settler colonial studies blog

Convivial settler colonialism: Matthew Allen, ‘Imagining a Public: Anniversary Dinners and the Democratic Political Imaginary in Colonial New South Wales, 1788-1842’, Australian Historical Studies, 2024

14Apr24

Abstract: During the first half of the nineteenth century, the 26th of January was celebrated as the founding anniversary of the colony of New South Wales, typically with a ‘public’ dinner. A political faction of locally born ‘natives’ and former convict ‘emancipists’ used this invented tradition to rally around arguments for democratic rights. Moving beyond their role in political organising, I read these anniversary dinners, and their reporting in the press, as an expression of a democratic political imaginary. The dinners became a stage on which political ideas were debated and endorsed by a representative public in a performative ritual that scripted a vision of a democratic colony, before it was granted democratic institutions.

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The nature of settler colonialism: Irus Braverman, Settling Nature: The Conservation Regime in Palestine-Israel, University of Minnesota Press, 2023

14Apr24

Description: Studying nature conservation in Palestine-Israel through the lens of settler colonialism. Settling Nature draws on more than a decade of ethnographic fieldwork to document how the administration of nature in Palestine-Israel advances the Zionist project of Jewish settlement alongside the corresponding dispossession of non-Jews from this space. Highlighting the violent repercussions of Israel’s conservation regime, Braverman plants the seeds for possible reimaginings of nature that transcend the grip of the state’s settler ecologies.

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The American Dream of Indigenous Peoples: Kasey R. Keeler, American Indians and the American Dream: Policies, Place, and Property in Minnesota, University of Minnesota Press, 2023

14Apr24

Description: Understanding the processes and policies of urbanization and suburbanization in American Indian communities. Examining the long history of urbanization and suburbanization of Indian communities in Minnesota, American Indians and the American Dream investigates the ways American Indians accessed homeownership, working with and against federal policy, underscoring American Indian peoples’ unequal and exclusionary access to the way of life known as the American dream.

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Viscous settler colonialism: Tyler McCreary, Indigenous Legalities, Pipeline Viscosities: Colonial Extractivism and Wet’suwet’en Resistance, University of Alberta Press, 2024

11Apr24

Description: Indigenous Legalities, Pipeline Viscosities examines the relationship between the Wet’suwet’en and hydrocarbon pipeline development, showing how colonial governments and corporations seek to control Indigenous claims and how the Wet’suwet’en resist. Tyler McCreary explores pipeline regulatory review processes, reviews attempts to reconcile Indigeneity with development, and asks fundamental questions about territory and jurisdiction. In the process, he offers historical context for the continuing influences of colonialism on Indigenous peoples. Throughout, McCreary demonstrates how the cyclical movements between resistance and reconciliation are affected by the unequal relations between Indigenous peoples, colonial governments, and development operations. This sophisticated analysis invites readers to consider the complex realities of Indigenous and Wet’suwet’en law, as well as the politics of pipeline development.

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Intersections, including settler colonial ones: Robel Afeworki Abay, Karen Soldatić (eds), Intersectional ColonialitiesEmbodied Colonial Violence and Practices of Resistance at the Axis of Disability, Race, Indigeneity, Class, and Gender, Routledge, 2024

11Apr24

Description: This book provides a rich synthesis of empirical research and theoretical engagements with questions of disability across different practices of colonialism as historically defined – post/de/anti/settler colonialism. It synthesises, critiques, and expands the boundaries of existing disability research which has been undertaken within different colonial contexts through the rich examination of recent empirical work mapping across disability and its intersectional colonialities. Filling an existing gap within the international literature through embedding the importance of grounding these within scholarly debates of colonialism, it empirically demonstrates the significance of disability for the broader scholarly fields of postcolonial, decolonial, and intersectional theories. It will be of interest to all scholars and students of disability studies, sociology, critical studies, sociology of race and ethic relations, intersectionality, postcolonial and decolonial studies, and human geography.

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The geometries of settler colonialism are inscribed on Indigenous lands: Irene Cheng, The Shape of Utopia: The Architecture of Radical Reform in Nineteenth-Century America, University of Minnesota Press, 2023

09Apr24

Description: How nineteenth-century social reformers devised a new set of radical blueprints for society. The Shape of Utopia documents a pivotal moment in American history when ordinary people ardently believed in the potential to reshape society. Highlighting the inherent political capacity of architecture, Irene Cheng showcases how visionary utopian planners in the mid-nineteenth century used their blueprints as persuasive visual rhetoric that could mobilize others to share in their aspirations for a better world.

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The settler border is political: James M. Hundley, ‘Rethinking political symbols: Indigenous nationhood and settler colonialism in the Canada/United States borderlands’, Canadian Geographies, 2024

09Apr24

Abstract: Straddling the Canada/United States border at its western end is a 67‐foot monument symbolizing 200 years of peace between the two countries. Today, it is frequently used as a site for protest against the state. This article analyzes an environmental protest against energy transmission projects through the Salish Sea by Coast Salish Indigenous nations. I argue that the Coast Salish are using the landscape as a political symbol, effectively erasing the international border that separates them. Their presentation as a unified nation succeeds because of their strategic manipulation of political symbols. Drawing primarily on ethnographic methods, this article demonstrates that the choice of the international park as a site of protest serves as an entry point for Indigenous activists to expand the scope of their position; the border is implicated in the creation of emergent political identities that draw on and transform political symbols. The argument is that the materiality of these political symbols is being used by Indigenous nations and their allies and contributes to theoretical work on settler colonialism as it pertains to the creation, deployment, and analysis of political symbols. The use of political symbols in the borderlands illustrates the shifts in a struggle over power and identity and how they manifest in daily life.

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Chile’s Indigenous (and settler) question: Pilar M. Herr, ‘Settler Colonialism in Araucanía: The Mapuche’s Defense of Their Lands and Citizenship Rights Through the Medium of Letters in Nineteenth Century Chile’, The Latin Americanist, 68, 1, 2024, pp. 85-97

09Apr24

Abstract: As Chilean citizens, the Mapuche peoples were landowners of large tracts of lands in Araucanía, Chile’s southern borderlands region between the Bío- Bío and Toltén rivers. This article analyzes a series of letters that Mapuche leaders wrote to state authorities and others in the middle of the nineteenth century. The content of these letters reveals multiple ways that Mapuche leaders argued for the protection of their lands and interests, as the state created policies that actively worked to undermine them through a settler colonization plan. This strategy included appropriating Mapuche lands for outside settlers and denying the Mapuche their citizen rights as Chilean citizens.

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Governing water is a marker of sovereignty: John Bosco Acharibasam, Margot Hurlbert, Ranjan Datta, Lewis wâsakâyâsiw Kevin, ‘Meanings of Indigenous Land-based Healing and the Implications for Water Governance’, Explore, 2024

09Apr24

Abstract: The continuous process of settler colonialism in Canada has profoundly impacted Indigenous Peoples’ relationship with the Land and water, which holds immense significance in their healing journey. Reconnecting with the land and water through culturally rooted practices has far-reaching implications for the health and well-being of Indigenous communities. Maintaining a strong bond with the land and water is integral to Indigenous healing traditions. To gain insights into this connection we used a relational theoretical framework and engaged with (the community), a remote Indigenous community. Our approach centred around community-based participatory research, utilizing methods like deep listening, cultural camps and story-sharing to collect wisdom from community members, knowledge keepers, and Elders. The research findings show understanding the connection between Land-based healing practices and Indigenous-led water governance is critical to solving the water crises within remote Indigenous communities. This knowledge is indispensable for reshaping current water governance systems and ensuring the well-being of Indigenous communities across Canada.

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Argentina’s Indigenous (and settler) question: Carolyne R. Larson (ed.), The Conquest of the Desert: Argentina’s Indigenous Peoples and the Battle for History, University of New Mexico Press, 2020

09Apr24

Description: For more than one hundred years, the Conquest of the Desert (1878-1885) has marked Argentina’s historical passage between eras, standing at the gateway to the nation’s “Golden Age” of progress, modernity, and–most contentiously–national whiteness and the “invisibilization” of Indigenous peoples. This traditional narrative has deeply influenced the ways in which many Argentines understand their nation’s history, its laws and policies, and its cultural heritage. As such, the Conquest has shaped debates about the role of Indigenous peoples within Argentina in the past and present. The Conquest of the Desert brings together scholars from across disciplines to offer an interdisciplinary examination of the Conquest and its legacies. This collection explores issues of settler colonialism, Indigenous-state relations, genocide, borderlands, and Indigenous cultures and land rights through essays that reexamine one of Argentina’s most important historical periods.

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