This post comes as a partial response to Manchán Magan’s recent Irish Times article (19/11/22) about his interactions with “a group of indigenous elders from the Cree nation”. The article broadly suggests that it is okay for “the Irish people” to call themselves ‘indigenous’, because living Indigenous people from somewhere else said it was okay. Preemptively, I want to address the idea that this might be ‘arguing semantics’ or is solely an ‘academic’ discussion. It is neither, and the idea of an ‘academic’ discussion as some pointless or elite thing needs to be challenged. All peoples that ever existed always theorised, thought, conceptualised, and intellectualised to understand their existences and experiences. Neither am I trying to police language or action (how could I even attempt that?) but to add a critical perspective and complexity to this conversation that is broader than just one article, because the obsession with the term and the romanticisation of living Indigenous people happening is problematic and a distraction from the varied, multi-faceted, and expansive work that we all need to collectively do to ‘decolonise’, ‘rewild’, rebuild ‘right relationship’, or however else we work to respond to modernity’s violence.
Are 'we' 'indigenous' in Ireland?
Are 'we' 'indigenous' in Ireland?
Are 'we' 'indigenous' in Ireland?
This post comes as a partial response to Manchán Magan’s recent Irish Times article (19/11/22) about his interactions with “a group of indigenous elders from the Cree nation”. The article broadly suggests that it is okay for “the Irish people” to call themselves ‘indigenous’, because living Indigenous people from somewhere else said it was okay. Preemptively, I want to address the idea that this might be ‘arguing semantics’ or is solely an ‘academic’ discussion. It is neither, and the idea of an ‘academic’ discussion as some pointless or elite thing needs to be challenged. All peoples that ever existed always theorised, thought, conceptualised, and intellectualised to understand their existences and experiences. Neither am I trying to police language or action (how could I even attempt that?) but to add a critical perspective and complexity to this conversation that is broader than just one article, because the obsession with the term and the romanticisation of living Indigenous people happening is problematic and a distraction from the varied, multi-faceted, and expansive work that we all need to collectively do to ‘decolonise’, ‘rewild’, rebuild ‘right relationship’, or however else we work to respond to modernity’s violence.