Unsettling Genocide Studies at the Eleventh Conference of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, July 16-19, 2014, Winnipeg-Canada

Abstract

What is the purpose of a genocide conference and in what ways might such a conference unsettle us and contribute to a broader decolonizing project, in genocide studies and beyond? This summary of the Eleventh Conference of the International Association of Genocide Scholars at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada examines some of the disruptions and connections that arose and contributed to the vitality of our meetings. When Winnipeg was selected as host for the Eleventh Conference of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, it was an opportunity to showcase the intellectual vibrancy of the city and region to our visiting delegates. In Canada, Winnipeg is the butt of too many jokes. Depending on the season, it is portrayed as a land of unbearable cold (Colder than Mars, read one recent headline), floods, and mosquitoes. Depending on the season, it is derided as Winterpeg or Waterpeg. To this extent, Winnipeg may seem the less-exotic conference option when bookended by meetings in Siena and Yerevan. But Winnipeg is also at the geographic centre of North America. It sits at the forks of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers, at the crossroads of the Anishinaabe, Metis, Cree, Dakota and Oji-Cree Nations. It is a historic meeting place of Indigenous peoples, and a most fitting site for our conference theme: Time, Movement, and Space: Genocide Studies and Indigenous Peoples. It is a space long marked by movements and interactions among peoples, including the destructive momentum of settler colonialism. Winnipeg is also a refugee center, meaning it attracts many newcomers who are fleeing oppression and human rights violations elsewhere. It is home to substantial Sudanese, Rwandan, Cambodian, Bangladeshi, Somalian, Sierra Leonian, Burmese, and other communities of individuals who have been forced to flee their homelands. As well, it has a large historic population of survivors of the Holocaust and other groups subjected to Nazi genocide. But it is the settler colonial present that perhaps stands out most in the Winnipeg zeitgeist. This in large can be credited to Winnipeg's active Indigenous community. Theirs are the strongest voices opposed to a seemingly ever-ascendant settler colonialism. One goal of the conference organizers was to create opportunities for Indigenous scholars, leaders, and community members to contribute to and direct our discussions. This began prior to the conference by making sure that the conference was well-advertized on websites, listservs and through Facebook groups frequented by local Indigenous peoples. We were also fortunate that a reporter featured our conference in a local newspaper prior to our opening. Mary Agnes Welch framed her Winnipeg Free Press article around the question of genocide in Canada, and featured comments from several of our presenters, including Charlene Bearhead, Trina Cooper-Bolam, and David MacDonald. 1 The article provoked debate on both the comments page and in the editorial section of the paper. Local independent historian Michael Melanson wrote a letter to express his concern that Canadian genocide scholars were distorting the meaning of genocide by straying from the definition contained within General Assembly Resolution 260, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of