In 2016, Canada’s newly elected federal government publically committed to reconciling the social and material deprivation of Indigenous communities across the country. Does this outward shift in the Canadian state’s approach to longstanding injustices facing Indigenous peoples reflect a “transformation with teeth,” or is it merely a reconstructed attempt at colonial Indigenous-settler relations?

Prairie Rising provides a series of critical reflections about the changing face of settler colonialism in Canada through an ethnographic investigation of Indigenous-state relations in the city of Saskatoon. Jaskiran Dhillon uncovers how various groups including state agents, youth workers, and community organizations utilize participatory politics in order to intervene in the lives of Indigenous youth living under conditions of colonial occupation and marginality. In doing so, this accessibly written book sheds light on the changing forms of settler governance and the interlocking systems of education, child welfare, and criminal justice that sustain it. Dhillon’s nuanced and fine-grained analysis exposes how the push for inclusionary governance ultimately reinstates colonial settler authority and raises startling questions about the federal

Jaskiran Dhillon is an assistant professor of global studies and anthropology at The New School in New York City.

Jaskiran K. Dhillon's profile page

"By offering a politics of materiality derived from the lived experiences of urban Indigenous youth caught in the teeth of colonial violence, Prairie Rising offers a productive ground for an effective decolonial praxis."

NAIS, vol 5 no 2

"Prairie Rising is an ambitious first book, and makes helpful contributions to the areas of youth studies, the anthropology of the modern state, discourses and institutional practices of neoliberalism, as well as Indigenous resistance and survivance under settler colonial conditions on Turtle Island. Prairie Rising is a useful and thorough reminder that our neighbours to the north themselves have a long way to go before they can speak of true reconciliation, much less justice."

<em>Critical Ethnic Studies</em>

‘This book is extremely rich… It makes a number of contributions to fields such as anthropology, sociology, political science, youth studies, and the like. It is moreover a model of how to bridge academic scholarship and responsible community advocacy.’

Theory and Event vol20:04:2017

‘Through narratives and images conveyed in the stories of provocative characters, Dhillon makes rich theoretical arguments accessible to readers. Indeed, it is Dhillon’s candid, engaging, and imaginative language that makes this book a pleasure to read.’

The Journal of Native Studies, vol 37:01:2017