Biopolitics Advances Settler Colonialism Through the Welfare State

In The History of Sexuality Michel Foucault (1990) reminds us that the emergence of biopower inscribed racism (in its modern, statist form) in the mechanisms of the normalizing state (149). Racism, thus, is not an effect but rather a means of creating a ‘biologized’ internal Other against whom society must defend itself (Stoler 2006:59). Because of this, concerns over reproduction are at the core of a biopolitical state (Foucault 1990:139). The reproduction of those deemed undesirable is constructed as problematic or even threatening to the well-being of the dominant majority. In this conception the (literal and social) death of the internal Other (i.e. the inferior, degenerate, abnormal) “will make life in general healthier: healthier and purer” (Foucault 2003:255). This logic warrants the regulation or outright prevention of the Other's reproduction in the eyes of the dominant majority (Foucault 2003:255). Such an idea becomes especially powerful in a settler-colonial state, such as Canada. Indeed a colonial settler society, which can only exist through the dissolution of indigenous peoples and the establishment of a new social body on the expropriated landmass (Wolfe 2006), must have at its core an obsession with indigenous reproduction. For this reason, a colonial settler society is inherently eliminatory in that the dominant culture must “destroy to replace” (Wolfe 2006:390). The mere existence, let alone reproduction, of the indigenous population is counterproductive to the colonial project.

In the Canadian context, such an obsession has historically manifested itself through various tactics of population control. These ranged from outright extermination(Stevenson 1999:2), sexual violence against indigenous women (Weaver 2009), sterilization abuses (Grekul et al. 2004), to oppressive policies of the Indian Act that seek to 'define' indigenous peoples 'out of existence' (Lawrence 2004). One especially detrimental strategy was the wholesale removal of indigenous children from their families and communities. This was achieved through residential schooling and child welfare services during the now infamous “Sixties Scoop” (Walmsley 2005). This latter tactic is especially powerful in a settler-colonial state, for the removal of indigenous children not only constitutes an attempt at cultural genocide (Dubinsky 2010:5; MontureAngus 1995:193), but also forcibly transforms the child into an element that reifies and strengthens the colonial body. This is not only a highly symbolic, but also a very effective method in regulating the reproduction of indigenous communities.