ABSTRACT
New materialism—new because this is materialism after Derrida, different from Marxist materialism—is the guiding philosophical stance of this text. This emergent body of work engages in a decentering of the human as primary subject and employs a flat ontology that engages both matter and discourse on a level plane. The ontological turn pushes back against hierarchies and dominance; therefore, interrogation of privilege should be part of this movement. Marx's historical materialism, with its emphasis on capitalism and the relations of material production and consumption, is a different take on materialism. A more relevant criticism of the 'new' in new materialism has to do with the appropriation of indigenous science by white scholars. Western societies have enacted terrible violence on indigenous peoples, and stealing knowledge is one form of such violence. Indigenous knowledge systems have been covertly appropriated while they have simultaneously been systematically excluded from the university canons. Denying and invalidating indigenous knowledge are other violences.
