Kimberly A. Williams - Stampede: Misogyny, White Supremacy and Settler Colonialism

STAMPEDE

STAMPEDE

Misogyny, White Supremacy, and Settler Colonialism

Kimberly A. Williams

Fernwood Publishing
Halifax & Winnipeg

Copyright 2021 Kimberly A. Williams

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

Editing: Jenn Harris

Cover design: Housefires Design and Illustration

eBook: tikaebooks.com

Printed and bound in Canada

Published by Fernwood Publishing
32 Oceanvista Lane, Black Point, Nova Scotia, B0J 1B0
and 748 Broadway Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3G 0X3

www.fernwoodpublishing.ca

Fernwood Publishing Company Limited gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Government of Canada, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Manitoba Department of Culture, Heritage and Tourism under the Manitoba Publishers Marketing Assistance Program and the Province of Manitoba, through the Book Publishing Tax Credit, for our publishing program. We are pleased to work in partnership with the Province of Nova Scotia to develop and promote our creative industries for the benefit of all Nova Scotians.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Title: Stampede: misogyny, white supremacy, and settler colonialism / Kimberly A. Williams.

Names: Williams, Kimberly A. (Kimberly Ann), 1975- author.

Description: Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20210151978 | Canadiana (ebook) 20210152176 | ISBN 9781773632056 (softcover) | ISBN 9781773632179 (EPUB) | ISBN 9781773634494 (Kindle) | ISBN 9781773634500 (PDF)

Subjects: LCSH: Calgary Stampede. | LCSH: RodeosSocial aspectsAlbertaCalgary. | LCSH: WomenAlbertaCalgarySocial conditions. | LCSH: Minority womenAlbertaCalgarySocial conditions. | LCSH: WomenViolence againstAlbertaCalgary. | LCSH: Minority womenViolence againstAlberta Calgary. | LCSH: Human traffickingAlbertaCalgary. | LCSH: Calgary (Alta.)Social conditions. | LCSH: Calgary (Alta.)Race relations. | LCSH: Calgary (Alta.)Ethnic relations.

Classification: LCC GV1834.56.C22 C39 2021 | DDC 791.8/409712338dc23

Contents

In memory of Dad, whose feminist question it was in the first place.

Acknowledgements

I live and learn on Treaty 7 territory, the hereditary homelands of the Niitsitapi (the Blackfoot Confederacy: Siksika, Piikani, and Kainai First Nations), the yrhe Nakoda (Chiniki , Bearspaw, and Wesley First Nations), the Tsuutina Nation, and the Mtis Nation of Alberta, Region III. I am forever indebted to a whole host of people who have been instrumental in helping me further understand the consequences of settler colonialism, what it means to live in this beautiful place where the Elbow River meets the Bow, and how to be accountable for the actions and legacies of my European ancestors. These people include: Dion Simon and Steve Kootenay-Jobin from Mount Royal Universitys Iniskim Centre; my colleagues Gabrielle Lindstrom, Barbara Barnes, and mru s Indigenous Studies librarian, Jessie Loyer ; yrhe Nakoda cultural specialist Thomas Snow, his partner Shalome Hope, and Elders Alice Kaquitts (Nakoda) and Vivian Ayoungman (Siksika). I am honoured , too, to move peripherally in some of the same circles as Calgary-area Indigenous activists Cheryle Chagnon-Greyeyes, Michelle Robinson, Autumn Leona Eagle Speaker, and Chantal Stormsong Chagnon. Some of the folks Ive named here know (of) me; others wouldnt recognize me if they fell over me at a march, rally, or vigil. But because of them, I know so much more than I otherwise would have about where I live and where I come from, and my teaching, research, and activism have been and will continue to be transformed under their tutelage. I will never forget and will endeavour to continue to use, with love and compassion, all that Ive learned from them.

Womens and gender studies librarian Katharine Barrette and I started working at mru at just about the same time. She has deftly conjured her Feminist Librarian Magic on my behalf for more than a decade now, and although shes infinitely cooler than I can ever hope to be, I am grateful to call her a colleague and fellow feminist killjoy.

Canadian historian Jeffrey Keshen, newly appointed president of the University of Regina, served as dean of arts at mru for just four years. In that short time, however, I became the self-appointed president of his unofficial fan club. He more than anyone kept the embers of this project alive by annoying me at every possible moment with various forms of the same question: Are you working on your book? He also made other structural things happen that greatly improved my professional life, and theres not a day that goes by that I dont miss seeing him on campus, knowing hes fighting the good fight for the liberal arts generally, and for feminist teaching and scholarship specifically.

Ive had the privilege, too, of working with some extraordinary undergraduate research assistants in the course of researching and writing this book. Friney Labranche jumped on board way back in 2012, working only for baked goods, gratitude, and the opportunity to experience the centennial Calgary Stampede for free. Holly Atjecoutay accomplished miracles in 2015, gathering materials for me related to Chapter 4, and Roxy Cort and Taylor Johnson did a huge chunk of research in 2016 that has greatly informed not only Chapter 5 of this project, but also my next on the history of Calgarys consensual adult sex industry.

Parts of Chapter 3 were previously published in The Spaces and Places of Canadian Popular Culture (Canadian Scholars 2019) as Gender Matters at the Calgary Stampede Parade, and I appreciate those good folks for their permission to reprint selections from that original work. Im also grateful to editors Victoria Kannen and Neil Shyminsky, whose call for proposals for that volume forced me to get my butt in gear and really commit pen to paper (or, in my case, fingers to keyboard ).

I want to acknowledge, too, that during the year in which I wrote the majority of this book, Albertas newly elected United Conservative Party ( ucp ) began its relentless neoliberal austerity project in support of a sunset industry by laying groundwork that, if unchecked, will thoroughly dismantle post-secondary education ( pse ) as we know it in our province. In addition to making it more difficult for students to afford university or college by, among other things, removing the cap on tuition hikes, eliminating the Alberta tax credit for educational expenses, and raising interest rates on provincial student loans, a new funding formula was introduced that links provincial operating grants to performance metrics that include (predictably) the extent to which a given institution offers its students opportunities to learn skills relevant to what the ucp considers important to grow the (oil-soaked) Alberta economy. Its important to note that if the ucp is allowed to succeed with its agenda to force all pse institutions to do nothing but churn out automatons for the oil economy, books like this one wont ever see the light of day, because as Ricardo Acua (2019 : par. 11) has put it, the ucp s short-sighted actions ignore the reality that gutting the [ pse ] sector financially will actually drive away the kind of talent that attracts research grants, commercializes research, and generates best-in-class results for students. In other words, students who dont want to work for or in the energy sector will choose to get their post-secondary education elsewhere, and those of us who teach something other than engineering or business in this provinces austerity-affected pse institutions will leave and wont be replaced.