“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.