settler colonial studies blog

Underground Indigenous sovereignty: Gregory Smithers, Susannah Hopson,’Rainbow Serpents and Boiling Springs: Indigenous Sovereignty and the Fight for Groundwater in the United States and Australia’, Journal of American Studies, 58, 1, 2024, pp. 1-38

10May24

Abstract: Around the world, Indigenous people are preparing for futures of climate uncertainty and resource shortages. Indigenous communities are looking to the past and seeking guidance from their traditions – diverse systems of knowledge that change over time – so that they and future generations might nurture connections to the “deep time” of geological and human histories. In this essay we examine how the Wangan and Jagalingou Family Council in Australia and the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians in the United States have taken long-term views on ecological sustainability and sovereignty. We focus on these two Indigenous communities on opposite sides of the Pacific Ocean because they are among the highest-profile battles over ancient groundwater in the past decade. Set against a backdrop of global settler state interference and exploitative economic practices, both cases reveal how the concept of kinscapes – or a shared sense of relatedness to interconnected ecosystems, histories, and places (or nodes) of belonging – can sharpen our understanding of environmental stewardship and its importance to Indigenous sovereignty. Whereas mining corporations and settler governments continue to make decisions with short- to medium-term objectives in mind, Wangan and Jagalingou and Agua Caliente leaders have used legal battles over groundwater to underscore their spiritual and physical connectedness with local environments. Like Indigenous communities around the world, the Wangan and Jagalingou Family Council and the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians are making ontological choices by asserting their sovereignty through environmental stewardship.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Closed

Settler traditions: Slade Nakoff, From Tidewater to Tennessee: The Structuring Influences of Virginia Schemata in the Settlement of East Tennessee, MA dissertation, East Tennessee State University, 2024

10May24

Abstract: Through an interdisciplinary methodological approach combining schema theory, memory studies, and material culture analysis, this study outlines the retention of mentalities from Tidewater, Virginia, to East Tennessee during the early settlement period. By utilizing the case study of John Carter of Watauga (1728-1781), the research illustrates how Virginian origins shaped settlers’ perceptions of privilege through inheritance, ordered society, and models of success, as well as commodification through ownership, resource extraction, and speculation. Findings reveal that Virginian mental frameworks were foundational paradigms, guiding settlers’ actions and perpetuating hierarchical structures within Tennessee society. Despite the opportunity for deviation that migration and community establishment provided, elite settlers chose to assimilate and reestablish the dominant position of Virginian schemata within their new environment. The persistence of Virginian schemata in Tennessee informs broader questions of identity formation, migrant nostalgia, and the enduring legacy of colonial mentalities in shaping American history.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Closed

Indigenous food for settler thought: Julia McCartan, Julie Brimblecombe, Karen Adams, ‘Aboriginal plant foods policy in Australia: a critical discourse analysis’, Critical Policy Studies, 2024

10May24

Abstract: The Australian continent has over 6500 edible endemic plant species, fourteen of which have been certified for commercial consumption. This paper seeks to critically analyze select Australian Commonwealth Government policy relating to these Aboriginal plant foods. The aim is to purposefully examine the positioning of non-Indigenous people in Aboriginal plant foods policy discourse and reveal tacit settler colonial power relations. This is in response to a call to action from Indigenous scholars to examine how settler colonialism manifests in regulatory mechanisms, such as government policy. This paper offers a theoretically informed critical discourse analysis methodology for examining Australian Commonwealth Government policy relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs. Analysis comprised an explanation of the socio-political context of Aboriginal policymaking in Australia, textual analysis of policy texts related to Aboriginal plant foods and an interpretation of discourse practice to reveal how policy discourse tacitly promotes ideological agendas. This analysis revealed that Australian Commonwealth Government Aboriginal plant foods policy is framed according to settler terms and upholds neoliberal interests. Considerable rethinking is required about how power is exercised in Commonwealth Government policy relating to Aboriginal plant foods to ensure it does not replicate and perpetuate unjust settler colonial power relations.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Closed

The psychology of the settler colonial condition: Amy Jean McElwain, Zed-Ola Myers, Lorena Tatomir, Mojan Hassani, ‘Reconciliation and Decolonization: Indigenizing Psychology to Move Beyond Lip Service’, in Douglas Alards-Tomalin, PSYC 303 Students, Psychological Roots: Past and Present Perspectives in the Field of Psychology (Under Development), BC Campus, 2024

07May24

Excerpt: The discipline of psychology is inherently colonial. Currently, psychology largely reflects a Eurocentric perspective that mainly centres on the experiences and perspectives of white people. There is currently very little room for Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing in the field of psychology. There are currently less than twelve Indigenous practicing or teaching psychologists in Canada, and the burden of decolonization is put on those few. A lack of understanding of Indigenous ways has led to those few professionals feeling alienated and, often, discriminated against. It is necessary to expand the psychological practice to incorporate Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing into psychology and other institutions. In order to do that, we must first acknowledge the extreme harm done to Indigenous people through colonization, explore Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing, and actively decolonize ourselves and the structural institutions that impact us. There is an imminent need to move beyond ‘lip service’ and surface understanding of reconciliation and decolonization to a much deeper level of embodied knowing that will lead to accountable action. The task has fallen on us as psychologists both in academia and practice to bring a seat at the table for Indigenous voices to weave the differing perspectives of wisdom to form a harmonious Two-Eyed way of seeing and being. The greatest challenge of modern psychology – accountable social action. Through incorporating these invaluable narratives into the ethos of psychology we can begin to undo the patriarchal and xenophobic harm our discipline has historically done until this day. The goal is to move forward together as a nation in the action of healing in a meaningful way that transforms this discipline and us in the process.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Closed

Robotic settlers: Francesco Burlando, ‘Anthroporobotocene: Non-human Players for Non-terrestrial Habitats’, in Claudio Gambardella (ed.), For Nature/With Nature: New Sustainable Design Scenarios, Springer, 2024, pp. 981-997

07May24

Abstract: The paper explores the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in designing facilities for human habitation in non-terrestrial habitats, particularly on the Moon and Mars. The author propose the concept of “Anthroporobotocene” to highlight the significant role of robots in shaping these environments to make them suitable for human life. The paper analyzes the state-of-the-art in the production of designs for future living scenarios on these planets, highlighting the potential of innovative tools that are increasingly making their appearance in the design world. The author presents a speculative view of the outputs created by AI systems, including text-to-text and text-to-image models. The text-to-text model was used to obtain an accurate description of what a building designed for Mars might look like, and the text-to-image model was used to convert the textual output into various graphic illustrations. The paper concludes that while AI is not yet mature enough to fully curate architectural or product designs, platforms with inherent graphical capabilities can provide interesting visual suggestions. Overall, the paper contributes to ongoing discussions about the challenges of space exploration and the role of technology in designing, building and developing living environments that promote the mental and physical well-being of the settlers of non-terrestrial habitats.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Closed

How to recover the Indigenous city: Ana Luiza Morais Soares, ‘Archival Silences and Urban Indigenous History: Approaches to Uncovering Invisible Pasts’, Journal of Anthropological Research, 2024

07May24

Abstract: The encounter between anthropology and history has great potential to illuminate marginalized social actors and the diverse power relations that were in play in the past, especially in the lives of urban Indigenous people. This article traces the trajectory of the growing interchange between anthropology and history and their different methodologies to document Indigenous history in the city. Researching Indigenous pasts in the urban environment poses particular challenges in confronting researchers with specific types of archival silences and cultural-political erasures. Triangulating diverse historiographic and ethnographic sources and perspectives in what I call “ethnography of the archives” can offer strategies for hearing the silenced voices of the urban environment of the past.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Closed

Geographer and settler: Gerhard Rainer, ‘German colonial geography as a racial-Völkish reordering project beyond the East: National Socialism and the colonial writings of geographer Oskar Schmieder’, Journal of Historical Geography, 84, 2024, pp. 85-94

07May24

Abstract: There is very little research on German colonial geography in general, and the boom in this subdiscipline during the National Socialist period has not received any scholarly attention so far. Against that backdrop, this paper aims to contribute: a) to a finer-grained picture of colonial, racial-Völkish thinking – and its application – in German geography during the National Socialist period and b) to our understanding of the continuities and ruptures in German geographical scholarship after WWII. To that end, I focus on the biography of Oskar Schmieder (1891–1980). Two interrelated aspects of Schmieder’s writings will guide the analysis: first, his conceptualization of race, Volk, and soil regarding (Germans in) South America and, secondly, the political colonial project that he pursued for Nazi Germany. Studying Oskar Schmieder shows that German geographers not only stood up for the re-establishment of a German colonial empire during the National Socialist period, but also fought for its Fascist orientation – which, at least for Schmieder, was to differ from the German colonial pre-1914 empire. Being primarily known as a representative of Länderkunde, Schmieder’s institutionally and conceptually influential career after 1945 can be seen as a prime example of the continuities within the discipline in Germany.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Closed

‘On our dead body’: Alessandro Chechi, ‘Repairing Historic Injustice: The Return of Indigenous Peoples’ Ancestral Human Remains Through Transitional Justice’, International Journal of Cultural Property, 2024

06May24

Abstract: This article focuses on the ancestral human remains of Indigenous peoples that were taken by European invaders during the colonial era. It begins by considering the notion of human remains. It then describes the two types of heritage that result from the removal of human remains: the tangible heritage made of the remains exhibited or stored in the museums or universities of former colonial States, and the intangible heritage made of the collective memories of the surviving communities and their descendants about the removal (and the absence) of the stolen remains. The article next examines the role of national and international laws with respect to the restitution of human remains by exploring the concept of transitional justice. This article argues that transitional justice can facilitate the meaningful repatriation of ancestral human remains and hence the healing of past injustice.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Closed

The settlers’ appetite: Or Rosenboim, ‘A Food Utopia? Italian Colonial Visions of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica, 1911-13’, Journal of the History of Ideas, 85, 2, 2024, pp. 289-320

06May24

Abstract: This article explores the uses of utopian rhetoric of food plenty in Italian colonial visions before the First World War. It examines the travel writings of three leading Italian journalists, Enrico Corradini, Arnaldo Fraccaroli, and Giuseppe Bevione, who visited the Ottoman provinces of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica and campaigned for their colonization by Liberal Italy. By reconstructing their utopian rhetoric of food plenty, this article seeks to show the relevance of arguments about food and agriculture produce to early twentieth century colonial visions, shedding light on an aspect of Italian political thought that has been hitherto marginalized in existing historical scholarship.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Closed

Teaching the settler history: Rebecca Cairns, Aleryk Fricker, Sara Weuffen (eds), Decolonising Australian History EducationFresh Perspectives from Beyond the ‘History Wars’, Routledge, 2024

06May24

Description: This book is the first of its kind to showcase a range of fresh and expert perspectives on decolonising history education in Australia. The research-informed chapters by First Nations and non-Indigenous educators and scholars provide guidance on applying practical strategies for decolonising learning and teaching, and moving beyond the ‘history wars’. History has long been the most contentious area of education in Australia. This book tackles the narrow and overtly politicised ‘history wars’ debates and foregrounds the need to re-examine impacts of settler-colonialism on Australia’s history. First-hand knowledge and much-needed teaching practices are presented, demonstrating how decolonisation can be put into action through Australian history education. The chapters present a range of perspectives from the early years right through to higher education settings and argues that there is an increased need for greater awareness, appreciation, and willingness to explore and engage with multiple narratives of truth-telling that are so often contested. Readers are guided to discover how this translates to classroom practice through unique, provocative, and research-informed strategies that foreground applied decolonising approaches. Combining theoretical perspectives and practical ideas, this book is an essential resource to support pre- and in-service teachers, in all education contexts, in navigating the decolonisation of Australian history education. This makes it an important contribution to local, as well as global, decolonising efforts.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Closed

what’s new

contribute