settler colonial studies blog

A gut feeling against settler colonialism: Isaac Warbrick, Deborah Heke, Martin Breed, ‘Indigenous Knowledge and the Microbiome—Bridging the Disconnect between Colonized Places, Peoples, and the Unseen Influences That Shape Our Health and Well-Being’, mSystems, 2023

28Jan23

Abstract: Indigenous Peoples have a rich and long-standing connection with the environments that they descend from—a connection that has informed a deep and multifaceted understanding of the relationship between human well-being and the environment. Through cultural narratives and practices, much of this knowledge has endured despite the ongoing effects that colonization has had on many Indigenous peoples across the world. These narratives and practices, based on observation,
experimentation, and practical application over many generations, have the potential to make compelling contributions to our understanding of the environmental microbiome and its relationship to health. Furthermore, the inclusion of Indigenous perspectives regarding the microbiome opens pathways to those who rarely engage with the field and its learnings. Within the scientific community, Indigenous perspectives have not always been acknowledged as valid contributions and are often seen as myth or lacking rigor. Thus, this paper aims to explore an Indigenous perspective of the microbiome as an unseen influence on health and well-being by framing the importance of the natural environment, Indigenous knowledge and leadership, and future research directions that can contribute to this domain. Although the Indigenous perspective in this article reflects the experiences, worldviews, and knowledge of two New Zealand Maori authors, it is hoped that the concepts discussed can relate to Indigenous peoples, and non-Indigenous advocates, globally.

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Teaching settler geographies: Catherine Larochelle, ‘Empire, Colonialism, and Place-Attachment in Young Minds: Quebec Students’ Imaginative Travels in the Age of the New Imperialism’, The Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth, 16, 1, 2023, pp. 70-91

28Jan23

Abstract: We know that the settler societies known as Quebec and Canada were imperialist during the “new imperialism” era, but do we really know the process through which they became imperialist? During this period, schools provided the geographic knowledge and emotional place-attachment necessary for the consolidation of settler-colonialism. At the same time, youth imagined their future life in an interconnected world geography that they believed belonged to them. My article aims to understand how geographical knowledge—imperial, missionary, and literary—was transmitted to young people through the school system and how they integrated and appropriated this geographical imagination.

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Doubly silenced: Rita Giacaman, ‘Palestinians Under Israeli Settler Colonialism and “Anglo-Centric” Colonization of Knowledge Production’, International Journal of Social Determinants of Health and Health Services, 2023

28Jan23

Abstract: Calls for decolonizing knowledge production are increasing considerably. Yet the domination of knowledge production by English-speaking, neoliberal, Western countries continues, with understandings and assumptions often irrelevant and unimportant to southern countries, and can contain racialized portrayals of the people of the developing world. Palestinians under Israeli military rule have also become governed by neoliberal funding northern institutions that have commoditized research and education and control what should be researched and how. The dual colonization of Palestinians by Israel and the hegemony of neoliberal political-economy among a captive Palestinian population—reinforced by the Zionist lobby’s ferociousness in punishing whoever dares to raise questions about Israel’s wrongdoings—is silencing Palestinians and those supporting justice to Palestinians in ways perhaps not experienced by others who want their voices heard. Yet Palestinians continue to teach and conduct research and to struggle for freedom and justice on one hand and for liberation from donor dictates on what to research and how to research and write on the other. We continue to hope that international funders and publishers would take concrete steps to turn calls for the decolonization of knowledge production from lip service to actions so that all knowledges can contribute to debates and societal advancement worldwide.

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Indigenous entrepreneurs are disadvantaged (go figure): Rick Colbourne, Ana Maria Peredo, Irene Henriques, ‘Indigenous entrepreneurship? Setting the record straight’, Business History, 2023

28Jan23

Abstract: We provide an historical essay synthesising the macro societal processes that affected Indigenous peoples’ entrepreneurial and trade activities in Canada from pre-contact to 1920. Adopting Indigenous entrepreneurship and institutional theory lenses, we find that the evolution of legal, political, and socio-economic forces converged to undermine Indigenous peoples’ entrepreneurial activity and well-being in Canada. Our narrative suggests a dynamic view of the relationship between entrepreneurship and institutions and the role of power. Whereas Baumol’s view is that institutions shape entrepreneurship by determining the relative payoffs to productive or unproductive entrepreneurship, our narrative shows the ways in which unequal benefits to various entrepreneurs change institutions over time. This advances the field of entrepreneurship by historically situating entrepreneurial processes in settler society and exposing the role of power in the relationship between entrepreneurship and institutions in society over time.

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Patrolling the border of the settler body: Andrea Tarchi, Building the Intimate Boundaries of the Nation: The Regulation of Mixed Intimacies in Colonial Libya and the Construction of Italian Whiteness (1911-1942), PhD dissertation, Free University of Amsterdam, 2023

28Jan23

Abstract: The study of the regulation of “mixed” intimacies between Italian settlers and people that fell under Italian colonial rule can clarify processes of racialization of subaltern social groups while pointing at the construction of Italian whiteness in the colonial environment. However, research on mixed intimacies during Italian colonialism has focused solely on the Eastern African colonial contexts, namely, how such relationships unfolded and were regulated in Eritrea, Somalia and Ethiopia during Italian colonial rule. With this research, I aim to add to this research landscape the context of the Italian colonization of Libya (1911-1942), to assess whether Italian colonial administrators regulated intimacies between Italians and Libyans and to ascertain whether these regulations played a role in the racialization of Libya and the identification of Italians as white. In order to do so, I deployed a socio-legal and cultural analysis approach to the examination of official archival sources collected in the Italian state, Vatican, and Missionary congregations’ archives. Through such an analysis, the regulations of mixed intimacies collected in the archives are juxtaposed with the social changes that influenced and were influenced by the policing of intimacy in the Libyan colonial context. The main finding of this research is that Italian colonial administrators regulated mixed intimacies throughout their colonial presence in Libya to establish the category of whiteness on the settler population while racializing Libyans as Others. In particular, this research found that the racialization of the colonial Other through the regulation of mixed intimacies was a significant factor that allowed a modern, white, European subjectivity to emerge and represent itself as a signifier of Italian identity in the empire. Regulating mixed intimacies coincided with keeping control of categorization processes that affected both colonizing and colonized societies, therefore representing an untapped resource in understanding the historical production of racial categories in the Italian colonial context.

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Settler grievances? James Collie, Ritwik Bhattacharjee, ‘Problematizing Settler Grievances: Danielle Smith and Contested Colonialism’, Canadian Journal of Political Science, 2023

28Jan23

Abstract:Premier of Alberta Danielle Smith’s comments comparing the Alberta Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act with the Indian Act has sparked widespread outrage and condemnation. Premier Smith would later clarify these remarks to show they were intended to demonstrate that Alberta and First Nations have a “common problem” with Ottawa (Alberta, 2022b: 385). In this brief article, we argue that these comments, and the Act itself, can be analyzed using Jerald Sabin’s contested colonialism framework (2017). We then launch a brief critical discussion of what our analysis means for Canadian politics by addressing the possible intentions and harms of the comments.

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Indigenous federalism against settler incursions? Martin Papillon, ‘Indigenous peoples and federalism: in or out?’ In John Kincaid, Robert B., Helen S. Meyner (eds), Teaching Federalism: Multidimensional Approaches, Elgar, 2023

28Jan23

Excerpt: According to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, more than 470 million indigenous people live in 90 countries across the world (UNPFII 2010). Many of those countries are federations. While culturally diverse (they speak more than 4,000 languages), indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa and Asia share a struggle to maintain their distinctive identities, political systems, and unique relationship with their ancestral lands. Indigenous peoples also have in common an experience with colonialism in its diverse forms, from forced displacements due to pressures from extractive industries, such as mining or hydro-development, to overt discrimination and political violence perpetrated by states that have long sought to assimilate them.

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Duck, Diaspora, settler colonialism: Koby Song-Nichols, Katie Konstantopoulos, ‘Duck & diaspora: eating dialectically in a settler-colonial food system’, Food, Culture & Society, 2023

27Jan23

Abstract: What can Pekin duck tell us about diaspora and settler colonialism? In this paper we answer this question by introducing “eating dialectically,” inspired by community activist Grace Lee Bogg’s understandings of “thinking dialectically” and her challenge for us to “grow our souls” in the context of many crises we continually face. We focus on how Pekin duck is consumed and produced within the Greater Toronto Area. This piece offers three duck meals to ruminate on often ignored connections between diasporic foodways in multicultural cities and the rural areas that provide them ingredients. We present and troubleshoot a practice of “eating dialectically” which aims not only to raise critical food consciousness but also push us all to reimagine ourselves, our futures, and the foods that feed our souls anew. We conclude by briefly discussing the limitations of eating dialectically and our abilities to reimagine ourselves and our food futures.

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Settler legitimacy through flows of extractive capital: Lena Price, ‘The Role of the Canadian Settler-State in Facilitating Flows of Transnational Executive Capital’, On Politics, 15, 1, 2022

27Jan23

Abstract: What does the neoliberalization of extractive and border infrastructures by the Canadian settler-state illuminate about its relationship to transnational extractive capital? To answer this question, I first examine how neoliberalism has shaped border and extractive policies. In the second section, I look at how flows of transnational extractive capital are made flexible by Canadian settler-state policies, while simultaneously securitizing colonial borders against racialized migrants. In the third, I investigate how
material and epistemological challenges to extractive infrastructures from Indigenous land defenders and racialized migrants challenge the legitimation by accumulation processes the Canadian settler-state employs. Ultimately, I argue the settler-state selectively securitizes pipeline and border infrastructures to facilitate the flow and accumulation of transnational extractive capital as a means of self-legitimation that relies on normative imaginings of a white Canadian nationhood. Furthermore, these imaginings rely on upholding certain logics of racial capitalism that construct a white Canadian nationhood, such as white supremacy, colonialism, and heteropatriarchy.

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Destituency as resistance against settler colonialism? Philippe Blouin, ‘Self-Destituent Power in Iroquois Diplomacy: Interpreting the 2020 Talks on the Tyendinaga Tracks’, South Atlantic Quarterly, 122, 1, 2023, pp. 87-101

27Jan23

Abstract: Preserving the original agreement between the Rotinonhsión:ni (Iroquois) and the first settlers, the Two Row Wampum belt (Teiohá:te) displays two parallel lines, where the original peoples’ canoe and the settlers’ ship are said to sail side by side, suggesting that allied parties to move in the same direction they must respect their mutual autonomy. Drawing on the transcripts of negotiations between Canadian officials and Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) warriors in Tyendinaga, this article examines how the Two Row Wampum’s notion of alliance through separation played out in the 2020 rail blockade movement in support of the Wet’suwet’en people’s fight against the Coastal GasLink pipelines. Central to the text is Kanien’kehá:ka warriors’ suggestion that, beyond relations with settlers, the Two Row Wampum applies to relations between and among Indigenous nations, clans, genders, and even nonhumans. The intricate consensus-based decision-making protocols that compose the Rotinonhsión:ni Confederacy’s precolonial governance system likewise attest to the respect for separation that pervades all relations, as if the potential of Rotinonhsión:ni diplomacy to render sovereign power destitute had reached a constitutional stature.

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