Other-than-Human Survivance Against the Trent-Severn Waterway

The concept of “survivance” highlights the dynamic and multifaceted forms of agency with which Indigenous Peoples survive against colonialism. Survivance emerges in an ontology where other-than-human beings possess agency, meaning other-than-human beings can also be understood to undertake acts of survivance. This paper explores inclement weather, floods, and other examples of how other-than-human beings have agentially survived and resisted the settler-colonial violence of the Trent-Severn Waterway. Taking seriously the agency of other-than-human beings is not just an intellectual exercise: dismissing other-than-human agency and failing to confront the anthropocentrism of dominant Western ontologies risks contributing to attacks on Indigenous ontologies, reifying colonialism.