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The origins of settler violence: F. Evan Nooe, ‘”It’s in the Blood”: Settler Family Memories of Native Violence in the American South’, History & Memory, 37, 1, 2025, pp. 164-193 »

The knots of settler colonialism: Belle Selkirk, ‘Untying settler-colonial knots in Australian Psychology, New Zealand Journal of Psychology, 54, 1, 2025, pp. 60-70

28Mar25

Abstract: This reflexive paper is written from the positionality of an Indigenous psychologist in response to the majority-Australia vote against constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the National Referendum, October 14th, 2023. I utilise the Net Metaphor conceptual tool offered by Jongbloed, Hendry, Behn Smith, and Gallagher Kʷunuhmen to articulate settler-colonialism in Australian psychology. Through the net metaphor, I describe the Australian Indigenous Psychology Education Project and my reflexive experience of psychologyactivism in untying settler-colonial knots in Australian psychology. I juxtapose my positionality and experience against the failed Referendum and the implications for Australian psychology. Finally, this paper finishes with reflections of how the discipline can engage in collective activism necessary for addressing settler-colonial knots in psychology’s spheres of influence.


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