An Indigenous Perspective in the Anthropocene: A Spiralic Essay on Time

Abstract

By examining the dances of the Idle No More protests, the essays of Kyle P. Whyte, and a book of poetry by Tommy Pico, this essay explores the impact of perceiving time as a spiral rather than a line during the age of the Anthropocene. From the perspective of a descendant of settler-colonials, the essayist attempts to connect these three varying sources to convey an understanding of time as relational and dialogic. This indigenous relation with time is underrepresented during an age of profit and pollution.

This essay won the 2023 Intersectional Social Justice Essay Prize (4th year category)