The politics of positionality and naming practices in socio-cultural relations

Abstract This paper explores power/knowledge relations of nomenclature practices associated with non-Indigenous positionality statements. Focusing on the ways in which knowledge shapes meaning and understanding, and calls for decolonising scholarly practices, we interrogate the socio-cultural-political nexus of positionality statements to highlight some inherent challenges that ought to be addressed in contemporary research spaces. Taking a post-structuralist discursive approach, we examine four common self-referential non-Indigenous positioning words — settler, colonist, white, and non-Indigenous — to discuss the linguistic implications for relationality to, and with, First Nations Peoples and standpoints. To demonstrate the importance of understanding nuances of language, examples of positionality statements are provided throughout, and explanations provided that highlight the potential implications for cross-cultural mean making. Our purpose in writing on this topic is to provocate that positionality statements, when written and/or spoken with considered and informed use, are critical to decolonising the harmful practices and assumed superiority of the western ways of thinking and doing.<p></p>