An Indigenous foreign policy: Nadia Abu-Zahra, John Carlson, Veldon Coburn, ‘From Turtle Island to Palestine: settler-colonial Canada, genocide, and Indigenous foreign policy’, Third World Quarterly, 2025 | settler colonial studies blog

An Indigenous foreign policy: Nadia Abu-Zahra, John Carlson, Veldon Coburn, ‘From Turtle Island to Palestine: settler-colonial Canada, genocide, and Indigenous foreign policy’, Third World Quarterly, 2025

26Sep25

Abstract: In this article, we question how Canada, so adamantly in favour of human rights and a rules-based order, can shield Israel from accountability for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. We give examples of everyday Canadian institutions built on the genocide of First Nations and invested in genocide through contemporary weapons companies and related industries. We quickly move, however, to understanding popular sentiment regarding genocide and how that has manifested in protests, encampments, and solidarity statements and actions. We identify how, over centuries, Indigenous nations have been and continue to be at the forefront of international diplomacy, unity, and visionary forms of protection of all peoples, lands, waters, plants, and wildlife. We contrast this with misinformed and ill-informed policy efforts that sustain settler colonialism in Turtle Island and Southwest Asia, including Palestine. We conclude the article with some thoughts on how the same path to freedom and justice lies ahead in both Turtle Island and Palestine, and how efforts to forge this path take place in active solidarity among Indigenous nations, including Palestine.

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