« The Wall Street Journal against settler colonial studies (I am including it here because this is a repository, but if a critique of settler colonialism is called ‘settler colonial ideology’ then Marx is a capitalist): Adam Kirsch, On Settler Colonialism: Ideology, Violence, and Justice, WW Norton, 2024
The truth of a settler consciousness: Abraham Bradfield, ‘Decolonising consciousness: Confronting and living with colonial truths in Australia’, Journal of Sociology, 2024 »

The truth of settler colonialism: Vanessa Barolsky, ‘Reckonings with truth: Sovereign truths on Country’, Journal of Sociology, 2024

19Aug24

Abstract: This article analyses grassroots truth-telling in Australia, in the light of the 2017 Uluru Statement’s call for a Makarrata Commission to oversee truth-telling and treaty. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities have long called for truth-telling about the colonial past. Numerous community projects have emerged to engage with these historical truths. However, few of these initiatives have been documented. This article analyses a small sample of these projects, drawing on case study research. It argues that these activities, grounded in Indigenous onto-epistemology, offer unique opportunities to explore the decolonising potential of truth-telling. These truth practices defy the eliminatory logic of settler colonialism, creating spaces for pedagogic encounter that trouble the settler-colonial order by enacting multiple sovereignties on Country. Importantly, they provide insights for formal truth-telling, modelling resurgent, prefigurative praxis that incorporates Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians in transformative processes that could help navigate the challenges of transitional justice in the settler-colonial context.


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