Who calls themselves 'indigenous'?
Who calls themselves ʻindigenousʼ in contemporary British culture, and why? The illustrations below explore a trend in contemporary culture to make imaginative connections to an ʻindigenousʼ ancestry.
I coin the term ʻliberal indigeneityʼ to characterise ostensibly plural, inclusive engagements with Britainʼs prehistoric past that promise to reconnect with nature and recover lost forms of identity, community, and relationality.
Though animating interests that diverge considerably from the far-right’s exclusionary racism, I suggest that liberal indigeneityʼs understanding of ʻour ancestorsʼ is inflected by the coloniality it tries to reject.
My illustrations parody the hand-made woodcut style that is synonymous with contemporary nature writing.
These ideas are developed in an article titled 'Imagining "our ancestors": liberal indigeneity and the repudiation of colonialism in postimperial Britain' forthcoming with Theory, Culture & Society.
This project builds on work I began in my book Back to the Stone Age: Race and Prehistory in Contemporary Culture.