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Settler, not indigenous: David M. Seidenberg, ‘Finding/Revealing/Creating Judaism’s Indigenous Core’, in S. E. Silvern, E. H. Davis (eds), Religion, Sustainability, and Place, Palgrave, 2021, pp. 41-69

19Dec20

Abstract: The biblical traditions that birthed Judaism are indigenous to Canaan/Israel/Palestine. What this means, why it matters, and how it plays out both in the context of Judaism’s origins and in post-exilic contexts, is fundamental to interpreting the Jewish tradition itself and to interpreting the ecological wisdom that can be gleaned from it. However, the claim of indigeneity presents us with a conundrum. Judaism and Jewish peoplehood meet many of the criteria for being indigenous, but if we judge Zionism independently from the context of Jewish peoplehood, it is hard to distinguish it from settler colonialism. Can we find a framework to make sense of this contradiction that will illuminate indigeneity? The answer holds implications for issues of peace and politics as well as for sustainability.


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Settler colonialism against country: Alsion Ravenscroft, ‘When “Area” Meets “Country”: Rethinking the Territory of Colonialism’, New Area Studies, 1, 1, 2020, pp. 165–179

19Dec20

Abstract: Australian Aboriginal novelist Alexis Wright vividly conceives of colonialism as a virus that takes up its place in its host’s head. This is an image of invasion and territorialisation as intensely bodily and psychic. It calls attention, too, to those Aboriginal conceptions of country as itself a living and sensate entity: country has a body. It is animate, intelligent, and responsive, and humans are inextricably formed in relation to it.  Such a conception of Country (capitalised now to indicate that the word functions as a proper name) has enormous significance for the meanings that can be attached, in turn, to ideas of belonging and ownership. The impact can be felt in the antagonisms surrounding discourses of land, sovereignty and belonging. This essay considers the effects of this concept of Country in relation to two ceremonies that are practised in contemporary Australia: Welcome to Country and Acknowledgement of Country.


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Identity rights against erasure: Georgina Tuari Stewart, Makere Stewart-Harawira, ‘”Under Erasure”: Suppressed and Trans-Ethnic Māori Identities’, Journal of World Philosophies, 5, 2, 2020, pp. 1-12

19Dec20

Abstract: The questions raised by Māori identity are not static, but complex and changing over time. The ethnicity known as “Māori” came into existence in colonial New Zealand as a new, pan-tribal identity concept, in response to the trauma of invasion and dispossession by large numbers of mainly British settlers. Ideas of Māori identity have changed over the course of succeeding generations in response to wider social and economic changes. While inter-ethnic marriages and other sexual liaisons have been common throughout the Māori-Pākehā relationship, the nature of such unions, and the identity choices available to their descendants, have varied according to era and social locus. In colonial families, the memory of a Māori ancestor was often deliberately suppressed, and children were encouraged to deny that part of their history and “become” European New Zealanders: a classic form of what we call “trans-ethnicity.” From a Māori perspective, the relationship with Pākehā has been marked by a series of losses: loss of land, language, social cohesion, even loss of knowledge of whakapapa. This article explores this last form of loss, which leads to “suppressed” Māori identities, and possible effects of attempting to recover such lost Māori identity rights.


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The ‘White International’: Mandisi Majavu, ‘The White International: “The Cause of the White Man on the Pacific Coast”‘, in Biko Agozino, Viviane Saleh-Hanna, Emmanuel C. Onyeozili, Nontyatyambo Pearl Dastile (eds), The Routledge Handbook on Africana Criminologies, Routledge 2021

18Dec20

Access the chapter here.


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Settlers seeking indigeneity: Walther Friesen, The Russia-Germans – An Indigenous People of Eastern Europe: An Outline of Its History, Books on Demand, 2020

18Dec20

Access the book here.


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The end of the End of Settler Societies: Mireille Paquet, ‘A New Politics? Symposium on Dauvergne’s The New Politics and the End of Settler Societies’, International Migration, 2020

15Dec20

Abstract: This Special Issue presents articles that empirically and theoretically explores the central arguments of Catherine Dauvergne’s 2016 book The New Politics and the End of Settler Societies. This multidisciplinary issue comprises five research articles and a closing commentary from Catherine Dauvergne, exploring migration‐related events that have taken place since 2015. As a whole, these articles demonstrate the relevance of The New Politics and the End of Settler Societies to future comparative studies of immigration politics and policies. Contributions to this Special Issue also confirm policy trends and convergence, as argued by Dauvergne. More broadly, the selected articles illustrate the analytical and political challenges associated with imagining research and policies outside of the paradigm of settler societies.


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‘Decolonial talk’ and practice: Jordan Christiansen, ‘The Water Protectors at Standing Rock: Survivance Strategies for Gendered Relinking’, Women’s Studies in Communication, 2020

15Dec20

Abstract: Violence against Indigenous individuals and the land is exacerbated by the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). Such violence stems from and is sustained by structures of settler colonialism. Analyzing RISE (2017), a documentary television series which followed the Standing Rock occupation, I argue the Water Protectors enacted their inherent sovereignty through strategies of survivance that delinked from settler colonialism and provided gendered relinking to Indigenous knowledges. The Water Protectors’ decolonial talk presented embodied messages of Indigenous survivance that highlighted their agency to resist settler colonialism. By asserting their active decolonial presence, the Water Protectors challenged settler colonial gendered violence, constructing new realities where Indigenous peoples and the earth are decolonized.


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Settler colonial videogaming: Marc James Carpenter, ‘Replaying Colonialism: Indigenous National Sovereignty and Its Limits in Strategic Videogames’, American Indian Quarterly, 45, 1, 2021, pp. 33-55

15Dec20

Abstract: This article examines the pitfalls and potentialities of the recent inclusion of indigenous nations in the strategic videogame series Europa Universalis and Civilization. By making protagonists of dynamic indigenous nations—and putting them on the same plane as the nations of Europe and Asia—newer entries in these series encourage players to think of indigenous polities as sovereign, active, and independent. This is a seeming break from earlier iterations that portrayed them as alien Others. However, both series remain reliant on settler colonial mechanics of play, portraying Native nations as dynamic, future-oriented, and modern only via universalized, Eurocentric metrics of achievement, and participation in the conquest of an “empty” world. The newer versions of Europa Universalis and Civilization encourage players to consider aspects of indigenous sovereignty, but remain freighted with a colonizing vision that “sees” only national and imperial power as legitimate. These games allow for indigenous sovereignty only within that lens. While there is potential within the genre to communicate messages of indigenous sovereignty and dynamism in ways unusual in popular media, these game series (and the genre of which they are a part) remain mired in settler colonial assumptions.


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Settler commons on Indigenous property: Nick Martino, ‘”It should be equal across the board”: how treaty opposition among hunters and anglers upholds settler colonialism in Canada’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 2020

15Dec20

Abstract: The Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters (OFAH) is an influential organization that has opposed Indigenous peoples’ treaty harvesting rights and land claims for allegedly threatening conservation and egalitarian values. Using data from twenty semi-structured interviews and the OFAH’s official documents, this paper analyses and compares the views on treaty rights between the OFAH leadership and ordinary hunters and fishers inside and outside the organization. Group Position and Colour-Blind Racism theories were used to understand how the meanings and perceived legitimacy of treaty rights are constructed and negotiated, and whether treaty opposition reflects a response to maintain settler-Canadians’ group position. Although nine respondents displayed varying degrees of support for treaty rights, the general pattern showed that both the OFAH and most respondents drew on similar interpretive repertoires to oppose treaty rights. These latter responses reveal a defensive reaction to uphold settler-colonial power, privileges, and access to land and resources.


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Settlers seek title to the land and record their taking: David Ress, Deeds, Titles, and Changing Concepts of Land Rights: Colonial Innovations and Their Impact on Social Thought, Springer 2020

15Dec20

Description: This book explores the history of public land tenure records, which first began in colonial Massachusetts as English settlers and Native Americans tried to resolve differing ideas about rights to land in the seventeenth century. In South Australia, a similar method of state certification of land ownership arose in the nineteenth century, through Torrens system title registration – a process that would be widely adopted in British and American colonies as a particularly effective way of guaranteeing absolute (‘fee simple’) ownership over indigenous peoples’ land. This book explores the similarities between these two record systems, highlighting how similar settlement patterns and religious beliefs in both places focused attention on recording land tenure, and illustrating how these record systems encouraged new ways of thinking about rights to and on land. 


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