Description
Not a Haunting but a Removal flips the traditional haunted house trope to explore the deeper history of American homes built on stolen Indigenous land. In this photograph, multiple Native figures are seen making their way into a modern house—not as intruders, but as rightful inhabitants returning to their homelands. The image subverts the idea of fear and menace, suggesting that what is “haunting” these spaces is not ghosts, but the unresolved history of dispossession.
Jeremy Dennis stages this work to reveal the irony and tension of settler narratives: houses are often imagined as safe and personal, yet their foundations rest on contested and stolen land. By inserting Indigenous presence into these domestic spaces, Not a Haunting but a Removal transforms the invisible into the unavoidable, using staged imagery and subtle humor to confront viewers with the ongoing reality of land theft. The photograph invites reflection on what it means to inhabit, to belong, and to reckon with history—turning the idea of a haunted home into a meditation on justice, presence, and reclamation.
