Renewable Relations in Make Muskrat Right

Abstract

This article analyzes two 2018 performance events organized by the Labrador Land Protectors, a grassroots collective currently advocating against the construction of a massive hydroelectric generating facility at Muskrat Falls, Labrador, through a movement that has come to be known as Make Muskrat Right. The first event, In Loving Memory, staged a mock memorial service for lost lands and culture and took place as part of the National Day of Action against Muskrat Falls in June 2018. The second event occurred at the closing ceremonies of the Muskrat Falls Symposium, held in September 2018 at Memorial University of Newfoundland. At these events, the collective experience of melancholia for that which has been lost as a result of Western energy culture foregrounded and enacted the intimacy needed for decolonial love. Taken together, the events shed light on the way relations between settlers and multiple Indigenous groups in Make Muskrat Right resist the settler fantasy of reconciliation, focusing instead on recognition, healing, and renewal through attunement and responsiveness to difference.