Cultivating an Earth-Based Understanding of Consent

Jenn Epp

Is it possible, and if so desireable, to adopt an Indigenist research paradigm (IRP) for the purposes of engaging in conceptual analysis or normative theorizing within euro-western academic philosophy? In this talk, I give reason to answer both elements of this question in the affirmative, at least some of the time, by using an IRP to analyse consent. Doing so, in my case, involves engaging in small-scale food production and native habitat regeneration while learning from Indigenous theorists and local languages (Anishinaabemowin and Kanienʼkéha or Onyota'a:ká). This is an in-progress, exploratory project. So far the results indicate that consent might be well understood as a decision-making process or ongoing relational status rather than a state of affairs (or possession) acheived via permission-giving.