Unsettling Gadamerian Hermeneutic Inquiry: Engaging theColonial Difference

Abstract

This article is an exploration of the opportunities and limitations of engaging Gadamerian philosophical hermeneutics in interpretation of Indigenous scholarly texts, and the complications of a non-Indigenous scholar doing this work. Through highlighting the challenges of my Settler positionality and colonial dynamics in a specific inquiry project, I argue that Gadamerian hermeneutics provides opportunities for self-reflexive textual analysis. I also note the problematics wherein Gadamer universalizes particular Western ontological assumptions in his theorizing. I share the ways I unsettled Gadamerian hermeneutics through engaging with the “colonial difference.” To illustrate the possibilities, I share a framework that I developed through the scholarship of Indigenous scholar Michael Marker to engage the ontological priorities of Indigenous scholarly texts in place. I share this work in the hopes of influencing broader engagement with decolonial practices in hermeneutic inquiry.