settler colonial studies blog

Settler colonialism is a pandemic: Renisa Mawani, ‘A Historical Account of the Pandemic: Health, Colonialism and Racism in Canada’, RSC, 12/11/20

24Nov20

Abstract: In this paper, I situate the Covid-19 pandemic within a longer historical context in Canada. I argue that settler colonial state has produced the conditions in which certain (white) lives are valued, protected, and nourished while other lives (Indigenous/ Chinese) are left to die. I make this argument by focusing on two examples: the role of the Indian Act and the enactment of Canadian Immigration legislation. While the former has produced unliveable conditions for Indigenous peoples on and off reserves, the latter has suggested that certain migrants – particularly the Chinese – were “foreign” and diseased. The racial inequalities that have surfaced in the current pandemic, I suggest, requires us to consider the long histories of racial violence in Canada, the ways in which certain bodies have been made vulnerable to disease, while others have been blamed for its proliferation, all in the interests of white (re)settlement.

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The settler and the migrant, and the question of revolution: Lorenzo Veracini, ‘Displaced: John Mulgan’s Man Alone and Guido Morselli’s The Communist’, Journal of New Zealand Literature, 38, 1, 2020, pp. 84-104

24Nov20

Excerpt: John Mulgan’s Man Alone (1939) is a classic of New Zealand literature. Guido Morselli’s Il comunista (published posthumously in 1976 but written in 1964-65) was recently translated into English as The Communist and released as part of the NYRB Classics Series. Man Alone tells the story of an English World War One veteran’s migration to New Zealand, his ordeals during the Depression and in New Zealand’s wilderness, and eventually his decision, after his return to Europe, to volunteer in the international brigades supporting the Republic in the Spanish Civil War. The Communist tells the story of an Italian communist organiser and member of parliament who had fought in the Spanish Civil War, who had subsequently emigrated to the US after defeat, and had returned to Italy after the end of World War Two. The novel also narrates its protagonist’s ordeal, as his unorthodox militancy leads to a serious political crisis precipitated by dissent on a point of Marxist interpretation. Both novels focus on the politically formative experiences that a new life elsewhere has for their protagonists, even if both displacements are provisional. Even though they were written a generation apart and contributed to completely different literary traditions, the two novels can be productively read together because they both tease out the interaction between political militancy and displacement.

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The limits of settler colonial studies: Lucy Taylor, ‘Four foundations of settler colonial theory: four insights from Argentina’, Settler Colonial Studies, 2020

22Nov20

Abstract: How might analysis of Argentina, its history and social relations, complicate and enrich our understanding of settler colonialism? This is the key question that drives this article which explores four of the conceptual foundations that underpin settler colonial theory: the labour/land distinction; terra nullius; the black/slavery category; and the settler/native binary. From these, four key insights emerge around the following themes: capitalism; geopolitics; slaveability/elimination; and mestizaje. As such, the article builds on existing critiques of binary thinking in settler colonial theory by considering ‘settling’ from locations and experiences beyond the usual locus of study. By disarranging our ‘definition’ and expectations of settler colonial regimes, it aims to both enhance established theory and to foster a bridge between Latin American Studies and Settler Colonial Studies as intellectual fields.

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Indigeneity against self-determination: José Pedro Monteiro, ‘From ‘Natives’ to ‘Aborigines’: Late Colonialism, Indigenous Rights and the Global Politics of Sovereignty (1953–1962)’, The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 2020

22Nov20

Abstract: This article addresses the dynamics of political and social continuity and change in Portuguese late colonialism after 1945. By focusing on the 1961 and 1962 imperial reforms, three main arguments are put forward. First, that only by analytically incorporating international and transnational dimensions the Portuguese protracted trajectory of imperial demise can be fully grasped. Second, by engaging with international institutions, norms and idioms, namely the then emerging indigenous international law and politics, Portuguese authorities and experts advanced a distinctive and alternative project of nationhood and imperial citizenship that contested the prevalent anti-colonial norm of self-determination. Finally, it is argued that in an authoritarian context, imperial and colonial reforms re-enacted and reconfigured, instead of abolishing, a juridical order shaped by acute racial inequalities and discrimination but that, nonetheless, made prevention of daily abuses and violence more effective.

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Settler ‘total archives’: J. J. Ghaddar, ‘Total archives for land, law and sovereignty in settler Canada’, Archival Science, 2020

22Nov20

Access the article here.

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Settlers targeting children: Elisabeth Wesseling, Mavis Reimer, ‘Child Separation Projects as a Strategy of Colonisation’, International Research in Children’s Literature, 13, 2, 2020, pp. 231-241

22Nov20

Access the article here.

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Settler evidence: Emma Cunliffe, ‘The Magic Gun: Settler Legality, Forensic Science and the Stanley Trial’, The Canadian Bar Review, 98, 2, 2020

22Nov20

Abstract: This article assesses the RCMP’s forensic investigation into the death of Colten Boushie, the physical evidence at Gerald Stanley’s trial, and the differential treatment of Indigenous and settler Canadian witnesses throughout the process. The Stanley trial played out against a backdrop of concerns about systemic racism and anti-Indigenous bias within the Canadian legal system. Research also documents that forensic science is vulnerable to cognitive and contextual biases. This article documents how these currents combined in Stanley, such that serious questions arise about the quality of police work in this case; and well-established legal safeguards against wrongful verdicts were not engaged.

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Settlers and fire: Colin R. Sutherland, Pyrogeography in Context: Encountering Wildland Fire in Canadian National Parks, PhD dissertation, York University, 2020

21Nov20

Abstract: The management of wildland fire in North America is premised on fire suppression, as has been the case for much of the last century. As the roles of wildland fire in ecosystem functions are better understood and the adverse impacts of fire suppression are made clear, wildland fire suppression approaches are being re-evaluated. In protected areas such as Canadian national parks, this realization has led to the reintroduction of fire to park landscapes to achieve ecological and risk reduction goals. Through a multi-sited institutional analysis of Parks Canada, this research explores the complex relationship between conservation, fire management, and the maintenance of value in Canadian national parks. In this study I position Parks Canada within the context of Canadian settler colonialism and Canadian national parks as an ongoing component of the relationship between settlers and Canadian territory. I analyze how fire management has developed and is enacted in Canadian national parks and pay particular attention to the practice of prescribed burning as an alternative to full suppression. I argue that the political-economic context of national parks along with the logics of species conservation and so-called ‘ecological
integrity’ narrate contemporary fire management practices in Canada’s national parks. I also show how a set of more-than-human actors, and the process of fire itself, are enlisted to carry out these mandates while also functioning as important companions in identifying the limits of these
contemporary policies. I argue that Parks Canada’s dominion over fire and landscapes that burn is not absolute and that this is a productive context to think-with in the so-called Anthropocene.

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Settlers paying the rent: Ester Topolářová , ‘Creating Constitutive Solidarity in Seattle: Praxis between the Duwamish Tribe and the Real Rent Duwamish Movement’, Identity, 2020

21Nov20

Abstract: Solidarity is valuable praxis in this unequal world. The Real Rent Duwamish movement stands in solidarity with the federally unrecognized Duwamish Tribe. Real Rent Duwamish asks people who live in the Seattle area to pay rent as a way to redistribute resources and recognize continuous colonization. As a white European who sought to stand in solidarity, I wanted to learn about such praxis. I approached it through the intertwined concepts of transformative recognition and redistribution. Through research with the Real Rent Duwamish, I identified the praxis pertaining to each concept and the interconnections between them. Analyzing secondary sources, I will show that redistribution without recognition does not hold a transformative potential. Building on the transformative recognition/redistribution, I will show how the Duwamish Tribe and the Real Rent Duwamish movement partake in constitutive solidarity. Solidarity praxis, thus, has the potential to be constitutive and foster long-term solidarity while allowing for collective and separate development of both groups and transfer of responsibilities without neglecting the underlying solidarity mechanisms.

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Demanding: Sophie Rudolph, ‘Demanding dialogue in an unsettled settler state: implications for education and justice’, History of Education Review, 2020

21Nov20

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to examine the educational impulses and effects of Indigenous dialogue with the settler colonial state. Taking the Uluru Statement from the Heart, devised in May 2017 by a convention of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, as a starting point, and contrasting this with the 1967 Referendum campaign for constitutional reform, the paper explores the role of multiple forms and contexts of education during these processes of First Nations dialogue with the settler state. The paper demonstrates how education provided by the state has been used by First Nations peoples to challenge education systems and to dialogue with the settler state for Indigenous recognition and rights. It also illuminates the range of views on what education is and should be, therefore, contesting the neat and settled conceptions of education that can dominate policy discourse. Finally the historical cases show the deficiencies of settler state education through its failure to truthfully represent Australian history and its failure to acknowledge and confront the entirety of the consequences of settler colonial practices.

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