Multiculturalism to assimilation: Katherine Smits, ‘Indigenous peoples and multiculturalism’, Political Science and Publuc Policy, 2025, pp. 155-174 | settler colonial studies blog

Multiculturalism to assimilation: Katherine Smits, ‘Indigenous peoples and multiculturalism’, Political Science and Publuc Policy, 2025, pp. 155-174

11Mar25

Abstract: Legislation and policy supporting multiculturalism in ethnically diverse societies, implemented from the 1970s, have emerged concomitantly with claims for recognition and self-determination by Indigenous peoples. In the settler societies of Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, there has been an uneasy relationship between polyethnic and Indigenous claims and agendas, with the state often perceived as favouring the interests of polyethnic groups over Indigenous peoples. Indigenous peoples have tended to reject multiculturalism as irrelevant to their situation at best, or at worst, as a strategy to deflect their claims to self-determination. This chapter examines state multiculturalist policies towards Indigenous and polyethnic groups in these three cases, and Indigenous responses to them. Over time and in the globalised context, those responses trace the development of Indigenous political views on their relationship to their diverse national communities, and to the expression, deployment, and appropriation of Indigenous culture in national identity construction.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Closed