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The pandemic of settler colonialism: Alexandra Curran, Disaster Capitalism, Settler Colonialism, and Indigenous Environmental Justice in the COVID-19 Pandemic, MA dissertation, University of Manitoba, 2025

19Jan25

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic was experienced by nearly every person around the world. However, while the pandemic was borne by everyone, the weight of everyone’s burden was not equal and was heavily influenced by preexisting inequalities and harmful social structures. As they have in the past, Indigenous peoples in Canada, as well as around the world, experienced disproportionate impacts and losses from this most recent crisis. This may be largely connected to the ongoing presence of settler colonial ideologies and structures which, among other issues, resulted in a lack of necessary infrastructure needed to manage the pandemic within First Nations, as well as a patronizing disregard for Indigenous pandemic decision-making. In conjunction, disaster capitalism ensued throughout the pandemic, a practice defined by Naomi Klein as the exploitation of crises by the powerful to further their own agendas, which worked to further compound and hinder Indigenous efforts to ensure community safety and well-being. However, First Nations nonetheless determinedly asserted their self-determination, challenging harmful decision-making and prioritizing community well-being. This project utilizes two cases (Case Study 1: Keeyask Lockdown, Manitoba and Case Study 2: Ring of Fire, Ontario) to examine how the pervasive ideologies of settler colonialism interacted and influenced disaster capitalism during the pandemic, as well as how Indigenous Environmental Justice (IEJ) was then enacted by communities. An analysis of these cases demonstrate that, while disaster capitalism and IEJ were prevalent during COVID-19, the specific circumstances were nonetheless shaped by distinct, place-based histories and relationships among settlers and Indigenous peoples. Moreover, this project explores the narratives surrounding these cases, including how they were presented to the public by various Mainstream, Alternative/Advocacy and Indigenous news outlets by utilizing a media analysis. This analysis notably observed the considerable inclusion of settler narratives/biases by Mainstream sources, while Alternative/Advocacy, and Indigenous sources specifically, highlighted Indigenous voices/experiences and the context of sovereignty. Lastly, and being mindful of the general disregard and absence of Indigenous voices within academia and news media, the inclusion of a community experience chapter highlights placebased Indigenous experiences and ways of knowing regarding the Keeyask case study; Demonstrating the complexity of Indigenous relationships with industry and settler government, these experiences moreover spoke to a dedication to continue to take action, heal and move forward in a good way. By exploring these subjects of settler colonialism, disaster capitalism and Indigenous Environmental Justice through various lens’ (case studies, media analysis and community experiences) and by utilizing a two-eyed seeing approach which borrowed from qualitative and Indigenous methodologies, this project demonstrates the value of employing multiple perspectives and storytelling when striving to formulate contextualized, respectful and meaningful research.


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The stories that underpin settler reaction: Trent Tetterton, ‘”God’s country” in crisis: critical race theory, ontological (in)security, and white Christian nationalism in the USA’, International Politics, 2025

18Jan25

Abstract: The USA has witnessed an ongoing war against ‘critical race theory’ (CRT) alongside more virulent expressions of white Christian nationalism (WCN). Opponents maintain the narrative: CRT is an evil ploy by the Marxist Left posing a mortal threat to America. Building on ontological security scholarship and Lacanian theory on affect, discourse, and subjectivity, the article explores why this narrative has ‘succeeded’ and how WCN is related. It argues that WCN provides the ontologically insecure subject with an internal narrative-of-self. CRT threatens this self-narrative while the external anti-CRT narrative supports it. To the extent that it has influenced policy and transformed common language, the latter has ‘succeeded’ through its use of ‘affective sticking points’: valued signifiers, fantasies, and biographical narratives. An analysis of City Journal and Fox News articles published in 2020 and 2021 reveals that their use has crafted a fantasy portending the death of (white Christian) America.


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Settler ideologies and their psychological reverberations: Jaiden Herkimer, Becky Choma, Leen Nasser, ‘Non-Indigenous Canadians’ Post-Colonial Ideologies, Allyship and Collective Guilt Predict Support for Reconciliation, Collective Action and Political Tolerance’, Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 2025

18Jan25

Abstract: Since the release of the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (2015) report and their 94 Calls to Action, there has been a push to advance truth and reconciliation with Indigenous peoples in Canada. Much of the heavy lifting has been done by Indigenous peoples; but to comprehensively redress injustices there is a need for non-Indigenous support. In two studies with non-Indigenous Canadians (n=355; n=341), we investigated post-colonial ideologies (historical negation, symbolic exclusion), ally/supporter identity and collective guilt as predictors of support for reconciliation and Indigenous collective action movements, and political tolerance of Indigenous peoples. Consistent with hypotheses, higher post-colonial ideologies, lower ally/supporter identification and lower collective guilt related to less support and less political tolerance. Collective guilt emerged as a mediator for support for reconciliation and Indigenous collective action (except for symbolic exclusion in Study 1); but it moderated the relations for political tolerance. Collective guilt also moderated relations between symbolic exclusion and ally/supporter identity with support for reconciliation in Study 1. Future directions for advancing understanding of post colonial ideologies and possible applied interventions aimed at improving intergroup relations are discussed.


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Unreserved Indigenous mobility: Liz Conor, ‘”Their Reserves Are a Mere Farce”: Aboriginal Stations in the Port Phillip Protectorate’, Australian Historical Studies, 2025

18Jan25

Abstract: The Aboriginal reserves of the Port Phillip Protectorate were short-lived and unsettled, largely due to the resistance of Kulin clans to residing in one place. In the earliest years of European incursion onto their Country, they contested being shunted from their homelands, networks of ceremonial sites, and wide-ranging harvestscapes onto small, unleased backblocks of Crown land. Instead, Kulin moved between reserves using them as nodes in their sovereignty in order to maintain seasonal generating and collecting, and familial obligations, as well as to practise ceremony and law. Drawing on the records of Assistant Protector William Thomas, and focusing on the Nerre Nerre Warren Station (1841–43) and the Pound Bend Reserve (1852–61), this article describes the continual movement of Kulin through and across the earliest of reserve sites on which they were supposed to ‘settle’.


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Whistleblowing settler colonialism: Darren Reid, ‘Whistleblowing on Indigenous Labour Abuses in Western Australia: Motivations of Settler Humanitarianism in the Late Nineteenth Century’, Australian Historical Studies, 2025

18Jan25

Abstract: This article investigates the motivations behind settler whistleblowing on Indigenous labour abuses in nineteenth-century Western Australia, focusing on two key figures, the ex-convict David Carley and the pearler and pastoralist John Walkinshaw Cowan. While historical narratives often portray such humanitarian activists as morally exceptional, this article argues that their motivations were complex, rooted in a duality of altruism and personal self-interest. It explores how Carley and Cowan’s personal grievances with local authorities and business competitors fuelled their activism, demonstrating how settler humanitarianism combined concern for Indigenous wellbeing with the pursuit of personal interests. Rather than viewing settler humanitarianism as merely flawed or cynical, the article suggests that its self-serving dimensions were integral to its very possibility. Ironically, the entanglement of moral action with personal benefit that made settler humanitarianism possible also made it vulnerable, since the existence of ulterior motives provided government officials with reason to doubt whistleblower credibility.


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Collaborative settler colonialism: Sidney Xu Lu, Collaborative Settler Colonialism: Japanese Migration to Brazil in the Age of Empires, University of California Press, 2025

18Jan25

Description: Though Japanese migration to Brazil started only at the turn of the twentieth century, Brazil is now the country with the largest ethnic Japanese population outside Japan. Collaborative Settler Colonialism examines this history as a central chapter of both Brazil’s and Japan’s processes of nation and empire building, and, crucially, as a convergence of their settler colonial projects. Inspired by American colonialism and the final conquest of the U.S. Western frontier, Brazilian and Japanese empire builders collaborated to bring Japanese migrant workers to Brazil, which had the outcome of simultaneously dispossessing Indigenous Brazilians of their land and furthering the expansion of Japanese land and resource possession abroad. Bringing discourses of Latin American and Japanese settler colonialism into rare dialogue with each other, this book offers new insight into understanding the Japanese empire, the history of immigration in Brazil and Latin America, and the past and present of settler colonialism.

 


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Agrarian settler colonialism now: Sarah Rotz, Daniel Ruck, Joseph LeBlanc, ‘Farming the North: Cycles of Extraction and Dispossession’, Antipode, 2025

18Jan25

Abstract: This paper examines recent initiatives to expand farming in Northern Ontario, Canada, situating these within the historical context of settler colonial agriculture. We ask: how do contemporary efforts in agricultural expansion differ from, or replicate, earlier forms of land acquisition? Focusing on land assembly, we explore how land consolidation, privatisation, and conversion meet agricultural and economic objectives under contemporary colonial capitalism. We consider whether agricultural expansion reinforces narratives that valorise settler agriculture and/or perpetuates patterns of dispossession. Through privatisation and competitive marketisation of “underutilised” lands, agricultural expansion may reconfigure land ownership in ways that serve capital interests and, primarily, settler agricultural entities. This case highlights the role of agricultural development and the interdependence of corporate and state actors in extending financialised land economies, potentially undermining Indigenous food sovereignty, jurisdiction, and autonomy.


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Settler gothic: Eileen Jones, ‘The Damned Settlers Have Got to Pay’, Jacobin, 13/01/25

17Jan25

Excerpt: With a modest budget but plenty of thrills involving spooky 19th-century ships, frozen wastelands, and ghouls from Nordic folktales, The Damned proudly carries on our Gothic horror revival.


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The unbordering of settler colonial studies: Lynn Stephen, ‘Settler colonialism in Latin American and Native studies: an interview with Shannon Speed’, Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies, 19, 4, 2024, pp. 401-409

14Jan25

Excerpt: In Native Studies in the north, the analytic frame of settler colonialism has been very productive in providing insights into the nature of the state. A fundamental tenet of settler colonialism is that the settlers came to stay, necessitating dispossession and elimination of the existing population. In Patrick Wolfe’s 2006 classic formulation, settler colonialism is a structure, not an event. That means its structure and logics are enduring, right? They do not end with ‘independence.’ Settler occupation itself is ongoing. That analytic lens, until recently, has only been applied in the Anglophone world. In Incarcerated Stories, I argue that in Latin America, European settlers came, stayed and dispossessed the Indigenous in similar ways as happened in the Anglophone world. Applying a settler colonial studies lens provides a different understanding of Latin American states, which are often called ‘post-colonial.’ They are described as states with ‘legacies of colonialism’ rather than states characterized by ongoing settler occupation. I think the concept of settler colonialism brings a lot to the study of Latin American states when we view them this way.


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Settler colonialism of the last resort: Karolina Kania, ‘NOvation and Indigenous struggle for land: Club Med’s failure in New Caledonia’, Tourism Geographies, 2025

14Jan25

Abstract: Tourism development can significantly affect the environment and communities in popular travel destinations, often overpowering Indigenous peoples by the sheer dominance of this economic sector. However, the local population can regain control over tourism development in a destination. This paper addresses the research question of how Indigenous peoples can protect themselves as well as their land from the pressures of mass tourism. More specifically, it analyzes the example of the Kanak from the Isle of Pines in New Caledonia, who play a key role in the island’s tourism development, ensuring it aligns with their cultural values and norms. For example, no hotel can be built on the Isle of Pines without the consent of the customary authorities and the Indigenous community. This presents challenges to external investors like Club Méditerranée, the pioneer of the all-inclusive resort model, an innovative approach in hospitality. This paper explores the Kanak community’s resistance to Club Med’s resort establishment in the 1970s, despite pressures from foreign investors and the local government. To answer our research question, we used ethnographic research methods and archival data analysis. Our findings reveal that customary land tenure allows Indigenous communities to maintain ownership of their land while preserving autonomy and control over resources and decision-making processes. The Kanak opposition to Club Med was successful due to three empowerment factors: the broader recognition and adherence to customary law, the emergence of the Kanak independence movement and land restitution claims, and the active involvement of Indigenous peoples in the implementation of tourism projects. This ‘NOvative’ approach – marked by the opposition towards Club Med – allowed the Kanak community to maintain control over tourism development. By adapting it to suit their insular pace and scale, they have demonstrated how Indigenous peoples can shape tourism in ways that respect their customs and lifestyles.


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