Listening to Silent Geographies of Indigenous Self-Determination

Silence is often written about as a negative by-product of colonial violence, a response to intergenerational trauma, sexual assault, abuse, and other forms of direct and indirect violence that silences survivors from telling their own stories. This article explores how Indigenous peoples in diaspora refuse damage-centered narratives by selectively telling their own stories and harnessing a collective silence as a form of self-determination that prioritizes the survival of future generations. Indigenous peoples in diaspora then engage with silence as pedagogy by learning how to listen to silence, a form of place making that gives rise to silent geographies. Silence, in this sense, is more than just a by-product of violence or lack of substance. Silence is the way that the voiceless speak, the way that diasporic communities learn from one another, and the way they continue to dream with their ancestors. Silent geographies are worlds where silence is woven into the fabric of affective knowledge, and listening to nondiscursive forms of storytelling offers pathways toward healing and reconciliation.