Cultural geographies essay: Indigenous spectrality and the politics of postcolonial ghost stories

Cultural Geographies

Volumn 15, Issue 3, 2008, Pages 383-393

  Cameron, Emilie ^a  

^a QUEEN S UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

Author keywords

Haunting; Nlaka'pamux; Postcolonialism; Spectrality; Stein Valley

Indexed keywords

CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY; INDIGENOUS POPULATION; POLITICS; PSYCHOLOGY;

BRITISH COLUMBIA; CANADA; NORTH AMERICA;

EID: 55349143223     PISSN: 14744740     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/1474474008091334     Document Type: Article

References (79)

1. G. Spivak, A critique of postcolonial reason: Toward a history of the vanishing present (Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1999), p. 173.
2. A. Gordon, Ghostly matters: Haunting and the sociological imagination (Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1997), pp. 205-6.
3. D. Gregory, The colonial present: Afghanistan, Palestine, Iraq (Oxford, Blackwell, 2004).
4. D. Clayton, 'Absence, memory, and geography', BC Studies 132 (2001/2002), pp. 65-79.
5. I. Baucom, 'Spectres of the Atlantic', South Atlantic Quarterly 100 (2001), pp. 61-82.
6. A. Gupta, in Gregory, Colonial present
7. D. Moore in B. Braun, 'Environmental issues: Global natures in the space of assemblage', Progress in human geography 30 (2006), pp. 644-54.
8. J. Derrida, Specters of Marx (London, Routledge, 1994).
9. E.g., W. Cariou, 'Haunted prairie: Aboriginal "ghosts" and the spectres of settlement', University of Toronto quarterly 75 (2006), pp. 727-34
10. J. Comaroff, 'Ghostly topographies: Landscape and biopower in modern Singapore', Cultural geographies 14 (2007), pp. 56-73
11. D. DeLyser, 'Authenticity on the ground: Engaging the past in a California ghost town', Annals of the association of American geographers 89 (1999), pp. 602-32
12. Derrida, Specters of Marx
13. T. Edensor, 'The ghosts of industrial ruins: Ordering and disordering memory in excessive space', Environment and planning d: Society and space 23 (2005), pp. 829-49
14. K. Gelder and J. Jacobs, Uncanny Australia: Sacredness and identity in a postcolonial nation (Melbourne, University of Merlbourne Press, 1998)
15. M. Goldman and J. Saul, 'Talking with ghosts: Haunting in Canadian cultural production', University of Toronto quarterly 75 (2006), pp. 645-55
16. Gordon, Ghostly matters
17. S. Pile, Real cities: Modernity, space, and the phantasmagorias of city life (London, Sage, 2005)
18. L. Robertson, Imagining difference: Legend, curse, and spectacle in a Canadian mining town (Vancouver, UBC Press, 2005)
19. N. Royle, The uncanny (New York, Routledge, 2003)
20. L. A. Stoler, 'Intimidations of Empire: Predicaments of the tactile and unseen', in A. L. Stoler, ed., Haunted by Empire: Geographies of intimacy in North American history (Durham, Duke University Press, 2006), pp. 1-22
21. K. Till, The new Berlin: Memory, politics, place (Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 2005)
22. J. Wylie, 'The spectral geographies of W.G. Sebald', Cultural geographies 14 (2007), pp. 171-88.
23. Two special sessions on 'spectro-geographies' were organized by Joanne Maddern and Peter Adey at the 2005 Institute of British Geographers meeting, and geographers have begun to consider the possibility of a 'spectral turn' extending into geographical scholarship (see J. Kneale, 'From beyond: H. P. Lovecraft and the place of horror', Cultural geographies 13 (2006), pp. 106-26.
24. Cheryl McEwan makes a similar observation in her recent piece on postcolonialism and the politics of enchantment (C. McEwan, 'A very modern ghost: Postcolonialism and the politics of enchantment', Environment and planning d: Society and space, 26 (2008), p. 29).
25. D. Haraway, 'A game of cat's cradle: Science studies, feminist theory, cultural studies', Configurations 2 (1994), pp. 59-71.
26. Catherine Parr Traill in Goldman and Saul, 'Talking with ghosts', p. 645.
27. Earle Birney in Goldman and Saul, 'Talking with ghosts', p. 645.
28. M. Northey, The haunted wilderness: The gothic and grotesque in Canadian fiction (Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1976).
29. D. M. R. Bentley, 'Shadows in the soul: Racial haunting in the poetry of Duncan Campbell Scott', University of Toronto quarterly 75 (2006), pp. 752-70,
30. D. M. R. Bentley, The Confederation group of Canadian poets (Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2004).
31. D. C. Scott, New world lyrics and ballads (Toronto, Morang and Co., 1905).
32. S. Dragland, Floating voice: Duncan Campbell Scott and the literature of Treaty 9 (Concord, ON, Anansi, 1994).
33. L. S. Groening, Listening to old women speak: Natives and alternatives in Canadian literature (Montreal and Kingston, McGill-Queen's University Press, 2004).
34. D. C. Scott, The administration of Indian affairs in Canada (Toronto, Canadian Institute of International Affairs, 1931), p. 27.
35. Cariou, 'Haunted prairie', p. 727.
36. M. Atwood, Strange things: The malevolent north in Canadian literature (London, Virago, 2004).
37. Goldman and Saul, 'Talking with ghosts'.
38. Gelder and Jacobs, Uncanny Australia
39. D. Crouch, 'National hauntings: The architecture of Australian ghost stories', Journal of the association for the study of Australian literature (2007), pp. 94-105
40. P. Read, Haunted earth (Sydney, University of New South Wales Press, 2003).
41. See also S. Gunew, Haunted nations: The colonial dimensions of multiculturalisms (London, Routledge, 2004) for a consideration of haunting in both Canadian and Australian contexts.
42. R. Bergland, The national uncanny: Indian ghosts and American subjects (Hanover, University Press of New England, 2000), p. 1.
43. Government of Canada, Highlights from the Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples: People to People, Nation to Nation (Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, 1996), n.p. Available at: http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ch/rcap/rpt/lk_e.html (accessed 10 April 2006).
44. See the Spring 2006 issue of the journal, 75(2).
45. M. M'Gonigle and W. Wickwire, Stein: The way of the river (Vancouver, Talon, 1989), p. 16.
46. W. Wickwire, Personal Communication (Lytton, BC, 24 June 2006).
47. These efforts were facilitated by a longer history of imagining the Stein in spiritual terms. The spiritual significance of the valley was noted by anthropologists as early as 1900 (see J. Teit, 'The Thompson Indians of British Columbia', in F. Boas, ed., American Museum of Natural History, Volume II, Anthropology I, The Jesup North Pacific Expedition (New York, The Knickerbocker Press, 1900) and has more recently been featured in various 'New Age' publications (e.g., Power trips: The travel guide to mother earth's sacred spaces, Issue 9, October/November 1998).
48. M'Gonigle and Wickwire, Stein.
49. 'Voices for the Wilderness, August 1-3, 1987. Stein Valley Festival', University of British Columbia Archives, spam 22025.
50. B. Braun, The intemperate rainforest: Nature, culture, and power on Canada's west coast (Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 2002).
51. Napoleon Kruger, in M'Gonigle and Wickwire, Stein, p. 147.
52. David Suzuki, in M'Gonigle and Wickwire, Stein, p. 11.
53. R. Dunstan and L. Andrew, Lytton and Mount Currie Bands Stein Declaration (Lytton and Mount Currie, BC, 1987)
54. Institute for New Economics, Stein Valley: An economic report for the people of Thompson Lillooet region (Vancouver, Institute for New Economics, 1985)
55. M'Gonigle and Wickwire, Stein
56. Western Canada Wilderness Committee, Stein Valley: The choice is ours, where do you stand? (Vancouver, Western Canada Wilderness Committee, 1987).
57. N. Kruger in M'Gonigle and Wickwire, Stein, p. 147.
58. The Nlaka'pamux launched a comprehensive land claim with the federal government in the late 1980s. According to the Provincial Government's Ministry of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation, the Lytton First Nation is currently engaged in treaty talks through the BC Treaty Commission, but the Nlaka'pamux Nation Tribal Council (comprised of a number of other Nlaka'pamux Nations, excepting the Lytton Nation) continue to refuse to recognize the province as negotiator and are pursuing their claims through other channels.
59. D. Rossiter and P. Wood, 'Fantastic topographies: Neo-liberal responses to aboriginal land claims in British Columbia', Canadian geographer 49 (2005), pp. 352-67.
60. D. Clayton, 'Absence, memory, and geography'.
61. Q. Jordan-Knox, Personal Communication (Vancouver, BC, 22 March 2004).
62. I have conducted only six in-depth interviews with visitors to the Stein Valley, all of whom are Canadian citizens, residents of British Columbia, identify as white, and are aged between 27 and 63. This is certainly not a sufficient sample of interviews to make claims about the prevalence of stories about the Stein's haunting, but five of the six interviewees were familiar with stories of the Stein's haunting before undertaking a trip to the park. These stories are thus suggestive rather than conclusive evidence of the Stein's haunting, but I would argue they are useful on these terms.
63. M. Roger, Personal Communication (White Rock, BC, 14 March 2004).
64. G. Tracey, Personal Communication (Surrey, BC, 14 March 2004).
65. Cariou, 'Haunted prairie', p. 727.
66. B.C. Parks, Stein Valley Nlaka'pamux Heritage Park, (Victoria, Government of British Columbia), Available at: http://wlapwww.gov.bc.ca/ bcparks/explore/parkpgs/stein_val/stein_brochure.pdf (accessed 12 March 2004).
67. Gelder and Jacobs, Uncanny Australia.
68. Cariou, 'Haunted prairie', p. 728.
69. Lytton Indian Band and Mount Currie Indian Band, 'Stein Perspective: The Lytton and Mt. Currie Indian Peoples' in Stein Valley Educational Report, 6 (1987), p. 8.
70. G. Spivak, A critique of postcolonial reason.
71. I. Baucom, 'Specters of the Atlantic', p. 75.
72. C. Harris, Making native space: Colonialism, resistance, and reserves in British Columbia (Vancouver, UBC Press, 2002), p. 151.
73. I. Baucom, 'Specters of the Atlantic', p. 64.
74. Government of Canada, Highlights from the Report of the Royal Commission, n.p.
75. S. Ahmed, The cultural politics of emotion (Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2004), Chapter 5.
76. D. D. Moses and T. Goldie, eds, An anthology of Canadian native literature in English (Toronto, Oxford University Press, 1992), p. xvii.
77. Dunstan and Andrew, Lytton and Mount Currie Bands Stein Declaration.
78. Cariou, 'Haunted prairie', p. 730.
79. See also J. S. Y. Henderson, 'Postcolonial ghost dancing: Diagnosing European colonialism', in M. Battiste, ed., Reclaiming indigenous voice and vision (Vancouver, UBC Press, 2000), pp. 57-76 for a consideration of how non-Aboriginal peoples have misunderstood ghost dancing and an interpretation of its contemporary importance.