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Adapt or Die? The Biopolitics of Indigeneity—From the Civilising Mission to the Need for Adaptation

2014; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 28; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13600826.2014.887557

1469-798X

Marjo Lindroth, Heidi Sinevaara-Niskanen,

Geographies of human-animal interactions

AbstractIndigenous peoples and indigenous lives have historically been the targets of colonial practices. In current politics, the brutal actions these entailed have changed into more subtle forms of governing. Drawing on the context of international politics (the Arctic Council and the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues), we argue that the demand/need for adaptation is one of the rationalities by which power is exercised over indigenous peoples and indigeneity today. We view this as a form of biopower that fosters and steers indigenous life. The paper highlights three concurrent and overlapping strands of the vocabulary of adaptation: a call for agency, a sustaining of authenticity and a politics of placation. Together, these signal what the adaptive indigenous subject should be like, an unceasing demand for adaptation that is subtler but no less colonial than exercises of power past. About the AuthorsMarjo Lindroth is a researcher in international relations in the Faculty of Law at the University of Lapland, Finland. Her work focuses on the international political agency of indigenous peoples, especially in the United Nations. Together with her co-author Sinevaara-Niskanen, Ms Lindroth is a member of the research project ‘BIOS –Biopolitics of Sustainable Development in the Barents Region’ and research group “Northern Political Economy”, both of which are hosted by the Arctic Centre of the University of Lapland.Heidi Sinevaara-Niskanen is a researcher in gender studies in the Unit for Gender Studies at the University of Lapland, Finland. Her work focuses on sustainable development, in particular its social dimension, and the participation of indigenous peoples in Arctic politics. Together with her co-author Marjo Lindroth, Ms Sinevaara-Niskanen is a member of the research project “BIOS –Biopolitics of Sustainable Development in the Barents Region” and research group “Northern Political Economy”, both of which are hosted by the Arctic Centre of the University of Lapland.Notes1. For example, Marjo Lindroth and Heidi Sinevaara-Niskanen, “At the Crossroads of Autonomy and Essentialism: Indigenous Peoples in International Environmental Politics”, International Political Sociology, Vol. 7, No. 3 (2013), pp. 275–293; Heidi Sinevaara-Niskanen, “Vocabularies for Human Development: Arctic Politics and the Power of Knowledge”, Polar Record, doi: 10.1017/S0032247413000958; Marjo Lindroth, “Indigenous Rights as Tactics of Neoliberal Governance: Practices of Expertise in the UN”, Social and Legal Studies (forthcoming).2. Iver B. Neumann and Ole Jacob Sending, Governing the Global Polity. Practice, Mentality, Rationality (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2010), p. 129.3. Thomas Lemke, “Beyond Foucault: From Biopolitics to the Government of Life”, in U. Bröckling, S. Krasmann and T. Lemke (eds.), Governmentality: Current Issues and Future Challenges (New York: Routledge, 2011), pp. 165–184; Michel Foucault, Security, Territory, Population: Lectures at the College de France, 1977–78. Translated by Graham Burchell (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).4. See Marjo Lindroth, “Indigenous–State Relations in the UN: Establishing the Indigenous Forum”, Polar Record, Vol. 42, No. 3 (2006), pp. 239–248; Marjo Lindroth, “Paradoxes of Power: Indigenous Peoples in the Permanent Forum”, Cooperation and Conflict, Vol. 46, No. 4 (2011), pp. 542–561; Monica Tennberg, The Arctic Council: A Study in Governmentality (Rovaniemi: University of Lapland, 1998).5. Arctic organisations of indigenous peoples are integrated into the work of the Arctic Council as “Permanent Participants”. The Council has six indigenous organisations that have this status.6. The PF consists of 16 expert members, of whom half are state representatives and half indigenous representatives. The annual sessions of the PF attract extensive participation, as observers, by the world's indigenous peoples and their organisations.7. Leena Heinämäki, The Right to Be a Part of Nature: Indigenous Peoples and the Environment (Rovaniemi: Lapland University Press, 2010); Francesca Merlan, “Indigeneity. Global and Local”, Current Anthropology, Vol. 50, No. 3 (2009), pp. 303–333.8. See also William Walters, Governmentality. Critical Encounters (London: Routledge, 2012), p. 144.9. For example, Heather A. Smith, “Disrupting the Global Discourse of Climate Change: The Case of Indigenous Voices”, in M.E. Petterger (ed.), The Social Construction of Climate Change. Power, Knowledge, Norms and Discourses (Farnham, Hants.: Ashgate, 2007), pp. 197–216; Elana Wilson and Indra Øverland, “Indigenous Issues”, in O.S. Stokke and G. Hønneland (eds.), International Cooperation and Arctic Governance. Regime Effectiveness and Northern Region Building (New York: Routledge, 2007), pp. 27–49; Leena Heinämäki, “Protecting the Rights of Indigenous Peoples—Promoting the Sustainability of the Global Environment?”, International Community Law Review, Vol. 11, No. 1 (2009), pp. 3–68.10. For example, Pat O'Malley, “Indigenous Governance”, in M. Dean and B. Hindess (eds.), Governing Australia. Studies in Contemporary Rationalities of Government (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 156–172; Peter Pels, “The Anthropology of Colonialism: Culture, History, and the Emergence of Western Governmentality”, Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 26 (1997), pp. 163–183; Christina Petterson, “Colonial Subjectification. Foucault, Christianity and Governmentality”, Cultural Studies Review, Vol. 18, No. 2 (2012), pp. 89–108; Claire Spivakovsky, “Theoretical Passages and Boundaries: The Indigenous Subject, Colonialism, and Governmentality”, refereed paper delivered at Passages: Law, Aesthetics, Politics, 13–14 July 2006, available: (accessed 10 October 2012).11. For example, Morgan Brigg, “Biopolitics Meets Terrapolitics: Political Ontologies and Governance in Settler–Colonial Australia”, Australian Journal of Political Science, Vol. 42, No. 39 (2007), pp. 403–417; Robert J.C. Young, “Foucault on Race and Colonialism”, New Formations, Vol. 25 (1995), pp. 57–65.12. For an anthropological account, see Jonathan Xavier Inda, “Analytics of the Modern: An Introduction”, in J.X. Inda (ed.), Anthropologies of Modernity. Foucault, Governmentality, and Life Politics (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2005), pp. 1–22. Cf. national case studies, Astrid Ulloa, The Ecological Native. Indigenous Peoples' Movements and Eco-governmentality in Colombia (New York: Routledge, 2005); Raymond L. Bryant, “Non-governmental Organizations and Governmentality: ‘Consuming’ Biodiversity and Indigenous People in the Philippines”, Political Studies, Vol. 50, No. 2 (2002), pp. 286–292; Brigg, op. cit.13. See also Jeff Corntassel, “Re-envisioning Resurgence: Indigenous Pathways to Decolonization and Sustainable Self-determination”, Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, Vol. 1, No. 1 (2012), pp. 86–101; Scott L. Morgensen, “The Biopolitics of Settler Colonialism: Right Here, Right Now”, Settler Colonial Studies, Vol. 1, No. 1 (2011), pp. 52–76; Brigg, op. cit.; O'Malley, op. cit.14. O'Malley, op. cit.; on the similar problematique of oppressive authenticity, see Jeffrey Sissons, First Peoples. Indigenous Cultures and their Futures (London: Reaktion Books, 2005).15. O'Malley, op. cit., p. 162.16. Lindroth and Sinevaara-Niskanen, op. cit.17. Judith Butler, Precarious Life. The Powers of Mourning and Violence (London: Verso, 2004), p. 24.18. Spivakovsky, op. cit.19. See also Brigg, op .cit.20. O'Malley, op. cit., p. 162.21. Julian Reid, “The Disastrous and Politically Debased Subject of Resilience”, Development Dialogue, Vol. 58 (2012), p. 74.22. Lindroth, “Indigenous–State Relations in the UN”, op. cit.; Tennberg, op. cit.23. Brigg, op. cit., pp. 410–411.24. David Scott, “Colonial Governmentality”, in J.X. Inda (ed.), Anthropologies of Modernity. Foucault, Governmentality, and Life Politics (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2005), pp. 23–49.25. Charles R. Hale, “Does Multiculturalism Menace? Governance, Cultural Rights and the Politics of Identity in Guatemala”, Journal of Latin American Studies, Vol. 34, No. 3 (2002), pp. 485–524.26. For example, Jeffrey Sissons, “Elimination or Exclusion? Strategic Discontinuity in the Post-Mabo Era”, Social Analysis, Vol. 41, No. 2 (1997), pp. 29–33; Merlan, op. cit.27. For example, Christine Sylvester, “Bare Life as a Development/Postcolonial Problematic”, The Geographical Journal, Vol. 172, No. 1 (2006), p. 68.28. On health and well-being, see Arctic Human Development Report (AHDR) (Akureyri: Stefansson Arctic Institute, 2004), pp. 155–168.29. On ownership of the land, see, for example, Tanja Joona, ILO Convention No. 169 in a Nordic Context with Comparative Analysis: An Interdisciplinary Approach (Rovaniemi: Lapland University Press, 2012).30. On the use of natural resources, see Megatrends (Copenhagen: Nordic Council of Ministers, 2011).31. Walters, op. cit., p. 95.32. Pels, op. cit.33. Butler, op. cit., p. 52.34. Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality: An Introduction (London: Penguin, 1981).35. Michel Foucault, “The Political Technology of Individuals”, in H. Martin, H. Gutman and P.H. Hutton (eds.), Technologies of the Self: A Seminar with Michel Foucault (Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1988), p. 152.36. For example, Brad Evans and Julian Reid, Resilient Life. The Art of Living Dangerously (Cambridge: Polity, 2014); Michael Dillon and Julian Reid, The Liberal Way of War: Killing to Make Life Live (London: Routledge, 2009).37. For critical studies on indigeneity in International Relations, see, for example, Corntassel, op. cit.; Sheryl Lightfoot, “Selective Endorsement Without Intent to Implement: Indigenous Rights and the Anglosphere”, The International Journal of Human Rights, Vol. 16, No. 1 (2012), pp. 100–122.38. For example, Brigg, op. cit.; Mark Rifkin, “Indigenizing Agamben. Rethinking Sovereignty in Light of the ‘Peculiar’ Status of Native Peoples”, Cultural Critique, Vol. 73 (2009), pp. 88–124; Julie Cupples, “Wild Globalization: The Biopolitics of Climate Change and Global Capitalism on Nicaragua's Mosquito Coast”, Antipode, Vol. 44, No. 1 (2012), pp. 10–30; Morgensen, op. cit.39. For example, Spivakovsky, op. cit.; Brigg, op. cit.; Morgensen, op. cit. See also, in the field of International Relations, Doerthe Rosenow, “Decentring Global Power: The Merits of a Foucauldian Approach to International Relations”, Global Society, Vol. 23, No. 4 (2009), pp. 497–517; Walters, op. cit.40. On citizenship, see Aihwa Ong, “Making the Biopolitical Subject: Cambodian Immigrants, Refugee Medicine and Cultural Citizenship in California”, Social Science & Medicine, Vol. 40, No. 9 (1995), pp. 1243–1257.41. Julian Reid, “Life Struggles. War, Discipline, and Biopolitics in the Thought of Michel Foucault”, Social Text, Vol. 24, No. 1 (2006), p. 136.42. Lemke, op. cit.; Foucault, Security, Territory, Population, op. cit.43. Butler, op. cit.; O'Malley, op. cit.44. Rifkin, op. cit., p. 112.45. Brigg, op. cit.; see also Lindroth and Sinevaara-Niskanen, op. cit., pp. 288–289.46. Barry Smit and Johanna Wandel, “Adaptation, Adaptive Capacity and Vulnerability”, Global Environmental Change, Vol. 16, No. 3 (2006), pp. 282–292. On adaptation in the Arctic, see, for example, Monica Tennberg, “Adaptation as a Governance Practice”, in M. Tennberg (ed.), Governing the Uncertain. Adaptation and Climate in Russia and Finland (London: Springer, 2012), pp. 17–35; Grete K. Hovelsrud and Barry Smit (eds.), Community Adaptation and Vulnerability in Arctic Regions (London: Springer, 2010).47. For example, Grete K. Hovelsrud, Jeremy L. White, Mark Andrachuk and Barry Smit, “Community Adaptation and Vulnerability Integrated”, in G.K. Hovelsrud and B. Smit (eds.), Community Adaptation and Vulnerability in Arctic Regions (London: Springer, 2010), pp. 335–348.48. Reid, “The Disastrous and Politically Debased Subject of Resilience”, op. cit., p. 74.49. Marjo Lindroth has studied the political agency of indigenous peoples in the UN PF. She has observed sessions of the UN PF, interviewed indigenous representatives and analysed a range of texts related to the work of the UN PF.50. Heidi Sinevaara-Niskanen has studied questions of development, gender and ethnicity in Arctic politics. She has interviewed indigenous and state representatives in the Arctic Council and analysed reports published under the auspices of the Arctic Council.51. Thomas Lemke, with Stéphane Baele, “An Interview with Thomas Lemke: Foucault Today. On the Theoretical Relevance of Foucauldian Concepts of ‘Governmentality’ and ‘Biopolitics’”, Emulations, Vol. 2, No. 4 (2008), available: (accessed 10 August 2012).52. Lindroth and Sinevaara-Niskanen, op. cit.53. See also Scott, op. cit.54. For example, Heinämäki, The Right to Be a Part of Nature, op. cit.; Aqqaluk Lynge, “Participation, Communication and Indigenous Peoples: Scientists Need to Do More”, in B. Poppel and Y. Csonka (eds.), Arctic Social Sciences—Prospects for the International Polar Year 2007–2008 Era and Beyond (Nuuk: International Arctic Social Sciences Association, 2011), pp. 37–43.55. AHDR, op. cit., p. 237.56. Pat O'Malley, “Risk and Responsibility”, in A. Barry, T. Osborne and N. Rose (eds.), Foucault and Political Reason: Liberalism, Neo-liberalism and Rationalities of Government (London: University College London Press, 1996), pp. 189–208; Spivakovski, op. cit.; Giorgio Shani, “Empowering the Disposable? Biopolitics, Race and Human Development”, Development Dialogue, Vol. 58 (2012), pp. 99–113.57. Barbara Cruikshank, The Will to Empower. Democratic Citizens and Other Subjects (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999), p. 69.58. Reid, “Life Struggles”, op. cit., p. 135.59. For governance relying on communities, see Barry Schofield, “Partners in Power: Governing the Self-sustaining Community”, Sociology, Vol. 36, No. 3 (2002), pp. 663–683.60. See also O'Malley, “Indigenous Governance”, op. cit., p. 160; and on questions of land rights and ratifying the ILO Convention No. 169, Leena Heinämäki, “Environmental Rights Protecting the Way of Life of Arctic Indigenous Peoples: ILO Convention No. 169 and UN Draft Declaration on Indigenous Peoples”, in T. Koivurova, T. Joona and R. Shnoro (eds.), Arctic Governance (Rovaniemi: Arctic Centre, 2004), pp. 231–259.61. Stephanie Rutherford, “Green Governmentality: Insights and Opportunities in the Study of Nature's Rule”, Progress in Human Geography, Vol. 31, No. 3 (2007), pp. 291−307.62. Jeff Corntassel, “Toward Sustainable Self-determination: Rethinking the Contemporary Indigenous-Rights Discourse”, Alternatives, Vol. 33, No. 1 (2008), pp. 105–132; Corntassel, “Re-envisioning Resurgence”, op. cit.63. Brigg, op. cit., p. 414.64. O'Malley, “Indigenous Governance”, op. cit., p. 161.65. For example, O'Malley, “Indigenous Governance”, op. cit.; Wilson and Øverland, op. cit.; Lindroth, “Paradoxes of Power”, op. cit.; Nevzat Soguk, “Indigenous Transversality in Global Politics”, Affinities: A Journal of Radical Theory, Culture, and Action, Vol. 5, No. 1 (2011), pp. 37–55.66. See also Brigg, op. cit.; Rifkin, op. cit.67. Joona, op. cit.68. E.C.H. Keskitalo, Constructing “the Arctic”. Discourses of International Region-building (Rovaniemi: University of Lapland, 2002), p. 199.69. Marybeth L. Martello, “Arctic Indigenous Peoples as Representations and Representatives of Climate Change”, Social Studies of Science, Vol. 38, No. 3 (2008), pp. 351–376.70. Rifkin, op. cit., p. 114, Brigg, op. cit.71. See also Sissons, First Peoples, op. cit.72. For example, Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005). See also Rifkin, op. cit. and Brigg, op. cit. on discursive practices of inclusive exclusion.73. For example, Fleur Johns, Non-legality in International Law. Unruly Law (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013).74. Merlan, op. cit., p. 305.75. Ibid., p. 306.76. Tanja Joona, “International Norms and Domestic Practices in Regard to ILO Convention No. 169—With Special Reference to Articles 1 and 13–19″, International Community Law Review, Vol. 12, No. 2 (2010), pp. 213–260.77. Merlan, op. cit., p. 305.78. Sissons, “Elimination or Exclusion”, op. cit., p. 32.79. Butler, op. cit., p. 67.80. See, for example, on the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Lindroth, “Indigenous Rights as Tactics of Neoliberal Governance”, op. cit.81. Sinevaara-Niskanen, op. cit.82. On victimisation and citizenship, see Adriana Petryna, “Science and Citizenship under Postsocialism”, in J.X. Inda (ed.), Anthropologies of Modernity. Foucault, Governmentality, and Life Politics (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2005), pp. 158–180. 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