How to Buy a Coffee in a Settler State: Language and Refusal in Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg

Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg is an Algonquin community located roughly one and a half hours from Canada’s capital, Ottawa. It is a primarily English-speaking community located in the French-speaking province of Quebec. This essay will explore the complexities and difficulties associated with being an English-speaking Indigenous community that resides within the boundaries of French-speaking Quebec. In exploring this topic, this essay will uncover the often unexplored realities of Indigenous communities that are caught between the competing histories of colonial empires such as France and Britain and how those past colonial conflicts, and, in turn, the imposition of linguistic dominations, inform current difficulties around decolonization, nationhood, and Indigenous liberation.