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Forgetful settlers, then and now: Donalyn White, Anthony Ballas, ‘Settler Colonialism and the Engineering of Historical Amnesia’, Counterpunch, 11/07/24

25Aug24

Excerpt: It should come as no surprise to those of us with even a cursory understanding of the history of U.S. imperialism that the once sovereign Kingdom of Hawai’i became the very first state in the nation to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza. Hawai’i is an occupied nation, and has been since 1893 when the U.S. launched a coup to overthrow the sovereign rule of Queen Liliʻuokalani. We don’t need to dive that far back into historical memory to discover that even this imperialist overthrow was acknowledged by none other than then president Bill Clinton, who, in 1993 (on the centennial of the coup) issued an official apology to the Hawaiian Kingdom—an apology that notably did not include a return of the land to the people of this occupied island nation.


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Internationalist settler colonialism: Oleksa Drachewych, ‘Settler Colonialism and the Communist International’, in Immanuel Ness, Zak Cope (eds), The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism, Palgrave, 2021, pp. 2417-2428

25Aug24

Abstract: The Bolsheviks led international communism through the Third International (also known as the Communist International or the Comintern), which operated from 1919 to 1943. A major target for the Comintern was world imperialism. The Comintern proclaimed itself as a partner of all oppressed peoples and supported colonial liberation. As part of its efforts, it gradually grew to appreciate the differences in the colonial world and developed some consideration of settler colonialism and its effects. Communist parties around the world attempted to create platforms in their local contexts which dealt with their understanding of their country’s history and the treatment of Indigenous peoples. Despite realizing that settler colonies had different aims than exploitative colonies, the Comintern tended to still treat the colonial world uniformly.


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Postsettlers? Avril Bell, Becoming Tangata Tiriti: Working with Māori, Honouring the Treaty, Auckland University Press, 2024

24Aug24

Description: Becoming Tangata Tiriti brings together twelve non-Māori voices – dedicated professionals, activists and everyday individuals – who have engaged with te ao Māori and have attempted to bring te Tiriti to life in their work. In stories of missteps, hard-earned victories and journeys through the complexities of cross-cultural relationships, Becoming Tangata Tiriti is a book of lessons learned. Sociologist Avril Bell analyses the complicated journey of today’s partners of te Tiriti o Waitangi, and asks: Who are we as tangata tiriti? How do we identify in relation to Māori? What are our responsibilities to te Tiriti? What do we do when we inevitably stumble along the way? With words by champions in their fields, including Meng Foon, Andrew Judd and others, this concise paperback acts as a guide for those just beginning their journey towards a Tiriti-based society – and is a sound refresher for others well along the path.


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Performative settler colonialists: Aoife Connolly, Performing the Pied-Noir Family: Constructing Narratives of Settler Memory and Identity in Literature and On-Screen, Nomos, 2024

24Aug24

Description: Performing the Pied-Noir Family: Constructing Narratives of Settler Memory and Identity in Literature and On-Screen sheds new light on the memory community of the pieds-noir from the Algerian War (1954-1962) as it continues to resonate in France, where the subject was initially repressed in the collective psyche. Aoife Connolly draws on theories of performativity to explore autobiographical and fictional narratives by the settlers in over thirty canonical and non-canonical works of literature and film produced from the colony’s imminent demise up to the present day. Connolly focuses on renewed attachment to the family in exile to facilitate a comprehensive analysis of settler masculinity, femininity, childhood, and adolescence and to uncover neglected representations, including homosexual and Jewish voices. Connolly argues that findings on the construction of a post-independence identity and collective memory have broader implications for communities affected by colonization and migration. Scholars of literature, film, Francophone studies, and film studies will find this book particularly useful.


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The settler romantic: Lisa Kasmer, ‘Leonora Sansay’s Secret History; or, The Horrors of St. Domingo and Frames of Personhood’, European Romantic Review, 35, 3, 2024, pp. 511-523

24Aug24

Abstract: Leonora Sansay’s Secret History; or, The Horrors of St. Domingo (1808), which recounts the culmination of the Haitian revolution against French colonialism (1791–1804), evokes a nostalgia for colonial order even though colonialism would remain in the Caribbean for decades. The epistolary novel’s narrator, an American visiting Saint Domingue (colonial Haiti), yearns for the “paradise” that she imagines has been destroyed by the revolution, aligning Sansay with Paul Gilroy’s notion of postcolonial melancholia. More insidiously, in Secret History, the longing for the reinstatement of the colonial system in Saint Domingue positions people of African descent outside “frames of recognition,” as Judith Butler in Frames of War conceptualizes the way in which biopolitical forces constitute personhood. I argue that for Sansay, the norms that constitute a living being as recognizable as a life are the ideologies of Romantic settler colonialism, as well as American exceptionalism. As such, within Secret History, Sansay reifies a stratified racial and national hierarchy while also actively denying the state violence that sustains it.


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The mathematics of settler colonialism: David W. Stinson, Jayasree Subramanian, Cathery Yeh, ‘Strengthening Equity and Social Justice Research in Mathematics Education Through Critical Interrogations of White Supremacy and Settler Colonialism’, in M. A. Clements, B. Kaur, T. Lowrie, V. Mesa, & J. Prytz (eds), Fourth international handbook of mathematics education, Springer, 2024

24Aug24

Abstract: In this chapter, we contextualize a suggested approach of strengthening equity and social justice research in mathematics education by inserting the mathematics education enterprise into two world events of 2020: the global COVID-19 pandemic and the global resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement. Our intent in doing so is to underscore how white colonialism is forever present everywhere in structures and institutions around the globe, including those of the mathematics education enterprise. The logics of both white supremacy and settler colonialism are described next and then combined into a compounding scheme of colonizing white supremacist logics. To illustrate that colonizing white supremacist logics are not a manifestation of only the West, a discussion of the conflicts and contradictions of white supremacy and Brahminical supremacy in the mathematics education enterprise of postcolonial India is offered. Brief summaries of the five chapters in the Trends in Equity and Social Justice section of this volume are then provided; we highlight how the chapter authors interrogated colonializing white supremacist logics within their respective chapters and point toward additional opportunities. In concluding the chapter, we feature recent USA-based mathematics education research to illustrate some different possibilities when equity and social justice research is indeed strengthened through critical interrogations of white supremacy and settler colonialism.


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The settler ‘travellee’: Gábor Gelléri, ‘Visiting the ruins of the colonial exhibition: a settler parody of a colonial propaganda trip’, Studies in Travel Writing, 2024

23Aug24

Abstract: In 1924, a group of French female students were sent on a sponsored trip to Indochina to experience colonial tourism with the hope that they would become promoters of colonialism. This article studies the reactions to this high-profile mission in the local colonial settler press, which focuses on metropolitan ignorance of colonial realities and the incompetence of the colonial government. Through the study of a very elaborate parody of the students’ trip, which uses the Persian Letters trope, this essay offers new methodological insights, and through the particular figure of the “settler travellee” seeks to enhance our understanding of travellee/traveller dynamics.


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Settler colonialism is also resettlement: Beverly C. Tomek, ‘Resettlement and Forced Removal in the Making of the American Republic’, Pennsylvania History, 91, 3, 2024, pp. 393-398

23Aug24

Excerpt: As the study of African American recolonization expands, historians are beginning to look more closely at the relationship between the forced removal of Native Americans through the process of “Indian removal” and the voluntary recolonization of Black Americans, primarily to Africa. The obvious question of why one group came to face forced removal while the other did not is a complex one that has yet to be thoroughly answered. Two recent studies, however, have added considerably to the discussion. Brandon Mills’s The World Colonization Made and Samantha Seeley’s Race, Removal, and the Right to Remain explore connections between the two initiatives and put them together into the broader context of race and mobility in the early United States.


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The response ability of the settler: Susan Nemec, Billie Lythberg, Christine Woods (eds), Settler Responsibility for DecolonisationStories from the Field, Routledge, 2025

23Aug24

Description: This edited collection presents perspectives from a range of disciplines on the challenges of dismantling coloniality in settler societies. Showcasing a variety of pedagogies and case studies, the book offers approaches to the praxis of decolonisation in diverse settings including tertiary education, activism, arts curatorial practice, the media, trans-Indigeneity, and psychosocial therapy. Chapters centre on the personal, relational, and political work needed to support decolonisation in settler societies in Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, the United States, and Canada. Drawing from experiences in the field, contributors argue that to decolonise research and build authentic relationships with Indigenous communities, settler researchers must learn from Indigenous worldviews without appropriating them, disrupt colonial epistemologies, and reconcile their place in colonialism. Indigenising is discussed as a counterpart to the decolonisation process, involving restoring and centring the Indigenous voice within Indigenised socio-cultural, economic, legal, and political structures and institutions, including the return of land. The book is a rich resource for researchers seeking to understand and support decolonisation in settler societies, and will appeal to non-Indigenous scholars, students, and those involved in decolonisation work in community and institutional settings.


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The settler prison reproduces settler colonialism: Patrick Horton, ‘The only guaranteed Aboriginal housing is… ‘, Parity, 37, 5, 2024, pp. 83-85

22Aug24

Abstract: Many Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory (NT) live at the centre of an orchestrated bureaucratic catastrophe which radically diminishes the lives and ways of life of Aboriginal families, communities and societies. This brief article illustrates one aspect of that point, offering the simple premise that, for many Aboriginal people in the NT, the only form of secure accommodation is in a prison. This point is informed by interdisciplinary scholarship and by fieldwork carried out for my PhD in anthropology which explored the ways police and imprisonment impact families, communities and societies in the NT. The issues I address are chronic and systemic – that is, featuring across the Australian continent and particularly its Top End – so I write here in general rather than specific terms.


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