"We the Resilient": Colonizing Indigeneity in the Era of Trump

This article addresses the functions of resilience in the political
struggles of indigenous peoples against colonialism. In particular it
analyses the discourse of indigenous resilience, which has grown
in the United States, following the election of Donald Trump as
President. It looks at how indigenous resistance to Trump has
been constructed as a feature of their ‘resilience’, tracing the
sources of that discourse, revealing its dubious origins, which
while involving the mobilizations of indigenous peoples at
Standing Rock, owe to a complex range of different interests,
involving profit-seeking corporations, artists, colonial knowledge,
and neoliberal ideologues. The paper compares the development
of the discourse of indigenous resilience in the US with that which
is growing in the Arctic. Calling into question the rationalities
shaping the discourse in both regions, the paper argues for a
rejection of the concept on account of its implicit racism and
compliancy with neoliberal colonialism.