settler colonial studies blog

On ethnic ‘first’ settlers: Lindy Ledohowski, ‘“White Settler Guilt”: Contemporary Ukrainian Canadian Prairie Literature’, Canadian Ethnic Studies, 47, 4-5, 2015, pp. 67-83

20Dec15

Abstract: Ukrainians have been in Canada for at least 120 years, and in the federal multiculturalism debates of the 1960s and 1970s, Ukrainian Canadian groups were one of the most vocal, pushing for a recognition of other ethnic identities alongside what was at that time the discourse of the day of “two founding nations.” Interestingly, one of the ways that this ethnic group was able to make ground in these federal debates—ultimately leading to the policy shift from Biculturalism and Bilingualism to Multiculturalism and Bilingualism—was by making an argument for “founding fathers” status across the unbroken prairie. While there was a genuine desire for other ethnic identities to be recognized at the federal legal and political levels, there developed a realization by Ukrainian Canadians (and others) of the ways in which the sleight of hand required to place ethnic Ukrainians (among others) as the “first” inhabitants of the prairie space removed the pre-existing Aboriginal presence on that landscape. Many writers grapple with their awkward sense of wanting to honour their forbearers who did, in fact, emigrate and suffer great hardships, while simultaneously recognizing the colonial project that they have been co-opted into. Using contemporary literature, this article theorizes the relationship between the homesteaders and their descen-dents vis-à-vis Aboriginal presences in the prairie provinces. This article articulates four different models that authors use in an attempt to make sense of the simultaneous early presence of Ukrainian settlers and Aboriginal peoples across the Canadian landscape.

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Ethnic settlers in a settler society: Natalia Aponiuk, ‘”… No Longer Quite Ukrainian But Not Quite Canadian Either …”: The Ukrainian Immigrant in Canadian English-Language Literature’, Canadian Ethnic Studies, 47, 4-5, 2015, pp. 49-65

20Dec15

Abstract: Arguably, the first work of Canadian fiction in English to depict Ukrainians was Ralph Connor’s The Foreigner, a Tale of Saskatchewan, published in 1909. Since then, some of Canada’s major writers, including Margaret Laurence, Margaret Atwood, Morley Callaghan, Sinclair Ross, and W. O. Mitchell have depicted Ukrainians in their works. Gabrielle Roy, writing in French, also created Ukrainian characters. Beginning at least in 1954 with the publication of Vera Lysenko’s Yellow Boots, writers of Ukrainian origin began to break through into the pantheon of CanLit. The publication of works by writers of Ukrainian origin increased dramatically following the adoption of Multiculturalism and the resultant infusion of government funding into the “culture industry.”

This article considers the depiction of the Ukrainian immigrant in two plays—Paper Wheat, written by a collective, and Gwen Pharis Ringwood’s A Fine Coloured Easter Egg; in several novels—Frederick Philip Grove’s Fruits of the Earth, Arthur G. Storey’s Prairie Harvest, and Vera Lysenko’s Yellow Boots; and in Gabrielle Roy’s short story “The Well of Dunrea.”

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You cannot buy reconciliation but you should invest in it: Robyn Green, ‘The economics of reconciliation: tracing investment in Indigenous–settler relations’, Journal of Genocide Research, 17, 4, 2015, pp. 473-493

18Dec15

Abstract: The relationship between Indigenous peoples and the settler state remains fraught due to ongoing violence and mistrust. Numerous attempts have been made to ‘reconcile’ this beleaguered relationship over the past three decades. Indigenous peoples have advocated for the decolonization of the settler state and a suitable land base using the language of public investment. In response, settler governments reframe these requests as opportunities for economic investment that is guaranteed to produce self-esteem and social inclusion for Indigenous peoples. This article documents and problematizes an ideological shift whereby holistic decolonial approaches to reconciliation give way to an investment rationale that is used to bypass demands for Indigenous peoples’ jurisdiction and self-determination. The ramifications of this shift are examined in three ‘eras of reconciliation’ (Section 37 Constitutional Talks, Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, reparations for Indian residential school [IRS] Survivors) that also coincide with three types of investment: a) national; b) social; and c) therapeutic.

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Settler colonial genocide and settler colonial ethnogenesis: Tricia Logan, ‘Settler colonialism in Canada and the Métis’, Journal of Genocide Research, 17, 4, 2015, pp. 433-452

18Dec15

Abstract: Although the literature on settler colonialism intends to identify what is specific about the settler colonial experience, it can also homogenize diverse settler colonial narratives and contexts. In particular, in Canada, discussion of the ‘logic of elimination’ must contend with the discrete experiences of multiple Indigenous groups, including the Métis. This article examines relationships between Métis people and settler colonialism in Canada to distinguish how Métis histories contribute to a broader narrative of settler colonial genocide in Canada. Cast as ‘halfbreeds’ and considered rebels by the newly forming Canadian nation-state, Métis peoples were discouraged from ‘illegitimate breeding’. Moreover, their unique experiences of the residential school system and forced sterilization have heretofore been underexplored in historiographies of genocide and settler colonial elimination in Canada. These social, political and racial divisions in Canada are magnified through genocidal structures and they reach a critical juncture between colonialism and mixed ethnicities. At that juncture, groups like the Métis in Canada are within a metaphorical gap or, more accurately, a jurisdictional gap. Colonial treatment of the Métis demonstrates, in part, the broad reach of colonial control and how uneven it is, often to the detriment of the Métis and Indigenous groups in Canada.

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Settler colonial genocide as seen from indigenous eyes: Matthew Wildcat, ‘Fearing social and cultural death: genocide and elimination in settler colonial Canada—an Indigenous perspective’, Journal of Genocide Research, 17, 4, 2015, pp. 391-409

18Dec15

Abstract: This article reviews recent works on Indigenous politics and history in the Canadian context to produce insights about genocide in the Canadian context. The article is situated primarily in the field of Indigenous studies while also drawing on the field of settler colonial studies. It begins with contemplation of the concept of genocide and related terms in the Canadian context. The author suggests that it is useful to apply the concept of elimination developed by Patrick Wolfe to studies of genocide. The article then turns to Mohawk Interruptus with significant emphasis placed on how author Audra Simpson theorizes the concept of ‘refusal’ and the ‘fear of social and political death’. The last part of the article focuses on two books that examine the late nineteenth-century northern plains: Metis and the Medicine Line by Michel Hogue and Clearing the Plains by James Daschuk. These books succeed in detailing the great changes that occurred as the fur trade era fell away and a settler colonial regime emerged on the Canadian plains. For Indigenous peoples, these changes had, and continue to have, devastating consequences. Drawing heavily on the insights of Simpson, the second half of the article argues that studying the late nineteenth-century northern plains produces important methodological insights about the study of genocide in Canada.

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On settler colonialism and genocide: Andrew Woolford, Jeff Benvenuto, ‘Canada and colonial genocide’, Journal of Genocide Research, 17, 4, 2015, pp. 373-390

18Dec15

Abstract: This introductory article offers an overview of debates about genocide and settler colonialism in Canada. The argument is presented that Canada, although a marginal case to genocide studies, provides important insights and challenging questions, particularly with respect to the need to decolonize the field of genocide studies.

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On settler colonialism as (urban) planning: Ed Wensing, Libby Porter, ‘Unsettling planning’s paradigms: towards a just accommodation of Indigenous rights and interests in Australian urban planning?’ Australian Planner, 2015

18Dec15

Abstract: Cities and urban settlements in Australia exist on lands that are the traditional lands of Australia’s Aboriginal peoples (The focus of this article is on Aboriginal land claims in our capital cities and regional centres on mainland Australia rather than the Torres Strait, and consequently the term Aboriginal is used throughout except where the context makes it necessary to refer to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander or Indigenous.). Yet the fact of continued Aboriginal presence, ownership and stewardship of Australian territory remains unrecognized in Australian planning. As a result, the profession is yet to grapple in a just and meaningful way with the fact of Aboriginality in Australian cities. Indeed, planning persistently renders Aboriginal people invisible, and perpetuates colonial dispossession. In this paper, we argue that planning in Australia must urgently shift to appreciate these issues, and begin to make amends. This involves understanding how Australian cities and towns can be understood as Aboriginal places, and the contemporary ways in which Aboriginal people are seeking recognition of their rights in cities and towns through processes like native title claims and determinations. We analyse urban native title applications as a key example of the challenges of recognition and the responsibility this lays down to planning and we make some suggestions for how the planning profession, practitioners, scholars and educators might proceed.

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On settler colonialism as cruelty: Bryanne Young, ‘”Killing the Indian in the Child”: Death, Cruelty, and Subject-formation in the Canadian Indian Residential School System’, Mosaic : a Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature, 48, 4, 2015, pp. 63-76

18Dec15

Abstract: Provoked by the religious and state ethos for the Canadian Indian Residential Schools, to kill the Indian in the child, this essay engages Lacanian psychoanalysis and theories of biopolitics to conceptualize processes and practices of subject-formation and self-making within the circuitry of the Canadian Indian Residential School
System.

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On the settler colonialism of subaltern ‘Others’ (on Hawaii as a settler colonial locale): Monisha Das Gupta, Sue P. Haglund, ‘Mexican migration to Hawai‘i and US settler colonialism’, Latino Studies, 13, 2015, pp. 455-480

18Dec15

Abstract: This article examines the significance of the growing presence of Mexican immigrants in Hawai‘i. Drawing on Census Bureau data, qualitative surveys and in-depth interviews, we discuss Mexican immigrants’ experiences as economic and cultural outsiders in Hawai‘i and their encounters with police and immigration enforcement. We argue that Hawai‘i’s case requires an analysis of the role of US settler colonialism and its intersections with racism and economic inequality currently absent in theoretical models developed to understand the volatility that Latinos introduce to Black–White dynamics.

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On the language of settlers (on the need of recalibrating and indigenising): Sten Pultz Moslund, ‘The Settler’s Language and Emplacement in Patrick White’s Voss (1957)’, in Sten Pultz Moslund, Literature’s Sensuous Geographies, Springer, 2015, pp. 153-177

16Dec15

Abstract: Moving on to Patrick White’s Australian novel Voss (1957), the viewpoint shifts from that of imperial conquest in Dusklands and Heart of Darkness to the complexity of place relations in the new settler nation (which we have partially touched on in Blixen’s quasisettler novel). The literature of colonial settlement is unique for the study of the relation between place and language for several interconnected reasons. On the one hand, literature of the settler experience both partakes in colonization by teaching the landscape to speak, to use Carter’s fitting expression (Carter, 1987, 58–59; see also introduction). On the other hand, the language of this literature probes deep into the existential relations between humans, language, and place (whenever it dissents from the colonial utilization of language in possessing the land, whether explicitly or implicitly so). In the 1800s, the relation between settlers and the English language was of course one of unquestioned familiarity, but the relation between the settlers’ language and the land they were settling was new and fraught with difference. It is this state of unfamiliarity, or crisis between language and land, which causes the existential significance of place to break out from the state of silence it occupies in habitual places where place-body-language routinely conjoin seamlessly through the implicitly “shared organization of the sensible” (Rancière), (as we shall see in Chapter 10, the state of crisis goes for the literature of the Caribbean as well.

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