Defamiliarizing the Aboriginal: Cultural Practices and Decolonization in Canada
Julia V. Emberley
University of Toronto Press
<p>From the Canadian <em>Indian Act</em> to Freuds <em>Totem and</em> Taboo to films such as <em>Nanook of the North</em>, all manner of cultural artefacts were used to create a distinction between savagery and civilization. In <em>Defamiliarizing the Aboriginal</em>, Julia V. Emberley examines the historical production of aboriginality in colonial cultural practices and its effects in shaping the everyday lives of indigenous women, youth, and children.</p><p>Adopting a materialist-semiotic approach, Emberley explores the ways in which representational technologies  film, photography, and print culture, including legal documents and literature  were crucial to British colonial practices. Many indigenous scholars, writers, and artists are, however, confounding these practices by deploying aboriginality as a complex and enabling sign of social, cultural, and political transformation. Emberley gives due attention to this important work, studying a wide range of topics, including race, place, and motherhood, primitivism and violence, and sexuality and global political kinships. Because of Emberleys multidisciplinary approach, <em>Defamiliarizing the Aboriginal</em> will be of interest to scholars and students of cultural studies, indigenous studies, womens studies, postcolonial and colonial studies, literature, and film.</p>