« The security of settler energy: Liam Midzain-Gobin, Joshua K McEvoy, ‘Contesting colonial beachheads: Settler colonial (in)security professionals and Indigenous peoples’ energy infrastructure’, Security Dialogue, 2024
Indigenous feminisms against settler colonialism (introducing a special issue of Meridians): Basuli Deb, Ginetta E. B. Candelario, ‘Indigenous Feminisms across the World, Part 1’, Meridians, 23, 1, 2024, pp. 1-13 »

The memories of settler colonialism: Olli Hellmann, ‘Settler memory and Indigenous counter-memories: narrative struggles over the history of colonialism in Aotearoa New Zealand, Political Science, 2024

14Apr24

Abstract: As with other settler colonies, Aotearoa New Zealand has seen a longrunning conflict between a Eurocentric ‘master narrative’ of the historical past and Indigenous counter-narratives. Previous research on these narrative struggles adopts the ‘top-down’ perspective on collective remembering, focusing primarily on how memory entrepreneurs deploy cultural texts and practices to construct particular representations of history. To broaden the methodological scope, the analysis developed in this paper follows the ‘bottom-up’ approach, which makes it possible to map the distribution of collective memories across individuals and investigate their attitudinal effects. By means of a rigorous survey study (N = 1,066), the paper reveals three key findings about collective remembering in Aotearoa New Zealand. First, individuals in the ‘critical years’ of adolescence are more open to weaving Indigenous Māori perspectives into their understandings of history than older generations. Second, when compared to the monocultural master narrative, historical reconstructions that reflect Māori experiences promote a more inclusive understanding of national identity and generate public support for redressing historical injustices against Māori. Third, the empirical analysis finds no evidence for claims made by conservative political actors that creating space for the articulation of Māori histories perpetuates social division and weakens popular identification with the nation.


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