settler colonial studies blog

What is to be done: John Olthuis, On Dismantling Colonialism: An Insider’s Perspective on Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples, University of Toronto Press, 2025

23Jun25

Description: On Dismantling Colonialism challenges conventional approaches to reconciliation, urging Canadians to move away from the notion of assimilation – where Indigenous peoples are expected to conform to the values and structures of settler colonial society. Instead, this book advocates for a true reconciliation: one that fosters the creation of political, economic, social, and cultural spaces where Indigenous nations can self-govern, restore their traditional lands, and live in harmony with the earth according to their own values and beliefs. Through deeply personal reflections on over five decades of activism in the communities of the Dene Nation, Grassy Narrows First Nation, Temagami First Nation and the Innu Nation of Labrador, John A. Olthuis shares his powerful journey of working to dismantle settler colonialism. He brings to light the many neglected blueprints for true reconciliation, including discussions of over 700 recommendations for systemic change put forth by the Penner Report, The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. This book offers a powerful exploration of how the challenging work of dismantling colonialism can be a transformative and deeply healing process for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples alike. On Dismantling Colonialism explores the shift from assimilation to genuine reconciliation, emphasizing the urgent need to create spaces where Indigenous peoples can self-govern, restore their lands, and live according to their own values and traditions.

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Oromo indigeneity against settler colonialism: Muhammad Al-Hashimi, ‘The Indigenous Oromo Nation: Victims of Natural Resource Theft under Abyssinian Imperialism and Colonialism in the Creation of Modern Ethiopia’, Fourth World Journal, 25, 1, 2025, pp. 457-479

23Jun25

Abstract: This paper examines the exploitation of the Indigenous Oromo people’s natural resources without Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC), beginning with the historical subjection and oppression of the Oromo by imperial and colonial forces. It challenges the prevailing narrative of Ethiopia’s 3,000-year independence by showing that its current geopolitical boundaries—formed no more than 175 years ago—resulted from African imperial expansion. Focusing on the Lega Dembi gold mines in southern Oromia, the analysis demonstrates how successive Ethiopian regimes have violated Gujii Oromo human and Indigenous rights through forced gold and silver extraction, precipitating severe environmental harm. Finally, it argues for the Oromo Nation’s accession to the International Covenant on the Rights of Indigenous Nations (ICRIN) and recognition by the Nations Indigenous Court Tribunal (NICT), thereby securing a legal forum to address ongoing FPIC infringements and seek redress for resource-extraction abuses.

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Can genocide be investigated, even if it is slow? Andrew B. Reid, ‘The Slow Genocide of Indigenous Nations and Peoples: Hiding in Plain Sight’, Fourth World Journal, 25, 1, 2025, pp. 247-334

23Jun25

Abstract: British historian Patrick Wolfe opined that settler colonialism is not just an event in history but is structural and, by definition, eliminates to replace over time. Colonial rule and domination often seek the extermination of occupied nations and peoples through forced assimilation and attrition. Despite the fact that colonialism is at its core ethnic cleansing, forced assimilation, and slow genocide, the protracted colonial elimination of original nations and peoples has been largely excluded from the “crime of crimes” by international institutions, the developing law of genocide, and genocide scholars. This article seeks to address that deficiency.

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Settler colonial murder cannot be investigated: Steff King, Ted Palys, annie ross, Gail S. Anderson, ‘Concerns with police practice in investigations into the deaths of Indigenous people in Canada’, Policing and Society, 2025

23Jun25

Abstract: Inadequate death investigations for Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) in Canada are a growing problem. Despite several government initiatives and specialised police task forces, Indigenous families continue to report that investigators fail to conduct complete investigations into their loved ones’ deaths. At the centre of many of these concerns is the role that police play, or do not play, in fulfilling standard investigative procedures. This paper presents a thematic analysis of concerns made by Indigenous people about MMIP investigations in Canada, including three in-depth case studies from Prince Rupert, B.C. and 53 family testimony transcripts from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Women and Girls. Three themes on primary investigative concerns in Indigenous cases emerged including (1) police discrepancies and biases at the time of report intake, (2) failures to collect evidence and information during investigations, and (3) lack of officer communication and support for bereaved families. The discussion throughout identifies the role of the police within these investigative concerns and incorporates cautions from academic literature. The study includes both professional and community recommendations for policing institutions to improve future investigations into the deaths of Indigenous people and support the well-being of the bereaved.

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Posthumanist indigenism: Giulia Magro, ‘Reassembling Skins and Bones: Indigeneity and Posthumanism in Linda Hogan’s Solar Storms’, in María Ferrández-Sanmiguel, Esther Muñoz-González, Carmen Laguarta-Bueno (eds), The Posthuman Condition in 21st Century Literature and Culture, Palgrave, 2025, pp. 165-184

22Jun25

Abstract: While posthumanism has contributed to questioning the foundations of humanism and the process of exclusion it has engendered of those diverging from the universal category of “Man,” numerous scholars have criticized this theoretical approach from Indigenous perspectives. Critics stress posthumanism’s tendency to appropriate Indigenous epistemes without acknowledging them. It thus runs the risk of becoming complicit with colonial violence. Projects of decolonizing posthumanist scholarship argue for a greater engagement with Indigenous studies, fostering a “multiepistemic literacy” (Kuokkanen, Reshaping the University: Responsibility, Indigenous Epistemes, and the Logic of the Gift. University of British Columbia P, 2007). Acknowledging the productive potential of an alliance between Indigenous and posthumanist discourses in reorienting the conversation toward issues of settler colonialism, land sovereignty, and Indigenous self-determination, this chapter aims to apply a lens attentive to both Indigeneity and posthumanism to Chickasaw author Linda Hogan’s Solar Storms. On the one hand, the chapter will focus on representations of taxidermy, deeply tied to colonial violence, which transforms animals into posthuman commodified objects. On the other hand, it will address instances of reassembling skins and bones in acts of regenerative creation, which, unlike taxidermy, acknowledge the need for processes of relational becoming. These combinations of matter constitute a way of envisioning counter-hegemonic modes of being human, relating to the more-than-human, and affirming Indigenous self-determination.

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Dead settler colonialism: Jae Page, ‘The dead as property marker: A legal geography of the cemetery’, Geoforum, 164, 2025, #104345

22Jun25

Abstract: The marked burial of the dead functions as a proprietary claim to land, and the law has legitimized this relationship since ancient times. Contributing to the literature in legal geography and settler-colonialism, this research provides a much-needed examination of the property relationship between the dead and the land. Through a genealogical analysis of cemetery law in the jurisdiction of Ontario, Canada, this study highlights the many practices and materialities that gave rise to the continued and glorified presence of the dead settler. While Canadian society has become increasingly secularized, cemetery law reveals the privileged status of Christian understandings of sacredness. Through the ‘proper’ burial, the grievable life is revealed, and this undoubtedly reflects the image of the powerful.

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Gangs? Eden Maracle, The Urbanization of Warrior Symbolism: Traditional Indigenous Representation in Canada’s Indigenous Gang Culture’, Graduate dissertation, Mount Royal University, 2025

22Jun25

Abstract: Indigenous peoples are overrepresented in the Canadian criminal justice system and are disproportionately involved in gang-related activities. This issue is particularly prevalent in communities such as Winnipeg’s North End, where gang culture has become normalized. The persistence of gang affiliation among Indigenous peoples is rooted in the legacy of colonialism, contributing to systemic marginalization and social dislocation. Through a semi-systematic literature review and visual ethnography, this paper explored the integration of traditional Indigenous symbols within Indigenous gang culture to understand how aspects of Indigenous identity were incorporated into gangs. The research paper revealed that Indigenous gangs incorporated these symbols not only to assert resistance against colonial narratives but also to reclaim historically marginalized aspects of Indigenous identity. The paper concluded that the use of traditional Indigenous symbols in gang culture was a form of cultural reclamation, offering a sense of empowerment through the contemporary use of the warrior. These findings can provide valuable insights for policymakers and community leaders, suggesting that programs focused on positive cultural revitalization could help address gang involvement by providing a sense of cultural identity that no longer needs to be found through gang involvement.

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Sweden’s settler colonialism: Åsa Össbo, ‘On Colonial Past and Present in Sápmi Considering Ideas of the Land of the Future in Northern Sweden’, Journal of Northern Studies, 17, 1, 2025, pp. 13-29

22Jun25

Abstract: Ever since the 1630s and the discovery of silver ore deposits in the alpine areas of Sápmi, Sweden has nurtured settler colonial ideas in relation to Sápmi and the Sami. The first legal settler colonial tool was the Lappmark Proclamation of 1673. However, the vision of “the land of the future” with mining and agriculture proved to be somewhat of a mirage. A second wave of settler colonial ideas came with the industrial breakthrough. As we are now entering the third era of settler colonial ideas, sacrificing Sami lands, rights, and self-determination seems to be a continued strategy of the Swedish state. Once again, entrepreneurs, companies and politicians project the idea of a “land of the future” onto the north and Sápmi. In this article, I describe this phenomenon, which has been—and still is—based on settler colonial ideas, anopticism and sidelining of the Sami and their historical as well as current land rights.

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The settler’s currency: Dror Goldberg, Easy Money: American Puritans and the Invention of Modern Currency, University of Chicago Press, 2023

21Jun25

Description: Economists endlessly debate the nature of legal tender monetary systems—coins and bills issued by a government or other authority. Yet the origins of these currencies have received little attention. Dror Goldberg tells the story of modern money in North America through the Massachusetts colony during the seventeenth century. As the young settlement transitioned to self-governance and its economy grew, the need to formalize a smooth exchange emerged. Printing local money followed. Easy Money illustrates how colonists invented contemporary currency by shifting its foundation from intrinsically valuable goods—such as silver—to the taxation of the state. Goldberg traces how this structure grew into a worldwide system in which, monetarily, we are all Massachusetts. Weaving economics, law, and American history, Easy Money is a new touchstone in the story of monetary systems.

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A hairy question: Taylor Tobias, ‘The Politics of Hair: Challenging the Colonial Legacy of Hair Codes and Defending Diné Hair Sovereignty’, Graduate dissertation, Colgate University, 2025

21Jun25

Excerpt: On his first day of kindergarten, five-year-old Diné (Navajo) student Malachi Wilson was sent home early (2014). Neatly braided down his back, Wilson’s long hair defied F. J. Young Elementary School’s mandate that “boys’ hair shall be cut neatly and often to ensure good grooming.” Although the school eventually gave Wilson a religious exemption for his long hair, many other students were not given the same consideration. Just last year, an eight-year-old Diné boy in Kansas was forced to cut his hair to comply with his elementary school’s hair codes. The pervasive and pathological mistreatment of Diné and other Indigenous students’ hair has motivated this essay. The very existence of hair codes reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of the cultural and spiritual significance of hair—particularly for the Diné people. In the Diné language, it is impossible to say the word “leg” or “hair” because these elements of the body must linguistically be possessed. For example, the Diné stem for hair, – atsii’ cannot occur in speech unless there is a prefix, such as shi – (my) or ni – (your), to designate possession. Such an indication is significant because components of the body, like hair, carry the potential to exert negative and positive influences on an individual throughout their life. In this essay, I refer to the knowledge system that informs Diné people’s conceptions of hair and its dual influence as hair cosmology. Hair cosmologies emerge from mythological stories of human construction and bodily effect. These myths encode communal laws that regulate the manipulation, protection, decoration, and maintenance of one’s hair, thereby establishing a framework for hair cosmology.

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