ABSTRACT
This chapter, which emerged from Wellman’s graduate research in criminology, focuses on how Indigenous men and women continue to fight against Canada’s colonization while incarcerated within the Canadian prison system. The chapter details how Indigenous people are routinely denied access to culture and spirituality within prisons and the role that Indigenous-specific prison programming attempts to play in addressing this. It also raises questions as to whether the prison itself is set up to further disconnect Indigenous people from being Indigenous and fostering the erasure of Indigenous identity from the Canadian settler state, ultimately continuing the “civilizing” project. Through her interviews with a number of former prisoners, Wellman argues that while the Correctional Service of Canada has developed several “Indigenous-specific” programs in federal institutions, access to them is always tenuous, and most proffer a “pan”-Indigenous perspective to culture and traditions not specific to a prisoner’s nation. While Stephanie argues that such programming represents a furthering of the colonial project, at the same time the men interviewed for the study maintained an affirmation of their Indigeneity while inside prison.
