Remediating Visual Extractivism and the Geological Archive: Multimodal Perspectives from Subarctic Québec

Stemming from an ongoing doctoral project in media anthropology concerning extractivism, (social) ecologies, and settler-indigenous relationships in subarctic Québec, this multimodal paper explores landscape memories and archival ecologies in the mining town of Schefferville and the adjacent Innu community of Matimekush-Lac John, Eastern Canada. Based on visual material collected during long-term ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the region in 2022 and 2023, it critically examines the complex links between extractivism, visuality, (settler-colonial) governmentality, and indigenous land dispossession. More specifically, building on research in anthropology, media theory, and cultural studies, it proposes the concept of visual extractivism to analyse a visual archive produced during the latter half of the 20th century to support and document mining operations in and around Schefferville. To conclude, this paper outlines ways in which remediation strategies—both conceptually and creatively—offer alternatives to exclusionary narratives of visual extractivism.