Episode 23 of Domination Chronicles is now available: "Bishops, Papal Bulls, and the Problem of Domination." In this conversation, Peter d'Errico and I discuss the May 2026 Knowledge-Sharing Symposium on the Doctrine of Discovery held in Edmonton, Alberta, on Cree Nation Treaty 6 territory.
The symposium brought together Catholic, Vatican, Indigenous, legal, and scholarly voices to address the so-called Doctrine of Discovery. I welcomed the seriousness of the gathering, while also continuing to ask a question that has shaped my work for decades: what happens when the word "discovery" distracts us from the deeper issue of domination?
The episode returns to the 1493 papal bull Inter Caetera and the claim of Christian domination that it carried into law, policy, and political imagination. Peter and I talk about why the call to revoke the papal bulls matters, and why phrases such as "renunciation," "repudiation," or "reconciliation" can become too soft if they do not directly confront the claimed right of domination.
I also reflect on the early 1990s conversations with Birgil Kills Straight that helped shape the call for revocation. Those conversations were not about finding a better slogan. They were about accurately naming the structure of empire that has been imposed on Original Nations and Peoples.
This episode belongs with my continuing effort to examine how words frame reality. Discovery, doctrine, dominion, title, sovereignty, rights, and reconciliation are not neutral terms when they carry centuries of institutional power. The work is to hear what those words are doing, and to recover the meaning of original free existence outside the imposed box of empire and state domination.