What supersession? (on settler colonial wishful thinking): Esme G. Murdock, ‘Indigenous governance now: settler colonial injustice is not historically past’, Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, 25,3, 2022, pp. 411-426 | settler colonial studies blog

What supersession? (on settler colonial wishful thinking): Esme G. Murdock, ‘Indigenous governance now: settler colonial injustice is not historically past’, Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, 25,3, 2022, pp. 411-426

07Apr22

Abstract: This article argues against Jeremy Waldron’s supersession thesis by outlining several ways in which the historical injustice of settler colonialism is not past, but continuous. Through engaging with both contemporary settler colonial theory and contemporary Indigenous political theories, I argue that Waldron’s understanding of historical injustice and the focus on justice in the now, which may supersede historical claims, relies on both Eurowestern epistemological and temporal frameworks that are ill-suited for understanding the continuous nature of settler colonial violence, and thus what Indigenous justice requires. As such, I explain how the supersession thesis, specifically the supersession of sovereignty, contributes to a prominent theme in western liberal political theory that attempts to fix both settler colonial injustices and Indigenous nations to an irrecoverable chronological past.

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