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On indigeneity as deficit: Cameron Greensmith, ‘The management of indigenous difference in Toronto’s queer service sector’, Settler Colonial Studies, 2015

13Sep15

Abstract: While the ‘problem’ and ‘pathological’ logics pinned onto the bodies and minds of Indigenous peoples have been exposed as key contributors to the sustainment of white settler colonialism in Canada, their influence on the practices of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer (LGBTQ) service providers working within queer service provision in Canada has received little scrutiny. This paper, evolving out of the narratives of 41 non-Indigenous LGBTQ research participants, showcases how the biopolitics and necropolitics of settler colonialism percolate within queer service provision in Toronto. I pay particular attention to the narratives of encounters with Indigeneity used to lock Indigenous peoples into ‘deficits’ – used to sustain their invisibility, erasure, and containment. In reviewing the research participants’ narratives, this paper calls for a settler colonial analytic within queer service provision in order to start dialogue surrounding individual and practice approaches and the institutional structures that sustain white settler colonialism. Findings highlight the normative practices used by service providers and the ways in which those practices further white supremacist and settler colonial projects.


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Memorialising settler and nti-settler violence: BBC News, ‘Kenya Mau Mau memorial funded by UK unveiled’, 12/09/15.

13Sep15

Excerpt: The Mau Mau began a violent campaign against white settlers in 1952, but the uprising was eventually put down by the British colonial government.


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Contemporary indigenous-settler relations in Chile: Magdalena Ugarte, ‘Regulating Indigenous-State Relations: Settler Colonialism and the Limits of International Law’, Canadian Political Science Association Conference, 2015

11Sep15

From the introduction: In this paper, I present some preliminary reflections after my recent fieldwork in Chile, which sought to explore the implementation of the duty to consult in the country, in the context of the recent endorsement of UNDRIP in 2007 and C169 in 2008. This initial analysis adds to contemporary debates about the limits and tensions of the international Indigenous rights discourse, and its ability (or the lack thereof) to produce structural transformations. In particular, I question whether these instruments are helping to restructure Indigenous-state relations in the country at some level, or are just reinforcing colonial dynamics in new ways.


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Emphasising hybridity as a management strategy: Paul Moon, ‘The Impression of Hybridised Indigeneity: A History of the United Nations’ Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the Emergence of a Globalised Construction of Indigeneity’, International Journal of Critical Indigenous Studies, 8, 1, 2015 , pp. 32-46

11Sep15

Abstract: The purpose of this article is to examine how the work of the United Nations (UN) nurtures hybridised constructs of indigeneity, especially through the activities of the United Nations’ Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII). This article surveys particular aspects of the literature relating to cultural and indigenous hybridisation, and then applies this to the activities of the UNPFII as a means of interpreting the contribution of the organisation’s work and objectives to portrayals of indigeneity, drawing in the experiences New Zealand’s indigenous Maori as a case study. It concludes that the UNPFII—as a globalising agent—simultaneously promotes the rights of indigenous peoples while masking many of the cultural differences between its constituent members, resulting in a broad conception presented to outsiders of a single, hybridised indigeneity in the international sphere, which is defined and only exists in the hegemonic space created by the UN.


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Mobilising a particular constituency for the purpose of settler colonising: Kelsey Mae Johnson, Performing the Nation at the Frontier: Filipino Immigration and Settlement in Whitehorse, Yukon, MA Dissertation, University of British Columbia, 2015

09Sep15

Abstract: Over the past decade, Whitehorse, Yukon has emerged as a prominent site of settlement for Filipino newcomers to Canada. The phenomenon largely results from the implementation of new immigration policy in Yukon (starting in 2007) combined with regional economic growth, particularly in the mining sector. On the surface, immigration to Yukon – ostensibly ‘employer driven,’ with Filipino newcomers primarily finding employment in the service sector – bears resemblances to trends observed elsewhere in Canada. Yet the service sector Filipino workers who increasingly feature in the Yukon’s economy do so as permanent, not temporary, immigrants with the right to settle in Canada. This thesis explores the implications of this dynamic, situating it at the broader intersection of immigration and settler colonialism. I demonstrate how new narratives of northern settlement are enrolled in nation-building discourses of multiculturalism that circulate in and about Yukon. I stress how policy discourses support the essentialization of First Nations and Filipino histories. I also argue that state policies locate immigrants and local Indigenous peoples in competitive labor dynamics. In effect, Yukon’s immigration policy demonstrates how the governing of difference also involves processes of governing by difference – infusing performances of national belonging with powerful state imperatives.


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On an imperial form that includes settler colonialism: On John Darwin’s The Empire Project: The Rise and Fall of the British World-System, 1830–1970, with papers by Antoinette Burton, Alan Lester, Kirsten McKenzie, Duncan Bell and a reply by John Darwin

09Sep15

Abstract: In an age when both the traditional book form and the world that the British Empire made are arguably in crisis, it is remarkable that big books on British imperialism abound. Contributors to this roundtable assess scale and genre as well as content in their discussion of the claims and impact of John Darwin’s tome, The Empire Project. John Darwin’s response is also included.


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Where the struggle is: Unist’ot’en Camp

09Sep15

Sooner or later, you have to say no.


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Identifying the ‘settler problem’: Emma Battell Lowman, Adam J. Barker, Settler Identity and Colonialism in 21st Century Canada, Fernwood, 2015

09Sep15

Description: Canada has never had an “Indian problem”— but it does have a Settler problem. But what does it mean to be Settler? And why does it matter?

Through an engaging, and sometimes enraging, look at the relationships between Canada and Indigenous nations, Settler: Identity and Colonialism in 21st Century Canada explains what it means to be Settler and argues that accepting this identity is an important first step towards changing those relationships. Being Settler means understanding that Canada is deeply entangled in the violence of colonialism, and that this colonialism and pervasive violence continue to define contemporary political, economic and cultural life in Canada. It also means accepting our responsibility to struggle for change. Settler offers important ways forward — ways to decolonize relationships between Settler Canadians and Indigenous peoples — so that we can find new ways of being on the land, together.

This book presents a serious challenge. It offers no easy road, and lets no one off the hook. It will unsettle, but only to help Settler people find a pathway for transformative change, one that prepares us to imagine and move towards just and beneficial relationships with Indigenous nations. And this way forward may mean leaving much of what we know as Canada behind.


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Internal settler colonialism and history textbooks (the case of Japan): Nicholas Henck, ‘History from Below Japan’s Junior High School History Textbooks and the colonisation of Hokkaidō’, electronic journal of contemporary japanese studies, 15, 2, 2015

06Sep15

Abstract: The scholarly attention that has hitherto been devoted to discussion of Japan’s Junior High School History Textbooks (JJHSHT) has tended to focus almost exclusively on their treatment of the colonisation of Korea and China. Indeed, it appears that the issue of the JJHSHT’s description of the Japanese government’s imperialist ventures in East and South-East Asia has almost completely eclipsed that of these same textbooks’ coverage of the Meiji government’s colonisation of Hokkaidō. This paper then seeks to address one of the most blatant, but least discussed, examples of “victor’s history” concerning Japan—namely, what the JJHSHT euphemistically dub the ‘development’ of Hokkaidō. A textual analysis of all eight government-approved JJHSHT yields interesting results: first, it reveals that they exhibit a degree of variation in their treatment of this subject that is perhaps not commonly associated with these textbooks; and secondly, it exposes both a repeated emphasis on ‘development’ to describe what was in fact colonization, and also a consistent pattern of ignoring, or severely underplaying, the extremely detrimental impact this process had on the indigenous Ainu who experienced it. Indeed, the JJHSHT’s reluctance to heed the alternative perspectives of the minority Ainu fosters historical amnesia by producing historiographies of oblivion, and constitutes a classic example of cultural imperialism. The result is a highly sanitised version of events which substitutes historical reality for a contrived, cosmetic narrative of ‘development’ that lends a veneer of legitimacy to what was in effect plunder. Consequently, what Japanese pupils are being exposed to is a partial, ‘official’ version of history, rather than a nuanced account that finds resonance with the perspective of the Ainu, the testimony of contemporary Japanese eyewitnesses, or the historical narrative produced by modern scholarship.


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Explaining settler committment to a war that was not theirs: Steve Marti, Embattled Communities: Voluntary Action and Identity in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, 1914-1918, PhD Deissertation, University of Western Ontario, 2015

06Sep15

Abstract: This dissertation examines voluntary mobilization during the First World War to understand why communities on the social and geographical periphery of the British Empire mobilized themselves so enthusiastically to support a distant war, fought for a distant empire. Lacking a strong state apparatus or a military-industrial complex, the governments of Australia, Canada, and New Zealand relied on voluntary contributions to sustain their war efforts. Community-based voluntary societies knitted socks, raised funds to purchase military equipment, and formed contingents of soldiers. By examining the selective mobilization of voluntary participation, this study will understand how different communities negotiated social and spatial boundaries as they attempted to project their communal identity through wartime patriotism.

The process of voluntary mobilization allowed communities to organize their efforts in a manner that reflected and projected their collective identity. By deciding the scale and scope of voluntary efforts, controlling who was included or excluded in these efforts, advertising the community’s achievements, regulating who would benefit from these contributions, the organizers of voluntary patriotic work determined how these efforts would fit into the national and imperial war effort. The records and
correspondence detailing the coordination of voluntary contributions reveal the terms by which communities defined themselves through their patriotic efforts.

Yet the extent to which communities could project their identity through their voluntary contributions was mediated by dominion governments, which authorized and accepted voluntary efforts. State authorities determined which communities could mobilize independently, which should be mobilized into an existing effort, and which communities should be prevented from contributing to the war altogether. A comparative study of mobilization in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand will reveal how categories of space, ethnicity, and race factored both in the constructions and negotiations of communal identities, as well as the effacement of marginalized communities.


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