Description
Prairie Rising: Indigenous Youth, Decolonization, and the Politics of Intervention is the 2017 scholarly text published by the University of Toronto Press provides a series of critical reflections about the changing face of settler colonialism through an ethnographic investigation of Indigenous-state relations, with a careful and deliberate focus on the lives of Indigenous youth, in the city of Saskatoon, Canada. Author Jaskiran Dhillon is a first generation academic and organizer who grew up on Treaty Six Cree and Metis Territory in Saskatchewan, Canada. Jaskiran is an assistant professor of global studies and anthropology at The New School in New York City and a member of the New York City Stands with Standing Rock Collective. The 320-page book is organized into six chapters, plus an introduction and conclusion. Part 1 (chapters one and two) focuses on the broader historical context of Indigenous-state relations in Canada, with a particular focus on how the current ‘crisis’ of urban Indigenous youth arose (measured in terms of criminalization, education levels, poverty rates, etc.). Part 2 (chapters three and four) examines the micropolitics of ‘social intervention’ policy and service delivery. Two final chapters comprise Part 3 and provide an ethnography of those receiving social services, as well as a more general conceptual analysis of this dynamic set of processes on the whole. Personal narratives included in this theoretical critique make this work accessible for those interested in social work, anthropology, education, sociology, Indigenous Studies, child welfare, criminal justice and political science. This is a must read for anyone interested in reconciliation and justice. The book includes an index and reference list. Recommended.