settler colonial studies blog

Writing, mediating, resisting: Authorized Agents: The Projects of Native American Writing in the Era of Removal, PhD Dissertation, University of Michgan, 2015

13Oct15

Abstract: This dissertation examines how Native American writing and performance mediated between tribal nations and colonial institutions during the period of Indian removal. It analyzes collaborative publications by writers, orators, and tribal leaders from four different Indian nations between 1820 and 1860: Sharitarish and Petalesharo (Pawnee); Black Hawk, Keokuk, and Hardfish (Sauk); Peter Pitchlynn (Choctaw); and Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, Peter Jones, and George Copway (Ojibwe). I argue that these authors generated what I call “publication projects”: collaborative forms of writing and speaking that imagined institutional and discursive change through navigating colonial institutional networks. Embracing oral performance, manuscript writing, and print publishing, Native writers asserted themselves within the overlapping networks of colonial and tribal governments and civil society, such as the Office of Indian Affairs, missionary organizations, and educational institutions. As publication in the nineteenth century was not principally the work of addressing disembodied or cross-regional audiences, these Native American publication projects sought to inflect associational networks wherein Indian policy was made and knowledge created, and in which Indian removal was both promoted and debated. Removal-era Native writings and performances therefore register attempts to assert control over publication technologies in order to alternately critique or modify such networks, or to mobilize them to contribute to the work of Indian nation-building. Through collaborative and highly mediated publications, Native writers, speakers, and tribal leaders asserted themselves as “authorized agents,” performing a public and politicized Native presence to claim a place for tribal nations in North America. As situational acts of writing and performance, these projects negotiated and contested the local and regional pressures through which North American settler colonialism manifested.

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International sport as colonising: Christine O’Bonsawin, ‘From Black Power to Indigenous Activism: The Olympic Movement and the Marginalization of Oppressed Peoples (1968–2012)’, Journal of Sport History, 42, 2, 2015 pp. 200-219

13Oct15

Abstract: During the 2012 London Olympic Summer Games, Indigenous boxer and member of the Australian national team Damien Hooper was nearly disqualified from Olympic competition for entering the ring wearing a shirt inscribed with the Aboriginal flag of Australia. National Olympic officials cited charter rule 50, which forbids political, religious, or racial demonstrations inside an Olympic venue, to immediately reprimand this Indigenous athlete for his actions. Using the Hooper example, this paper argues that Olympic principles and governing laws undoubtedly infringe on the fundamental human rights of marginalized and oppressed populations throughout the world. Specifically, Olympic Charter rule 50 categorically sustains the illegal missions of colonizing settler governments that attempt to rule over Indigenous people and their lands. Within the Olympic domain, Indigenous athletes are forced to assume the identity of the colonizing settler citizenry, thereby further validating the political authority of an illegally imposed governing structure.

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Settler colonial orders are gendered orders: Honor Sachs, Home Rule: Households, Manhood, and National Expansion on the Eighteenth-Century Kentucky Frontier, Yale University Press, 2015

13Oct15

Description: On America’s western frontier, myths of prosperity concealed the brutal conditions endured by women, slaves, orphans, and the poor. As poverty and unrest took root in eighteenth-century Kentucky, western lawmakers championed ideas about whiteness, manhood, and patriarchal authority to help stabilize a politically fractious frontier. Honor Sachs combines rigorous scholarship with an engaging narrative to examine how conditions in Kentucky facilitated the expansion of rights for white men in ways that would become a model for citizenship in the country as a whole. Endorsed by many prominent western historians, this groundbreaking work is a major contribution to frontier scholarship.

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On non-settlerist settlers: Dana Rubin, ‘The NonZionist Jewish Settlers of the West Bank’ in Engin Isin (ed.), Citizenship after Orientalism: Transforming Political Theory, Palgrave 2015

13Oct15

Access the book here

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Special forum: ‘Indigenous Histories of The Gilded Age and Progressive Era’, The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, 14, 4, 2015

13Oct15

Access the articles.

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Renaming as decolonial practice: Amanda Murphyao, Kelly Black, ‘Unsettling Settler Belonging: (Re)naming and Territory Making in the Pacific Northwest’, American Review of Canadian Studies, 2015

13Oct15

Abstract: Names can act as daily reminders of a colonial presence. To unsettle Settler origin stories, we strive to reveal the legacy of (dis)possession rooted in naming. As case studies, we consider the attribution of the name Salish Sea, the naming of the Straits of Juan de Fuca and Georgia, and the delineation of national boundaries during the San Juan Water Boundary Dispute. We use these examples to demonstrate the unsettling potential of (re)naming practices. To conclude, we suggest further areas for praxis and research that are situated in a broader context of naming practices.

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With a chapter on the ‘Transnational Implications of Settler Colonialism’: Reinhard Kossler, Namibia and Germany: Negotiating the Past, University of Namibia Press, 2015

12Oct15

Description: 100 years since the end of German colonial rule in Namibia, the relationship between the former colonial power and the Namibian communities who were affected by its brutal colonial policies remains problematic, and interpretations of the past are still contested. This book examines the ongoing debates, conflicts and confrontations over the past. It scrutinises the consequences of German colonial rule, its impact on the descendants of victims of the 1904–08 genocide, Germany’s historical responsibility, and ways in which post-colonial reconciliation might be achieved.

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The contemporary mining frontier: Andrea Procter, ‘Uranium and the Boundaries of Indigeneity in Nunatsiavut, Labrador’, The extractive Industries and Society, 2015

12Oct15

Abstract: When the Labrador Inuit temporarily banned uranium development on their lands in Nunatsiavut in 2008, indigeneity and extractive development seemed to be incompatible. However, as this paper illustrates, the relationship between the two is more complex than a simple dichotomy. Throughout settler colonial history, both colonizers and Inuit have used ideas about indigeneity to support or impede resource development, and to justify, neutralize, or challenge attempts at economic and political control. The production of social categories and boundaries, as illustrated by the history of indigeneity in Nunatsiavut, has long been used for both hegemonic and counter-hegemonic purposes. Indigeneity and extractive industry have developed in tandem as functions of settler colonialism, and their relationship reflects this tangled history, as they exert diverse pressures on Inuit decisions about extractive development in Nunatsiavut.

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On settler colonialism and primitive accumulation: Gabriel Piterberg, Lorenzo Veracini, ‘Wakefield, Marx, and the world turned inside out’, Journal of Global History, 10, 3, 2015, pp 457-478

12Oct15

Abstract: This article focuses on Edward Gibbon Wakefield’s theory of colonization, on Karl Marx’s response to it, and on the role that settler colonialism as a global phenomenon played in shaping their thought. Marx’s rejoinder to Wakefield’s interpretation of an episode in the early colonization of Western Australia, when servants had deserted a wealthy colonist, was a foundational moment in the development of his general argument. Wakefield’s reaction to that episode was to develop the theory of ‘systematic colonization’, which he also proposed as an antidote to the prospect of impending revolution. Marx’s notion of primitive accumulation was entwined with his reading of Wakefield’s project. We argue that their different approaches to colonization, the prospect of settling ‘empty lands’ in other continents, can be seen as the starting points of two different political traditions. While revolutionary traditions are well known, this article outlines another global tradition, a political tradition that refuses reaction and revolution equally, and envisages displacement as the best method to produce social transformation.

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On partnerships as decolonial practice: Randi Newton, ‘Exploring the factors that support cooperative and equitable municipal-First Nation relationships: A case study of the City of Calgary and the Tsuut’ina Nation’, MA Dissertation, Queen’s University, 2015

12Oct15

Abstract: This research examines the factors that influence the emergence of cooperative municipal-First Nation relationships, and explores how these relationships can be sustained and built upon so that they are based on the principles of mutual recognition, mutual respect, sharing and mutual responsibility. Municipalities and First Nations are increasingly collaborating on land use planning, development, and services provision, and municipal officials, including planners, need to consider the role they can have in transforming organisational structures and land use planning practices in a way that will foster collaboration with First Nations. Strong relationships allow for mutually beneficial projects to be explored and undertaken, they reduce the chance for conflict and misunderstanding, and they play an important role in meaningful reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples

This research utilizes a case study of the City of Calgary and the Tsuut’ina Nation to examine municipal-First Nation cooperation, and centres on how the relationship between the two communities evolved during negotiations to construct the southwest Calgary ring road through Nation land. Document review, policy analysis, and semi-structured interviews were used to determine the factors that encouraged the emergence of a cooperative relationship between the two neighbours. The research points to the importance of visionary community leadership in building trust and respect between First Nations and local governments, and in arriving at mutually beneficial outcomes.

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