November 17, 2021

Decolonizing Diplomacy is the first day of a four-day research summit, Players: We are all Practitioners, organized by NACDI and hosted virtually by the University of Southern California.

Panel 1: “Call and Response: Resistance and Refusal as Diplomacy“
9:00 am (PT)/11:00 am (CT)/12:00 NOON (ET)

Moderators:

• Ryan Rice (Kanien’kehá:ka of Kahnawake), Associate Dean, Faculty Arts & Science, OCAD University, & Curator, Indigenous Art, Onsite Gallery
• Linda Grussani (Algonquin Anishinabekwe, Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg), Ph.D. Candidate, Cultural Studies, Queen’s University

Panelists:

• Emiliana Cruz Professor at CIESAS-CDMX
• Hayden King (Anishinaabe, Beausoleil First Nation on Gchi’mnissing, Huronia Ontario), Executive Director, Yellowhead Institute
• Christina Leza (Yoeme-Chicana), Associate Professor of Anthropology and Indigenous Studies, Colorado College
• Dolleen Tisawii’ashii Manning (member of Kettle & Stony First Nation), Assistant Professor, QNS, Anishinaabe Knowledge, Language and Culture, Queen’s University

Click here to read more about the participants of this panel

Even the briefest survey of Indigenous diplomacies demonstrates a “radically divergent approach to the international” (King 2017) than that arising from the sovereignty-based normativity of the Westphalian state system. This requires nothing short of a move toward decolonizing diplomacy which necessarily involves a challenge to the underlying Eurocentrism of statist diplomatic activity.

This panel considers how North American Indigenous communities have and continue to practice diplomacy and engage within the global arena; specifically, how historical and current forms of resistance, refusal, representation, and activism – all of which exist at the edge of conflict – function as avenues through which Indigenous nations exercise agency and force nation-states to engage in negotiation. Examples range from the Kanesatake land defenders to the Zapatista uprisings; from the Spirit Sings museum controversy to the toppling of colonial monuments; from the anti-pipeline grassroots movements originating from Standing Rock to the Wet’suwet’en and Tyendinaga territories to the Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) territories impacted by the Line 3 pipeline route. This discussion examines the ways that Indigenous peoples, the first diplomatic Players of this continent, continue to advance diplomatic practices and objectives.

Panel 2: “Indigenous Video Games as Tools to Decolonize Cultural Relations“
11:30 am PST/1:30 pm CT/2:30 pm EST

Moderators:

• Amanda Rodríguez Espínola Research Fellow, North American Cultural Diplomacy Initiative
• Amy Parks Research Fellow, North American Cultural Diplomacy Initiative, Ph.D. Candidate, Cultural Studies, Queen’s University

Panelists:

• Meagan Byrne ( pihtawikosisân, Métis, Ontario), Narrative Mechanic Designer and Owner, Achimostawinan Games
• Ashlee Hope Bird (Western Abenaki of the Champlain Valley), Moreau Post-Doctoral Fellow, University of Notre Dame
• Samir Durán CEO and Producer, Bromio
• Eleanore Flack 3D Environment Art Student and Developer of Growing Up Ojibwe: The Game, University of Wisconsin – Stout
• Kahentawaks Tiewishaw (Kanien’kehá:ka, Kanehsatake), Skins Workshops Associate Director, Initiative for Indigenous Futures (IIF)

Click here to read more about the the participants of this panel

This panel explores how video games can put decolonial scholarship, diplomacy, and media in conversation. In the past two decades, digital resources have become an essential tool for cultural diplomacy and cultural relations, giving way to the concept of digital diplomacy. However, this notion is commonly limited to social media communications. Likewise, digital media have enabled and highlighted the role of non-state actors, allowing various new players, such as indigenous communities, to access resources and networks that situate them as diplomatic actors. These players represent non-sovereign entities with economic, cultural, and political interests. For indigenous communities, cultural relations and soft power are a way to share their values and culture, form relationships with foreign audiences, strengthen their network, expand their area of influence, legitimize their foreign policy agenda, and open the possibility to mobilize actions to advance their interests. Video games offer an opportunity for cultural understanding in cultural relations, highlighting the role of indigenous diplomacies while also being a platform to question, challenge, or disrupt colonial discourse. The virtual third space where video games take place becomes a valuable alternative when cultural relations cannot occur in person. These spaces can reinforce the legitimacy of indigenous actors and facilitate relationship-building in the long term.

Video games also act as an instrument for economic pursuit, decolonized media representation, and an opportunity to challenge the power relations in the video game industry. At the macro-level, videogames open the possibilities to imagine indigenous diplomacies differently. The practitioners in this session represent some of the efforts made by Indigenous communities throughout the region known as North America to decolonize diplomacies, narratives, and business models to put different forms to conceptualize diplomacy outside of the Eurocentric worldview at the forefront.