Un/Settled America Chapter
Un/Settled is an ongoing visual ethnography project exploring settler colonial histories, white peoples’ conceptions of belonging, and white privilege. The project’s main object of enquiry is whiteness itself. The project endeavors to engage white participants in a profound exploration of systemic privilege, settler colonial histories, and whiteness, inviting them to envision a disrupted and transformative understanding of their own identity.
By adopting a participatory approach, the project aims to facilitate conversations that challenge dominant narratives and prompt individuals to reflect on their roles within systemic structures. The initiative embraces three key components inspired by the radical imagination: (1) imagining alternative narratives that deconstruct prevailing notions of whiteness, (2) fostering radical hope by envisioning a future rooted in equity and justice, and (3) nurturing collective courage to confront uncomfortable truths and actively participate in dismantling systemic inequalities.
Through carefully crafted questions and prompts, participants will be encouraged to delve into their ancestral stories, questioning the origins of their privilege and critically examining the settler colonial histories that shape their present reality. The project recognizes that disrupting whiteness is a multifaceted process, requiring individuals to confront uncomfortable truths about their own narratives and complicity in systemic structures. By encouraging self-reflection and dialogue, the project aims to contribute to the broader narrative shift necessary for dismantling systemic oppression and fostering a collective commitment to becoming better ancestors.
The project is itself an act of unsettlement, taking the shape of a white ethnography and switching up the historically colonial perspective of the camera, which routinely rests its gaze on Black subjects. Combining portraiture, landscapes, and the candid capture of white life with lengthy captioning from interviews, the project engages a social curiosity while simultaneously locating colonial history as a living legacy of whiteness.
PROBLEM ANALYSIS
The U.S. and South Africa and Australia share founding histories rooted in the pioneer myth—that white settlers created opportunities in a new land, as if it were a tabula rasa, devoid of any previous societal structures. The pioneer myth has produced, among white people, a great ignorance and willful blindness to the horrors that settler colonialism wrought on indigenous populations with the support, acceptance and silence of settler populations.
Some white people are beginning to interrogate deeply embedded structures of anti-blackness and white supremacy. These exist on so many levels - from language, thoughts, what we watch, who we read and believe, to where and how we live.
Ignorance only serves to create a more precarious and polarized society but it is easier for many white people to remain ignorant than to commit to the real long lasting social change possible as a result of difficult self-interrogation.
Impact
The Un/Settled project has achieved significant milestones, with impactful interviews, a compelling visual ethnography, and a promising draft sketch for presentation of three chapters focusing on Australia, the U.S.A and South Africa to further enrich the project's narrative.
Through fostering critical conversations on colonial legacies and identity, the project has left a positive impact on participants and audiences alike. To build on these successes, my focus is on expanding the project's reach and forging lasting partnerships to amplify its impact and encourage further dialogue and understanding.
The successful completion of in-depth interviews in Minnesota for the pilot, along with the production of a powerful visual ethnography, have been key successes in the first half of the project. Additionally, the project's presentation at the National Geographic Storytelling Summit in D.C in January 2023 was well-received, further validating its significance.
Looking ahead, future opportunities lie in disseminating the visual ethnography widely and organizing additional chapters of the project. Collaborating with partner organizations can help extend the project's reach and impact.
