Storying Violence: Unravelling Colonial Narratives in the Stanley Trial (Semaphore Series)

In August of 2016, Cree youth Colten Boushie was shot dead by Saskatchewan farmer Gerald Stanley. Using colonial and socio-political narratives that underlie white rural settler life, the authors position the death of Boushie and trial of Stanley in relation to Indigenous histories and experiences in Saskatchewan. They point to the Stanley case as just one instance of Indigenous peoples' presence being seen as a threat to settler colonial security, then used to sanction the exclusion, violent treatment, and death of Indigenous peoples and communities. Storying Violence explores the 2018 murder of Colten Boushie and the subsequent trial of Gerald Stanley. Through an analysis of relevant socio-political narratives in the prairies and scholarship on settler colonialism, the authors argue that Boushie's death and Stanley's acquittal were not isolated incidents but are yet another manifestation of the crisis-ridden relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Saskatchewan, ones that evidence the impossibility of finding justice for Indigenous peoples in settler colonial contexts. We situate Indigenous peoples' presence as a threat to the type of security that settler colonial societies promise settler citizens, pointing to the Stanley case as one instance where such threats are operationalized as mechanisms to sanction violence against Indigenous peoples and communities."-- Provided by publisher