Christopher "Kikila" Perrin

Topic

Learning to Listen: Cultivating Settler Support for Resurgence

Interdisciplinary Studies

Date & location

• Thursday, August 21, 2025
• 9:00 A.M.
• Clearihue Building, Room B017

Examining Committee

Supervisory Committee

• Dr. Jeff Corntassel, Department of Political Science, University of Victoria (Supervisor)
• Dr. Crystal Tremblay, Department of Geography, UVic (Co-Supervisor)
• Dr. Darcy Mathews, School of Environmental Studies, UVic (Outside Member)
• Dr. Ann Stahl, Department of Anthropology, UVic (Outside Member)

External Examiner

• Dr. Corey Snelgrove, Department of Political Science, University of Alberta

Chair of Oral Examination

• Dr. Simon Devereaux, Department of History, UVic

Abstract

As climate change’s impacts are felt more acutely by Indigenous communities across the planet, settler environmentalists are beginning to acknowledge colonial land theft as a major contributor to the climate crisis. In response, some settlers have begun supporting Indigenous demands for Land Back. Because we reproduce the dominant worldview that perpetuates and reflects Canada’s structural racism, settler support for Indigenous movements at times cause further colonial harms to Indigenous people who invite our participation while undermining their movements.

This dissertation proposes a framework for settlers supporting Coast Salish land stewardship that reduces potential harms caused by our participation. My research follows two communities of settler environmentalists participating in Coast Salish-led land stewardship projects to better understand how our (re)production of the dominant worldview continues to cause harm to the Indigenous people we displace. Participating in Coast Salish-led invasive species removal and other land stewardship practices, our experiences indicate that sites of Indigenous resistance to the colony create transformative ethical spaces through ceremony and protocol where settlers can start learning to live in Indigenous sovereignty. Understanding Coast Salish-led ecosystem restoration as a culturally relevant place of learning, settler participants begin to (re)orient ourselves, giving us tools necessary for interrupting the dominant worldview as it is reproduced in us while we become aware that we carry responsibilities for living on stolen land. By taking up Indigenous research methods and methodologies under Indigenous leadership as praxis, this research describes an emergent set of decolonial practices that specifically support Coast Salish resurgence through meaningful settler engagement.