settler colonial studies blog

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

Appropriating settler philanthropists: Cheryl Ellenwood, Raymond Foxworth, ‘Data Back: Indigenous Material Culture, Philanthropy, and Indigenous Data Sovereignty’, The Public Historian, 46, 2, 2024, pp. 123-143

04May24

Abstract: Grounded within the field and practice of philanthropy, the authors discuss the relationship between Indigenous material culture and philanthropy. This tangled relationship between philanthropy, colonial institutions, and Indigenous material culture continues to cause harm for Indigenous Peoples. We illustrate the problematizing nature of museums viewing material culture detached from current Indigenous Peoples with the case of the Nez Perce Wetxuuwíitin Collection. The Nez Perce Wetxuuwíitin Collection case shows how elite philanthropy and museum practices can negatively harm Native nations. Native collections are living Indigenous data and connected to Indigenous Peoples today. Material culture is not relegated to the past; it is Indigenous data and should be governed by Native nations. Without a change in practice, Indigenous Peoples will continue to be negatively impacted. To educate elite philanthropic partners and improve museum practices, we introduce principles from Indigenous Data Sovereignty that can help guide the partnerships and collaborations with Native nations. Indigenous Data Sovereignty can not only reduce harm and maximize benefits for Indigenous Peoples but also bring Indigenous data back home.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Closed

Settler nationalists internationally: Freg J. Stokes, ‘Socialist Settlers on a Capitalist Frontier: The Contradictions of New Australia, Paraguay’, Labour History, 126, 1, 2024

04May24

Abstract: This article assesses the socialist colony of New Australia, founded in Paraguay in 1893, in its wider historical and environmental context. Drawing on archival research, the article contends that New Australia was founded as part of a broader settler colonial deforestation frontier in the southern Atlantic Rainforest. Despite the utopian socialist ideology of its founders, New Australia’s establishment was made possible by Paraguay’s violent integration into the capitalist world-system in the late nineteenth century. This integration had previously been obstructed by centuries of resistance by Indigenous Guaraní and Guaraní-descendant peoples to colonisation. Nevertheless, New Australia’s subsequent failure as a settler colony also ensured that its impact on the Atlantic Rainforest was relatively minimal, with the colony’s inhabitants themselves becoming integrated into Paraguay’s rural Guaraní-speaking population.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Closed

Internationalism against settler nationalism: Padraic Gibson, ‘Communists and the 1933 Campaign that Ended Frontier Massacres in Australia’, Labour History, 126, 1, 2024

04May24

Abstract: In August and September 1933, agitation by the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) led trade unions and unemployed workers’ organisations to join a national campaign for Aboriginal rights for the first time in history. Police in the Northern Territory were publicly planning a “punitive expedition” to kill Yolngu people, in response to the spearing death of an officer. Public mobilisation stopped the expedition, effectively ending the practice of frontier massacres that had long characterised the colonisation of Australia. Existing histories have emphasised the leading role of missionaries and other middle and upper-class intellectuals, who led humanitarian organisations playing an increasingly influential role in Aboriginal affairs. While acknowledging the significance of these efforts, this article makes a new argument about the central role of communist agitation and the participation of working-class organisations in forcing a complete police retreat. Animating this initiative was a Marxist anti-imperialist politics that appealed to anti-war traditions within the workers’ movement.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Closed

Parallel settler colonialisms: Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, ‘Settler Colonialism in the U.S. and Israel’, In These Times, 48, 4, 2024

03May24

Abstract: This article discusses the concept of settler colonialism in the United States and Israel. The author shares their personal experiences and perspectives on the issue, highlighting the displacement and mistreatment of Indigenous peoples in North America and Palestinians in Israel. Settler colonialism is described as a process in which settlers establish new political orders and carry their sovereignty with them, erasing and replacing existing societies. The article emphasizes the importance of understanding the settler colonial context in order to comprehend the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Closed

The intelligence of settlers: Abigail Escobedo, Simon Herbert, ‘Gaining Knowledge about the Comanches: Meusebach’s Path Towards a Notable Treaty’, Migrant Knowledge, 18/04/24

03May24

Excerpt: In 1847, John O. Meusebach was seeking to set up a peace treaty with the Native American tribe, the Penateka Comanches. Meusebach’s negotiation of a peace treaty with them was crucial to the success of the German settlement project in Texas, spearheaded by the Mainzer Adelsverein for which Meusebach served as a commissioner-general. Ultimately, the treaty sought to ensure the settlers’ safety and regulated trade relations between the two parties. However, entering Comanche territory was risky as one could not foresee how the Comanches would react to settlers crossing into their territory. Hence, Meusebach’s knowledge of and diplomatic skills with the Comanches were critical. He gained these from three sources, in particular: Meusebach’s predecessor as commissioner-general, Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels, the colonial director of Fredericksburg, Friedrich Armand Strubberg, and noted geologist Ferdinand Roemer, who was part of the expedition into native territory in early January 1847; all provided oral and written reports that contributed to Meusebach’s knowledge of these Native Americans.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Closed

Indgenous-settler state making: Ibrahim Abdullah, ‘Indigenes, Settlers and Citizens: Multiple and Conflicting Subjectivities in Nation State Making’, Development and Change, 2024

03May24

Access the review article here.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Closed

Is settler internationalism even possible? A special issue of Labour History: 126, 1, 2024

03May24

Access the special issue here.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Closed

Settler trainspotting: Katie Maher, ‘They put me on a train: Assimilation and the Australian railways’, Geographical Research, 2024

02May24

Abstract: This article explores the involvement of the Australian railways in the forcible removal of Aboriginal children. Focusing on the visions and voices of Aboriginal peoples who were taken away from their families by train, the article considers how railways were used in the attempted assimilation of First Nations peoples into White society. The last train ride, an artwork by South Australian Yankunytjatjara artist and Stolen Generations survivor Kunyi McInerney, serves as a point of departure to study how the settler colonial infrastructure of rail operationalised the Australian government policies of assimilation. I ask how railway infrastructures have affected Aboriginal peoples and how Aboriginal peoples have responded to railway infrastructures. In centring the artworks and narratives of Aboriginal people taken away by train, I extend an invitation to readers to rethink geography through the visual expressions and stories of First Nations peoples. Close attention to the perspectives of affected peoples opens possibilities to view infrastructures in a different light. The visions and voices of Aboriginal families impacted by assimilation policies show that the railways played a pivotal role in the separation of Aboriginal children from families and that railway infrastructures have also been sites of resistance to and subversion of assimilation and child removal. Paying careful attention to First Nations voices and visions, the article informs how the Australian railways have been complicit in assimilation policies and how Aboriginal peoples have used the railways to resist and survive such settler colonial projects.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Closed

what’s new

contribute