« More food for settler colonial thought: Mehroosh Tak, Sardar Babur Hussain, Haris Zargar, Lauren Jessica Blake, ‘Settler colonialism de-develops food systems in protracted crises’, Nature Food, 6, 2025, pp. 751-756
The social work of settler colonialism: Paul Michael Garrett, ‘Hegemony and settler colonial subjectivities: The censure of the Israeli Union of Social Workers (IUSW) by the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW)’, Critical Social Policy, 2025 »

Settler federalism: Aaron John Spitzer, ‘Contested Frontiers: Indigenous Power, Settler Rights and the Re-Constitution of Federal Territories’, Canadian Journal of Political Science, 2025

22Aug25

Abstract: Australia, Canada and the United States are settler-colonial federations comprising two types of federal units. The first are states/provinces: full, permanent federal partners, securely settler controlled. The second are territories. Historically, territories were “partners in waiting,” slated for federal incorporation once settlers achieved control of the jurisdiction, outnumbering and disempowering Indigenous peoples. The “rights revolution” made achieving control by force less acceptable. Meanwhile, in Australia, Canada and the US, there remain several territories where Indigenous peoples hold significant power. I find today’s remaining territories experience a new way settlers target Indigenous power, not through force but through rights-challenges. Further, I show these rights-challenges provoke “constitutive contests,” the outcome of which are consequential, potentially “re-constituting” territories in amanner fostering settler control. Finally, I explore why territories might be especially vulnerable to re-constitution through settler rights challenges.


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