settler colonial studies blog

Affect and settlers: Kate Nash, Caitlin Mollica, Kate Senior, ‘Talking About the Voice: Everyday Political Talk About Indigenous Constitutional Recognition’, International Journal of Communication, 20, 2026, pp. 48-66

10Jan26

Abstract: In 2023, Australians went to the polls to vote on a proposal to recognize Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the national constitution through the creation of an advisory body called the Voice. The proposal was soundly defeated, raising questions about the possibility of reconciliation and Indigenous recognition. While there have been many attempts to explain the outcome, this article takes an interpersonal perspective focusing on voters’ experiences of talking about the Voice. Our aim is to contribute to studies of everyday political talk in contexts of political disagreement, considering the affective dynamics of settler colonialism. We suggest that the ability to talk constructively about the ongoing impacts of colonization and Indigenous recognition, both of which are fundamental to the broader project of reconciliation and truth telling, will require attention to questions of everyday listening in the context of settlerIndigenous relationships.

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Settler colonialism in Africa: Asafa Jalata, ‘The Political Economy of Land in Oromia and Ethiopia’, The Journal of Oromo Studies, 30 1, 2026, pp. 1-31

10Jan26

Abstract: The paper identifies and explains the landowning systems in Abyssinian (Amhara-Tigray) areas and the colonized regions, mainly Oromia. Amhara-Tigray farmers communally own land based on extended lineages. However, the Ethiopian colonial state and colonial settlers dispossessed most of the Oromo lands and reduced most Oromo and other nationalities to landless serfs (gabbars). The piece also demonstrates how the alliance of European imperialism and Ethiopian colonialism facilitated the dispossession and privatization of lands in the colonized territories, such as Oromia, and caused devastating consequences. By introducing the slogan of “Land to the Tiller,” the Ethiopian student movement and the revolutionary ruptures of 1974 facilitated the emergence of the military government, the overthrow of the Haile Selassie regime, and the “nationalization” of lands in the Ethiopian empire in 1975. Subsequent regime changes of 1991 and 2018 have enabled the new regimes to have tight control over lands and their use and facilitated the process of capital/wealth accumulation through various mechanisms at the cost of the farmers who have been exploited, impoverished, oppressed, and abused. Consequently, the land issue has remained a bone of contention, contradiction, and conflict in the Ethiopian empire, particularly Oromia. In addition, this paper explains how the neo-nafxanya government of Abiy Ahmed has targeted the Oromo farmers and herders for political repression and land dispossession. Historical and comparative methods were used in this study.

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The Arctic imperialist scramble and the Indigenous people who live there: Carin Holroyd, Ken Coates (eds), The Palgrave Handbook of Arctic Policy and Politics, Second Edition, Palgrave, 2025

08Jan26

Description: The Arctic that emerged over the past forty years became one of the most innovative policy environments in the world. The region developed impressive systems for intra-regional cooperation, responded to the challenges of rapid environmental change, empowered and engaged with Indigenous peoples, and dealt with the multiple challenges of natural resource development. The second edition of The Palgrave Handbook on Arctic Policy and Politics draws on scholars from many countries and academic disciplines to focus on the central theme of Arctic policy innovation and political action. The portrait that emerges from these chapters is of a complex, fluid policy environment, shaped by internal, national and global dynamics and by a wide range of political, legal, economic, and social transitions. In this second edition, all chapters have been revised, updating the volume with the latest research and analysis especially on the changing geo-political situation since the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the election of Donald Trump. New chapters explore post-secondary education and the future of work in the Circumpolar North. The Arctic is a complex political place and is on the verge of becoming even more so due to Russian militarism, increasing Chinese engagement and the cascading effects of rapid climate change. Effective, proactive and forward-looking policy innovation will be required if the Far North is to address its challenges and capitalize on its opportunities. The Arctic has become, ironically, “hot” in political terms, presenting escalating challenges for Arctic peoples and nations seeking to respond to political agendas that increasingly emerge from outside the region.

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Humans and animals in the settler frontiers: Eeva Kuikka, Human-Animal Relations in the Indigenous Literatures of the Soviet North, Palgrave, 2026

08Jan26

Description: This open access book examines how Indigenous authors from the Soviet North reflect the impact of Soviet settler colonialism on Indigenous communities in the region through literary engagement with human–animal relations. Careful analyses of works by Iurii Rytkheu (Chukchi), Anna Nerkagi (Nenets), and Eremei Aipin (Khanty) address the authors’ responses to Soviet colonialism and forced assimilation, as well as the ways in which these processes altered Indigenous cultures and conceptualizations of nature and non-human animals. The book situates Indigenous authors and their texts within the cultural, political, and ideological context of the Soviet Union, while simultaneously drawing on a broad array of theoretical frameworks – posthumanism, new materialism, and postcolonial criticism – to guide its analysis. The wealth of theoretical perspectives makes the book of interest to scholars and students in Soviet literary studies, Russian and Eurasian studies, Indigenous studies, environmental humanities, human-animal studies, and Arctic Studies. In the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the emerged call to decolonize Russian and Eurasian studies, Human-Animal Relations in the Indigenous Literatures of the Soviet North offers a timely and necessary re-evaluation of Russia’s colonial history in the Arctic region.

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Liberia as a settler polity: Franka Vaughan, Settler Colonialism in Liberia: Disavowal of the Marginalised and Contemporary Citizenship Debates in Post-War Liberia, Springer, 2026

08Jan26

Description: This book is a retelling of the history of Liberia’s formation through the lens of settler colonial theory to understand the antagonisms that continue to shape contemporary citizenship debates. It discusses Liberia as representing an interesting puzzle on the distinction between settler colonialism and postcolonialism. While Liberia is often heralded as one of two African countries that were never colonised, this book presents the country as a unique settler state established by free and formerly enslaved Black Americans, who, the author argues, were settler-colonists despite their positioning as Black people in the slaveholding regime. The book, therefore, complicates conventional perspectives by unravelling Liberia’s settler colonial “present”, highlighting the persistent impact of historical structures on the contemporary socio-political landscape. It shows that when the Black Americans dispossessed and marginalised the Africans they met upon arrival in Liberia, they established the antagonisms and enduring unequal structures that continue to shape citizenship and identity debates in the post-war era. By exploring Liberia’s contemporary and contentious discourse on dual citizenship, the book delves into the nuanced terrain of claims and counterclaims surrounding proposed changes to the country’s citizenship laws.

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Settlers having fun: Judy Davidson, Matt Ormandy, ‘Stolen land for private clubs: leisure, land use, and climate coloniality along the kisiskâciwani-sîpiy’, Leisure Studies, 2025

08Jan26

Abstract: Western leisure studies scholars are beginning to grapple with how leisure practices have emerged through and continue to act as technologies of settler colonialism. In North America, one of the most iconic markers of settler leisure is membership in private sports clubs. Constituted through white wealth, these spaces provide respite for the propertied elite on stolen land. Using archival documents, this paper critically assesses three private sports clubs that lease public land in the river valley in amiskwaciwâskahikan (nêhiyawak/Cree for Beaver Hills or what is now known as Edmonton, Alberta in Canada): the Highlands Golf Club, the Royal Mayfair Golf Club, and the Royal Glenora Club. In so doing, we explore questions about space and land, namely how the kisiskǎciwan-sîpî/North Saskatchewan river valley has been used for these particular leisure pursuits. Detailing the historical development and ongoing flourishing of these exclusive enclaves provides a Foucaultian genealogical case study to engage in structural critical conversation about how elite leisure social organisations are deeply imbricated in climate coloniality and the climate change crisis in the Canadian context. We conclude by discussing contemporary examples of Indigenous ‘placekeeping’ practices along the kisiskǎciwan-sîpî in Edmonton.

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It’s a British thing: Susan Kingsley Kent , British Settler Colonialism since 1530: Indigenous Peoples in an Imperial World, Bloomsbury, 2025

07Jan26

Description: This book provides an account of British settler colonialism across the globe from 1530 to the present day. Centering the impact of settler colonies on indigenous peoples whose land was taken and populations were disrupted, it traces resistance, revolution, migration, assimilation and elimination in North America, Latin America, South Africa, Kenya, Ireland, the Middle East and Australia. Exploring the concept of settler colonialism, understanding how it differs from other aspects of imperialism and highlighting the importance of centering indigenous peoples in the study of empire, this book clarifies key theories, terms and debates within the field. Each chapter addresses issues of race, gender and the environment through a specific case study along with comparative ‘counterpoint’ examples of other settler colonies. It explores how indigenous peoples tried to preserve, recreate and reassert their cultures and values, and highlights the ongoing impact of settler colonialism and the domination of indigenous peoples and culture that continues to this day. With maps, images, primary documents and suggested further reading British Settler Colonialism provides an introduction to empire and colonialism with a focus on indigenous peoples, cultures and histories.

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Latter Day settlers: Melvin C. Johnson, ‘West of the Missouri: Latter Day Saints Among the Civilized Tribes of the Indian Territory before 1861’, The John Whitmer Historical Association Journal, 44, 2, 2024, pp. 42-68

07Jan26

Excerpt: The Latter Day Saints from the beginning days of their various denominations have been interested in and involved with the indigenous peoples of North Ameri-ca. Relocation of these peoples by Congress resulted in the transfer of tens of thousands of these native peoples to lands set aside for them west of the Missouri River, in what is now Kansas and Oklahoma. For thirty years Mormon settlers, wayfarers, missionaries, and immigrant companies moved among the nations, temporarily staying among them for several seasons before moving on.’ This article examines the years from 1845 to 1860 …

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The memory of settlers: Chad L. Anderson, The Storied Landscape of Iroquoia: History, Conquest, and Memory in the Native Northeast, University of Nebraska Press, 2020

07Jan26

Description: The Storied Landscape of Iroquoia explores the creation, destruction, appropriation, and enduring legacy of one of early America’s most important places: the homelands of the Haudenosaunees (also known as the Iroquois Six Nations). Throughout the late seventeenth, eighteenth, and early nineteenth centuries of European colonization the Haudenosaunees remained the dominant power in their homelands and one of the most important diplomatic players in the struggle for the continent following European settlement of North America by the Dutch, British, French, Spanish, and Russians. Chad L. Anderson offers a significant contribution to understanding colonialism, intercultural conflict, and intercultural interpretations of the Iroquoian landscape during this time in central and western New York. Although American public memory often recalls a nation founded along a frontier wilderness, these lands had long been inhabited in Native American villages, where history had been written on the land through place-names, monuments, and long-remembered settlements. Drawing on a wide range of material spanning more than a century, Anderson uncovers the real stories of the people—Native American and Euro-American—and the places at the center of the contested reinvention of a Native American homeland. These stories about Iroquoia were key to both Euro-American and Haudenosaunee understandings of their peoples’ pasts and futures.

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The living archive: Rita Orihuela-Anaya, Meenakshi Richardson, Gladys Gamarra, Angela Alva, Hernán Lauracio Ticona, Carlos Arosquipa Rodriguez, Magaly M Blas, ‘Mamás de la Frontera: Empowering perspectives of Indigenous community health workers along the Putumayo River in the Peruvian Amazon’, Journal of Community Systems for Health, 2, 2, 2025

06Jan26

Abstract: Indigenous peoples in Peru have experienced significant disparities in health and social well-being due to ongoing settler colonialism. Despite significant progress in maternal and neonatal health, regional disparities persist. In response to these challenges, the *Mamás de la Frontera* (Mothers of the Border) program was developed in collaboration with Indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon. The program involved training and advocating for community health workers (CHWs) to improve culturally appropriate maternal and child healthcare. This study focuses on the experiences of CHWs as they transitioned from training to community practice. Methods: Ten CHWs from participating communities near the district of San Antonio del Estrecho were interviewed individually in a semi-structured manner. The transcripts underwent qualitative hybrid coding, integrating an inductive and deductive approach to thematic analysis. The CHWs also participated in a workshop designed to collect their experiences and expectations regarding program training, roles and direct service translation. Results: Upon applying thematic analysis, four primary themes emerged: (1) roles and responsibilities, (2) cultural practices, (3) training, translation and dissemination, and (4) barriers and needs experienced by CHWs. Each theme included respective sub-themes, providing more detail and specificity. The photo workshop complemented the formalised qualitative findings, further emphasising the perceptions and feedback of CHWs regarding topics such as role satisfaction, community dynamics and belonging. Conclusions: The findings reinforce the existing empirical evidence on the experiences of Indigenous CHWs, emphasising the components of program implementation and the adaptation of healthcare delivery in rural Amazonian settings. CHWs play a vital role in promoting maternal and child health and community well-being. The implications of this work are to further inform culturally integrative, strength-based community health programming, prevention strategies, advocacy, resource development and health system reform, with the aim of better supporting Indigenous populations in Peru.

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