elders utilize intergenerational care as a form of resistance to settler colonial violence.
Biographical Statement: Nina De Bettin Padolin is an assistant professor at the University of Graz, Austria. Her current book project examines the representation of disabled aging in North American Indigenous literary and performative works by Indigenous writers from the 19th century onwards. She holds a PhD in American literature and cultural studies and works in the intersections between disability studies and care studies. Her research interests include decolonizing embodiment, performance studies, and ecocriticism.
 
A Note on Positionality: As a European researcher in Indigenous studies, I am aware of the cultural biases that affect my viewpoints and the relationships I attempt to understand and consider. It is important to acknowledge how my background informs my academic approaches and my interactions in this space. Foregrounding the voices and epistemologies of Indigenous scholars, artists, Elders, Storytellers, and others is at the heart of my approach. Therefore, because I examine the works of Indigenous writers which are also rooted in various Indigenous cultures, histories, and futures, I consciously center and amplify Indigenous voices. This approach aims to listen to, learn from, and strengthen the contributions of historically marginalized voices and perspectives, rather than to speak for others. I position myself as an ally and facilitator, and I aim to engage in the field of Indigenous studies with respect. I additionally seek to support the autonomy and authority of Indigenous scholars and communities. Taking into account the reality of ongoing colonial violence within academia, I understand that this approach requires a continuous dedication to self-reflection, learning, and adaptation of my methods and approaches.