Duskin Drum's We Are Petroleum

In the research analysis “We are Petroleum”, author Duskin Drum uses practices-as-research performances to present the Gwich’in-Caribou relations in terms of North American-Petroleum relations. The Gwich’in are an indigenous people home to modern day Northeastern Alaska and Northwestern Canada, who are heavily integrated with the Porcupine Caribou. The Gwich’in have been fighting political and legal battles to protect the sacred caribou calving grounds from oil and gas extraction corporations. Drum uses actual testimony presented to the United States Congress and swaps the word “caribou” with “petroleum” to draw an emotional connection with the audience. The term “Nature” will be defined as any object that has not been produced by human beings.