« Indigenising or abolishing it? Ashley Kyne, Justin Piché, ‘The Prison as Reconciliation? Considering the “Indigenization” of Carceral Spaces in Canada’, Yellowhead Institute, 10/03/26
Assimilate or die! Gracelen Hawkins, ‘Comparing Assimilationist and Non-Assimilationist Approaches in Settler Colonialism: From Ancient Times to the Present’, Honors dissertation, Wright State University, 2025 »

They wear settler ignorance: Kai Handfield, Thomas Delawarde-Saïas, ‘Indigenous facilitators raising awareness about colonialism within settler colonies: tensions and ambivalence’, AlterNative, 2026

27Mar26

Abstract: Despite the wide interest toward the impact of antiracism or anticolonial trainings on White and settler peoples, there is
a lack of consideration of the experience of racialized or Indigenous trainers. Yet, the few existing studies suggest major
negative impacts: stress, emotional labor, burnout. This study explores the experience of 12 Indigenous facilitators raising
awareness about colonialism in “Quebec” and the risk of negative effects on them, through participatory research, using
qualitative methods and thematic analysis. The results show that the main difficulties are dealing with the participants,
namely their questions, comments, emotions, and the ambivalence in navigating the power dynamic between settlers
and First Peoples, expressed through various contradicting injunctions. This seems tolerable to the trainers as facing
White settlers is worse in their daily lives. The workshops appear as an interpersonal reflection of settler-colonialism
and White supremacy, through White and settler fragility and normalization of colonial violence.


Filed under: Uncategorized   |  Closed