I'm wondering what the post you shared means by saying "cottagecore fantasies are colonial" I wish to live away from capitalistic societies, live a slower life, live sustainably and more aligned with nature, these seem like good wants. I feel like there must be something I am missing. Is it that I shouldn't have a land related wish at all on land that isn't mine? I'm genuinely curious pls help (if you have the time you are by no means obligated) have a nice day!
Even if your intentions are good or generally benign, you’d still be trying to escape capitalism via settling (yes, settling) on Indian Land, which would either be unceded & currently stolen by North American countries, or reserve/treaty land, which could potentially be chipped down by you simply being there. People are trying to live solitary lives in the woods without thinking about how their presence would affect Indigenous peoples, our land rights, or our sovereignty. Cottagecore is colonial fantasy because there’s nothing that seperates modern randos trying to do this and colonists who came to North America to do the same thing. Farming & homesteading was and IS used as a form of colonialism, which moniyaws would benefit from should they attempt to pursue it. Consider the following:
Canada would falsely advertise the Canadian prairies as “unused” land ready for the taking to European immigrants to encourage them to immigrate to Canada to replace the Plains Indian population. Like in this one, or this one, which was trying to depict the plains as being free of Buffalo and ready for cattle instead (hint: it wasn’t. there were skill plains Indians and bison around.)
Going off that, alongside the fur trade & white hunters nearly hunting the Bison population to extinction, farming was utilized as a forced way of life and assimilation to now-starving plains Natives. Our two choices were 1. starve and die off, or 2. assimilate and start farming. In Sarah Carter’s paper “Two Acres and a Cow”, she explains how Natives were set up for failure in farming by giving us shitty equipment, extreme restrictions on trading or selling produce, extreme restrictions on leaving reserves & denial of applying for credit. However, despite all this, a lot of Natives got pretty good at farming. Until white settlers complained of competition of course, and so the land that Natives had farmed was then given to said white settlers. This is why Alberta and Saskatchewan (known for our prairies and crops) have so much farmland and cropland. Because it was stolen from Natives, who got successful at it.
Despite all this, Plains Natives have been trying to decolonize and revitalize the Plains due to it being one of the most diverse, yet most endangered landscapes in the world. Prairie grasslands also absorb more CO2 & release more oxygen than trees. On top of that, the only reason the Bison populations had gone up to what they are now due to a humungous group effort by various Plains tribes across North America with bison ranches/sanctuaries. We eventually hope to be able to be nomadic or at least hunt Bison once again. Randos trying to farm & have ranches & shit kinda interferes with that. & there’d be people, of course, unwilling to let go of their ranches & farms & cottages in favour of our decolonizing (which is what’s happening NOW) despite the fact that its. Our land. This is both entitled & colonial.
In fact, there’s a whole swath of (white) people actually dedicated to stopping Bison ranches & sanctuaries in favor of farms & European ranches which. Speaks for itself.
A lot of reserves have also gotten chipped down in size due to random European immigrants and settlers just deciding to settle on reserve land without asking, so the land that they occupy suddenly becomes theirs. This happened to my reserve with some Irish hutterites that came. This absolutely does still happen, & if Natives try to contend with this the first excuse is always “But there’s PEOPLE living there! The farms???”
The government LOVES random Moniyaws who want land to farm on so much that they “give away” land to people who ask sometimes. Without asking Natives, of course. See above point. You automatically have a privileged advantage with cottagecore fantasies because it directly plays into helping colonize us & displace us from our land.
Farms are also used against Native land claims when we’re trying to legally “get back” what technically and legally should still be ours. Brazil is going through some similar issues right now.
And that’s just a few things! Again, cottagecore is inherently colonial because there’s literally no difference between it and what European settlers were doing back in the day. It plays a big part in our colonization & interferes with our efforts for decolonizing & land reclamation.
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