North of settler colonialism: Julia Christensen, Rebecca Hall, ‘Welfare Colonialism and Resource Colonialism in Northern Canada’, in Daniel Béland et al (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Social Policy in Canada, Oxford University Press, in progress | settler colonial studies blog

North of settler colonialism: Julia Christensen, Rebecca Hall, ‘Welfare Colonialism and Resource Colonialism in Northern Canada’, in Daniel Béland et al (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Social Policy in Canada, Oxford University Press, in progress

29Apr25

Abstract: Northern Canada, like the rest of Canada, is a space established and reproduced through processes of settler colonialism. With a focus on the Northwest Territories, this piece examines the relationship between two arenas of dispossession: welfare colonialism and resource colonialism. While these two branches of colonialism are often articulated as distinct, we ask, how has welfare—in its colonial form—been both shaped by and shaped for resource colonialism? In other words, how does welfare colonialism create the conditions for resource colonialism, and how, in turn, does resource colonialism reproduce processes of dispossession and differentiation that create the “need” for settler welfare? This relationship is illustrated through an analysis of northern housing policy. Through an examination of settler housing policy, first, in historical context, and second, in relation to contemporary resource extraction, this chapter traces its impact on Indigenous homemaking and, indeed, Indigenous lifemaking. By framing homemaking as Indigenous lifemaking, this piece situates homespaces in the context of Indigenous struggles for self-determination.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Closed