Paper short abstract:

This paper explores how the sense of being at home on a First Nations reserve in Canada is disrupted by air pollution from the surrounding petrochemical plants, with a focus in the sense of smell. I argue that the local smellscape instills in residents a profound sense of the uncanny.

Paper long abstract:

Aamjiwnaang First Nation is located near Sarnia, Ontario, in the midst of Canada's "Chemical Valley," a concentration of petrochemical facilities producing extraordinary levels of pollution. In this paper, I explore how the sense of being at home on the reserve is disrupted by that pollution; in so doing, I give special attention to air pollution and residents' responses to the associated odors—that is, to the sense of smell. As I analyze what happens when smell becomes the dominant sense through which the homeland is experienced, I draw on C. S. Peirce's semiotic framework to focus on a unique feature of olfaction: smell entails embodiment of the perceived substance and is therefore an index, in Peirce's sense, connecting self and surroundings in profound and transformative ways. Having endured physical dislocations and significant loss of land in the past, most in the present-day community are firmly committed to staying on their remaining land base, which has been home to the Aamjiwnaang First Nation for many generations. Ultimately, I argue that the local smellscape, while having reinforced a positive sense of being at home on the reserve in the past, is now, due to the constant presence of toxic fumes, instilling in residents a profound sense of the uncanny—of not being at home in their otherwise familiar and beloved homeland.