Office:
CLE B305 | Office hrs: Thur 2-3:30pm or by appt.rgeorge@uvic.ca
Credentials
BA (UVic), MA (UofAmsterdam), PhD (UVic)
Area of expertise
Indigenous coastal governance, Indigenous relationality, Indigenous resurgence and Indigenous storytelling
Assistant professor
Rachel yacaaʔał George is nuučaańuł of Ahousaht and Ehattesaht First Nations and grew up in the Metro Vancouver area of British Columbia on the territories of the Qayqayt, Musqueam, Skwxwú7mesh, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. She holds a BA in History and English from the University of Victoria, an MA in Genocide Studies from the University of Amsterdam, and a PhD in Indigenous Governance from the University of Victoria (2021). Prior to beginning her PhD, she worked as the Research Coordinator for the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2013-2015). Her research has primarily focused on Indigenous politics, reconciliation, justice, and pathways of decolonization through storied practice. Most recently, this has also included explorations of coastal Indigenous relationality and governance.
Dr. George specializes in Indigenous politics—particularly on Indigenous conceptions of justice and their intersections with projects of reconciliation. Her doctoral work focused on how Indigenous stories provide lenses through which we can understand the work of truth and reconciliation commissions in Canada and the United States, and develop a better understanding of justice for Indigenous nations. Her research has also explored the lively and fluid forms of relationality that coastal Indigenous peoples maintain with water, and the forms of Indigenous resistance and responses to extractive industry. Her current areas of research include Indigenous coastal governance, Indigenous relationality, Indigenous resurgence and Indigenous storytelling.
Selected Publications: (Forthcoming). With Jen Bagelman and Sarah Marie Wiebe. "Lively Archives: In the Wake of Energy Development." In Oceans as Archives. Edited by Mikki Stedler, Renisa Mawani and Kristie Flannery.
(Forthcoming). With Sarah Marie Wiebe, Lindsay Keegitah Borrows and Erynne Gilpin. "Mothering Each Other Through Climate Crisis: Letters of Encouragement." In Mothering in a Time of Climate Change Precarity in North America. Edited by Allison Davis.
"The Performativity of Reconciliation: Illusory Justice and the Site C Dam." In Troubling Truth and Reconciliation in Canadian Education: Critical Perspectives. Edited by Sandra D. Stryes and Arlo Kempf. 103 - 120. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2022.
With Sarah Marie Wiebe. “Fluid Decolonial Futures: Water as a Life, Ocean Citizenship and Seascape Relationality.” New Political Science 42.4 (2020): 498-520.
“A Move to Distract: Mobilizing Truth and Reconciliation in Settler Colonial States.” In Pathways to Reconciliation. Edited by. Aimee Craft and Paulette Regan. 87 – 116. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2020.
“Inclusion is Just the Canadian Word for Assimilation: Self-Determination and the Reconciliation Paradigm in Canada.” In Surviving Canada: Indigenous Peoples Celebrate 150 Years of Betrayal. Edited by Kiera Ladner and Myra Tait. 49-62. Winnipeg: Arbeiter Ring Publishing, 2017.
