ABSTRACT
This chapter shares the concept of Indigenous placemaking to counter the erasure of Indigenous knowledge and experiences from sociological study. Drawing from the work of several Indigenous Studies scholars and thinkers, I define Indigenous placemaking in three parts: first, it is the act of engaging with place as a “system of reciprocal relations and obligations”; second, it is the recognition that land is a relative, a teacher, and a home that offers vital instructions about upholding responsibilities between peoples, landscapes, and nonhuman kin; and third is that Indigenous placemaking empowers Indigenous peoples to refuse “the permanence of settler colonialism as an unmovable reality.” By foregrounding Indigenous perspectives in sociological research, Indigenous placemaking illustrates that sociality is place-based, lived experiences must be centered, and that land is and always will be a mode of relationality. Sociological research can learn to better analyze how place matters, not only for its geography but as part of a dynamic social space defined by Indigenous relationality and imbued with the possibility for interdependent futures.
