ABSTRACT
For these commitments necessarily are oriented to particular places and locations. Settler colonialism has (and continues to) operate in an effort to thwart these relationships. This chapter examines connections between settler colonial and Indigenous spiritualities and relations as they relate to animalities. Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of “becoming-animal” ostensibly may closely align Indigenous notions of human-animal transformations given their poststructuralist orientation. Similarly, some ecologically grounded Christian conceptions of animal souls evidence a recognition of animal spirits as well as communication methods between humans and animals. In this chapter, both of these notions are challenged amidst Anishinaabe ontological views of animals and humans, and how they relate to place. Further, in examining both becoming-animal and Christian ecologies, this chapter argues that settler colonial assumptions and motivations are not only present, but risk intensifying the colonization of Indigenous human-animal relations.
