The fiscal body of sovereignty: to ‘make live’ in Indian country

What disruption, whose status quo? Non-Native narratives of victimization surrounding a First Nations' land reclamation

“…70 Implicit or explicit in these settler narratives was the idea that the only acceptable action for the Haudenosaunee to take in Canadian settler colonialism was to 'die a slow death'. 71 Disruptions of monoculture and settler colonial sovereignty As partially seen in the previous section, contestations of sovereignty and culture played a large role in these various settler disruption narratives. Both types of contestations have long been prominent in Western society's ongoing efforts to destroy the diversity, selfgovernance, independence, and freedom of non-Western peoples (as well as nonhuman life forms).…”

The slow violence of life without cash: borders, state restrictions, and exclusion in the U.K. and Australia ⋆

“…Cashless technology's role in enacting slow violence demonstrates the centrality of finances to state disciplinary efforts. Disciplining people through personal finances and access to cash has been a focus of study in work on welfare and state benefits, (Peck ) but also relates to the more violent forms of “fiscal warfare” described by Sheri Pasternak (). Pasternak argues that the Canadian state “measures the value and utility of First Nation's lives through accounting techniques,” distorting claims to treaty rights and land ownership (, 318).…”

“…Disciplining people through personal finances and access to cash has been a focus of study in work on welfare and state benefits, (Peck ) but also relates to the more violent forms of “fiscal warfare” described by Sheri Pasternak (). Pasternak argues that the Canadian state “measures the value and utility of First Nation's lives through accounting techniques,” distorting claims to treaty rights and land ownership (, 318). Because Attawapiskat treaty rights and compensation are at stake, such contests over fiscal accounting become deadly: “they are put to fiscal death; their bodies are rendered surplus to the national economy” (Pasternak , 319).…”

Toxic Encounters, Settler Logics of Elimination, and the Future of a Continent

“…In her recent article ”The fiscal body of sovereignty: To ’make live’ in Indian country”, Pasternak (:317) works to make sense of this settler colonial production of toxic precarity. ”Four centuries ago”, she explains, the ”Christian European conscience” was ”plagued with questions” about the individuals they encountered on the Atlantic coast.…”

“…”How do you kill people who have done you no harm?” And ”how do you deny sovereignty to clearly self‐governing nations?” Minister Bennett's comments are evidence that similar questions—wrought by an enduring obsession with controlling territory, privileging capital, and upholding illusions of Eurowestern superiority—still haunt the Canadian colonial administration today. Despite the work that her emotional response does to communicate otherwise, her apology is imbricated with long histories of settler colonial efforts ”within imperial sovereignty” to ”kill an Indian with a clear conscience” (Pasternak :317–318). Bennett's apology, thus, is part of larger sociopolitical trends of framing these instances of government‐led health crises and toxic precarity as isolated events, placing similar violent histories neatly in the past (Coulthard ; A. Simpson , ; L. Simpson ).…”