Obituaries as Markers of Memory : Grievability and Visibility in Representations of Aboriginal Women in the National Canadian Imaginary

Abstract

Many Aboriginal peoples belong to stateless nations within the White Canadian nation-state. Their claims to sovereignty are predicated on a timeless, immemorial existence that predates White settlement. Yet, the very reproduction of the nation is a gendered and raced project, centering some bodies while marginalizing others. In tracing the ways in which Aboriginal women have been projected on the canvass of the nation’s memorials—in obituaries—this article interrogates the visibility/invisibility of Aboriginal women and sheds light on the changing racial logic that underpins the articulation of race and gender in the twenty-first century.