settler colonial studies blog

Settler heritage, even when it’s not theirs: Carolyn Hill, ‘Cultural dissonance: heritage protests and their implications for heritage-making in settler colonial cities’, International Journal of Heritage Studies, 2024

30Jun24

Abstract: Heritage-making’s intrinsic dissonance has been thoroughly established in the field of critical heritage studies, and yet it is a reality that continues to be obscured in heritage practice in settler colonial cities. Authorised heritage discourse continues to project existing state-led systems of heritage-making as a self-evident ‘public good’ for current and future generations. In settler colonial cities, this increasingly includes attempts to incorporate Indigenous views and values into its framing. However, existing statutory processes that uphold normative approaches prove resilient to change. Continued prioritisation of tangible artefact amid private property rights impairs the heritage field’s ability to acknowledge alternative possibilities and to genuinely engage in decolonising transformation. This paper examines three cases where heritage dissonance has erupted into protest and protection action outside of the authorised heritage discourse: the Old Swan Brewery in Perth, Western Australia; Ihumātao in Auckland, New Zealand; and the West Berkeley Shellmound in Berkeley, California. It analyses the contestation of values that led to protest action, what ‘authorised’ attempts were made to heritagise each case and to what result. In so doing, the paper demonstrates how existing processes of statutory heritage-making continue to be inadequate for Indigenous and emerging heritage aspirations.

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Ambivalent settlers: Rona Rangsch, Ambivaland: cultural ambivalence in Newfoundland, PhD dissertation, Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2024

30Jun24

Abstract: This project revalues the often underrated concept of ambivalence as a distinct concept pregnant with creative potentialities and applies it to settler Newfoundland culture as a research lens. In the process, our understanding and image of the place are enriched by reinterpreting a collection of charged contexts, which have hitherto been considered little related, as belonging to a pervasive and potentially creative web of cultural ambivalence. Contexts studied include the European colonization of the island, the precariousness in Newfoundland outports, the Smallwood era’s sociopolitical tangle, clashes between resource exploitation and love of the land, settler Newfoundlanders’ non-singular colonial identity, and the place’s puzzling quality as both centre and periphery. In terms of research questions, the project asks what a meaningful and productive understanding of ambivalence looks like and how it can be used to develop a richer understanding of settler Newfoundland.1 Methodologically, the research is based on discourse analysis with a focus on problematization, abductive reasoning, transversality, and speculation. These approaches share the capacity to open alternative trajectories of reasoning through the radical questioning or active ignoring of existing explanatory systems. This tenor is imperative for a project that attempts to reshuffle both the conceptual and interpretive packs by using an undervalued concept (ambivalence) to re-map a jagged terrain (an array of tensions in settler Newfoundland). Conceptual key findings include the unambiguity of ambivalence and its overlap with creativity. Within the Newfoundland case study, the lens of cultural ambivalence challenges supposedly demarcated spheres of agency and power in both colonial and postcolonial spheres and exposes Newfoundlanders’ enhanced capacity for creativity. Moreover, it allows me to debunk a number of persistent myths and to provide others with actual content. Finally, by assembling a variety of contexts not studied in this constellation before under the umbrella of cultural ambivalence, I am able to identify correlations that have previously gone unnoticed or underappreciated. The resulting web of ambivalence provides a rhizomatic explanatory grid that establishes a creative facet of the place and exposes new leverage points for addressing cultural tensions. This recommends cultural ambivalence as a potent prism for borderlands with complex colonial histories more generally. 1Please note that, with the local settler society and culture as my object of study, my focus is on the island part of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, where the large majority of the settler population resides.

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Still undoing the settler story: S. Rose Bigheart O’Leary, The Regenarrative: How to Change the Story in Order to Change the Future, MA dissertation, Dartmouth College, 2024

30Jun24

Abstract: In the era of Climate Change, many are concerned that the end of the Anthropocene, or the end of the era of human life on Earth, is upon us. Western European colonialism and its subsequent systems (settler-colonialism, colonial-capitalism, and globalization – sometimes termed “neocolonialism”) have all been implicated in contributing to unsustainable behaviors linked to accelerating climate change (Calvin et al., 2023). In searching for possible solutions, some have called for listening to Indigenous Peoples, citing ethics of sustainability found among many Indigenous cultures (Suzuki, 2010). However, the cultural products of settler-colonialism are still dominant in ways that do not allow for Indigenous worldviews to spread or be understood. This thesis will show how the narrative structures of settler-colonialism in the United States persist in cultural products (e.g. films, television, video games, journalism) in ways that silence nondominant voices, and specifically Indigenous worldviews. This problem persists even among media makers claiming allyship to Indigenous Peoples and causes. In order to actually learn from Indigenous Peoples, the narrative structures of storytelling must be shifted so that true diversity of thought may be portrayed. To shift away from settler-colonial behaviors that overtax the world, people must first be able to perceive and conceptualize alternatives to them.

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And worrying fantasies about being Indigenous: Paul Simard Smith, Kurtis Boyer, ‘The Métis Nation, Epistemic Injustice, and Self-Indigenization’, Pawaatamihk: Journal of Métis Thinkers, 1, 2, 2024

29Jun24

Abstract: This paper considers epistemic dimensions of injustices associated with settlers self-indigenization through false claims to being Métis. First, we provide an analytic characterization of the act of self-indigenization. Afterwards we spell out how confusions surrounding the meaning of the term ‘Métis’ generate lacunae in the social imagination of the dominant society in Canada. These lacunae make it more difficult for Métis people to explain to the dominant society why claims based on self-identification alone are inadequate bases upon which to claim to be Métis. Finally, we highlighting steps taken by the Métis Nation to assert their identity through citizenship registries.

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Meanwhile, worrying fantasies about settler ‘heroes’: Scott T. Allison, Rick Hutchins, ‘Heroes of Space Exploration and Planetary Settlement’, in Scott T. Allison, James K. Beggan, George R. Goethals (eds), Encyclopedia of Heroism Studies, Springer, 2024

29Jun24

Excerpt: Future space explorers and planetary settlers will face unique, immense challenges. The heroism demanded of future colonizers of the Moon, Mars, and beyond transcends our conventional understanding of courage and sacrifice. These pioneers will embark on perilous journeys into the unknown, facing the harsh trials of extraterrestrial environments, isolation, and the relentless pursuit of survival. Heroism in this context encompasses the courage to defy the comfort and security of Earth, the resilience to endure the psychological toll of isolation, and the ingenuity to navigate uncharted territories. These intrepid individuals will be the architects of new societies, confronting the inherent risks of space exploration while grappling with the responsibility of establishing the foundations for humanity’s expansion into the cosmos.

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Settler-determined Indigenous childhoods: Heidi Morrison (ed.), Lived Resistance against the War on Palestinian Children, University of Georgia Press, 2024

29Jun24

Description: Despite the increasing volume of scholarship that shows children as political actors, prior to this book, a cohesive framework was lacking that would more fully examine and express children’s relationship with political power. Rather than simply hitching children’s resistance to standard theories of resistance, Heidi Morrison seeks to meet children on their own terms. Through the case study of Palestinian children, contributors theorize children’s resistance as an embodied experience called lived resistance. A critical aspect of the study of lived resistance is not just documenting what children do but specifically how scholars approach the topic of children’s resistance. With Lived Resistance against the War on Palestinian Children, the authors account for the vessel (i.e., the body in flesh and mind) through which such resistance generates and operates. The diverse group of chapter authors examine Palestinian children’s art and media, imprisonment, parenting experiences, bereavement, neoliberalism, refugee camps, and protest movements as aspects of their collective and individual political power. Through these outlets, the book shows consistencies and contends that these children’s relationship to political power operates from an inclusive model of citizenship and is social justice oriented, symbolically oriented, and contingently based.

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Settler-determined Native American masculinities: Dianne Baumann, ‘Beyond Fistfights and Basketball: Reclaiming Native American Masculinity’, Humans, 4, 2, 2024, pp. 200-211

29Jun24

Abstract: Substantial and necessary research examining the violence perpetrated against Native women continues to flourish, while violence and masculinity studies focused on Native men draws little attention. Meanwhile the murder rate of Native men is three times higher than Native women, twice as high as white men, and occurs at the hands of police more often than any other U.S. racialized group per capita. Colonization divided ‘Christians’ (white) and ‘heathens’ (Native), with settler whites identifying Native men as wild and threatening. I suggest the construct of settler colonialism and the ‘toxic gendering’ of Native masculinity continues today and impacts Native men internally (psychologically) and externally (rationally), contributing to violence perpetrated against and by them. This paper is an interpretive analysis of “Scary Brown Man” and Reservation Blues as examined through the intersection of the toxic gendering bias intrinsic to settler colonialism. Alexie’s novel offers a depiction of ‘typical’ reservation life and the conflicting struggle to maintain a healthy Native identity, while Ross’s article brings real-life situations into the conversation, encouraging the entry of intersectional discourse around Native masculinity into the arena of gender/bias research as applied to settler colonial studies while questioning the role of identity politics within disciplines.

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Settler colonialism is unhealthy: Yara M. Asi, Mienah Z. Sharif, Bram Wispelwey, Nadia N. Abuelezam, A. Kayum Ahmed, Goleen Samari, ‘Racism as a Threat to Palestinian Health Equity’, Health Equity, 8, 2024

29Jun24

Abstract: Between October 2023 and April 2024, more than 30,000 Palestinians were killed, and countless others injured, displaced, and traumatized, in the fifth major Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip since 2006. Recent events, along with the trajectory of events over the past 75 years, demonstrate that using a public health framework could help recognize racism as a structural and social determinant of Palestinian health. Using the principles of health equity, we show how Palestinian health inequities are rooted in settler colonialism and racism, amounting to violence and oppression against Palestinian Arabs as a racialized group, regardless of religion or citizenship. Structural racism should be recognized as a driver of Palestinian health inequities.

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Settler colonialism is hungry: Nicole Marie Koenigsknecht, Nurturing Resistance: Food Sovereignty in Jonny Appleseed and The Seed Keeper, MA dissertation, Wien University, 2024

29Jun24

Abstract: “Nurturing Resistance: Food Sovereignty in Jonny Appleseed and The Seed Keeper” investigates how Indigenous literary characters engage in subsistence practices—growing, preparing, and consuming food—as a means of resisting the resource extraction, industrial agriculture, and ecological degradation perpetrated by settler-colonial powers on traditional First Nations and Métis territories in present-day Manitoba and Minnesota. This master’s thesis reads works of fiction by authors Diane Wilson (Dakhóta) and Joshua Whitehead (Two-Spirit Oji-nêhiyaw member of Peguis First Nation) as “case studies” that contribute to a better understanding of the real-life struggles Indigenous people face to reclaim their ancestral lands and lifeways. North American settler society’s aggressive consumption of land, resources, and even Indigenous bodies looms large in both novels. In Wilson’s and Whitehead’s texts, Indigenous characters undermine these exploitative Euro-American power structures and challenge cultural hegemony by exerting bodily autonomy, nurturing familial relationships, and cultivating (traditional) foods. Multiple generations of Dakhóta women in The Seed Keeper (2021) struggle against the cultural and environmental destruction inflicted upon their traditional territory by Euro-American settlers. Ripped from her family by the predatory policies of the U.S. foster care system, Wilson’s protagonist Rosalie eventually finds her way back to her roots through the seeds and plants of her Dakhóta homeland. In Jonny Appleseed (2018) Whitehead’s protagonist similarly connects to his ancestors and sustains friendships through sharing meals. This literary analysis explores characters’ fraught relationships with highly processed foods which simultaneously bring them and their relatives closer together while also contributing to high rates of diet-related diseases within their communities. Despite the pervading food insecurity he experiences in Peguis First Nation and in Winnipeg, Jonny and his family manage to renegotiate and resurge their culture’s traditional foodways to meet their contemporary needs. In both novels the struggle for food sovereignty reaches far beyond physical survival. For Indigenous characters, cultural survival is inextricably rooted in food sovereignty.

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Settler colonialism is thirsty: Allison Madia, Transforming the Tohono: Water Management, O’odham Labor, and Settlerhood, PhD dissertation, UCLA, 2024

29Jun24

Abstract: This dissertation investigates the reproduction of American settler colonialism in the Tohono (desert, Tohono O’odham territory) and waterways’ physical and ideological reconstruction via the appropriation of O’odham labor and indigeneity since the early twentieth century. Social scientists have emphasized the role of infrastructure, land, labor, race, and gendered and sexualized power in the physical and ideological reproduction of settler colonialism in the United States. Looking at the transformation of the Tohono following American colonialism, I ask, “How has indigeneity been appropriated to reconstruct waterways in the Tohono since Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal? How has American settler colonialism established collaborative arrangements with O’odham in the form of governance and labor? How have ideas and responses to water management impacted the everyday lives of O’odham?” I focus on historical and current experiences and perceptions of drought to trace the role of power in local and national discussions of water management. This research argues four main points: 1) both water management and the racialization of Tohono O’odham labor have been intricately tied to the expansion of settler colonialism, 2) commercial agriculture has worked to shape the racial and gendered experiences of Indigenous women, 3) American scientists and media sources in Southern Arizona have historically nationalized discussions about water to garner political and economic support for conservation projects, and 4) Collaborative arrangements between Tohono O’odham elites and Anglo American elites have produced structures of stratification expressed in fiscal inequality and historically recurring experiences of environmental and political violence.

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