« Settler colonial data: Bronwyn Carlson, ‘Data silence in the settler archive: Indigenous femicide, deathscapes and social media’, in Suvendrini Perera, Joseph Pugliese (eds), Mapping Deathscapes: Digital Geographies of Racial and Border Violence, Routledge, 2022
Settler colonial meateaters: John Ikerd, ‘Indigenous Wisdom and the Sovereignty to Eat Meat’, Global Food Justice, 2021 »

Settler colonialism smells: Meg Parsons, Karen Fisher, ‘Historical smellscapes in Aotearoa New Zealand: Intersections between colonial knowledges of smell, race, and wetlands’, Journal of Historical Geography, 74, 2021, pp. 28-43

13Dec21

Abstract: This paper explores European (Pākehā) settlers’ perceptions of smells and why certain smells were labelled as threatening and transgressive, whereas others were deemed desirable and health-inducing. Whether it was the stench of dried fish, the musky odours of wetlands or the scent of flowers, representations of smell pervade the writings of Pākehā in Aotearoa New Zealand. In this paper, we draw attention to the critical role smells played in Pākehā settlers’ perceptions of and efforts to radically remake terrestrial and freshwater systems of the Waipā and Waikato Rivers (located in the North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand) in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Smells, scents, and aromas were all-powerful aides connected to Pākehā settlers’ understandings of health and disease. They influenced individual settlers and settler colonial government actions to remake landscapes and waterscapes. Nevertheless, smellscapes are largely overlooked by scholars when discussing environmental change and management regimes.


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