settler colonial studies blog

On settler colonialism and geography: Magid Shihade, ‘The place of Israel in Asia: settler colonialism, mobility, memory, and identity among Palestinians in Israel’, Settler Colonial Studies, 2015

19Apr15

Abstract: This research is part of an initiative by the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) on ‘transregional inter-Asian connections and contexts that aims at recoceptualizing and rethinking Asia, in order to go beyond the territorial and conceptual fixities of area studies that divide the region into East, West, South, Southeast’, and which moreover exceptionalizes one part of Asia – The Middle East – with a name that has no connection to the geography of the region. This has also led some states to fall in the cracks between these regions and sub-regions, an issue that raises many questions I will explore in this research.

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Imagining indigenous disappearance durimng the global ‘settler revolution’: Sarah Thomas, ‘Allegorizing extinction: Humboldt, Darwin and the valedictory image’, in Fae Brauer, Serena Keshavjee (eds), Picturing Evolution and Extinction, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015

19Apr15

Abstract: In the first half of the nineteenth century the writings of the great naturalist Alexander von Humboldt began to propel European artists to travel to all corners of the globe. Humboldt would also inspire another young traveller, Charles Darwin, whose revolutionary theory of evolution would come to overturn the concept of a divine universal order devised by his mentor. This essay focuses on a group of mid-nineteenth-century paintings poised between the Humboldtian and Darwinian world views which allegorised the extinction of indigenous peoples, those by the itinerant Germanic artists Eugene von Guérard in Australia, and Albert Bierstadt in North America. Elegiac and melancholic, the paintings represented their indigenous subjects in deep shadow, set against the dying light of sunset: their foreboding message was one of inexorable decline. As such they actively participated in the pervasive—and profoundly flawed—extinction discourse which throughout the nineteenth century held that all ‘savage’ races were doomed ineluctably to perish. I argue that the paintings engaged in what James Clifford has termed ‘salvage ethnography’, yet ultimately—if unwittingly—their message contributed to the unparalleled global decimation of indigenous peoples which scarred the imperial age.

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Looking at a settler society from another: Elizabeth Rechniewski, ‘The Perils of Proximity: The Geopolitical Underpinnings of Australian Views Of New Caledonia In The Nineteenth Century’, Portal, 12, 1, 2015,

15Apr15

Excerpt: The close relationship that once existed between these far-flung outposts of European empire has largely been forgotten, yet in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries New Caledonia loomed large in Australian preoccupations and imagination. The links between these two imperial colonies were much stronger than we might realise today: a web of interdependent commercial and personal relations underpinned a complex relationship that oscillated between rivalry, suspicion and the recognition of interests held in common by European settlers who were each other’s closest neighbours.

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On the prospected closure of remote indigenous communities in Australia: Ruth DeSouza, ‘The closure of remote Aboriginal communities: What is the role of nurses in Indigenous disadvantage?’, 2015

15Apr15

Excerpt: The view expressed by Tony Abbott (Prime Minister and the Minister for Indigenous Affairs), that taxpayers shouldn’t be expected to fund the “lifestyle choices” of Aboriginal people living in remote regions in support of Colin Barnett’s (West Australian Premier) decision to close 150 remote Aboriginal communities in Western Australia reflects the repetition of the colonial project and Aboriginal dispossession. One of the mythologies of a white settler society is that white people are the first to arrive and develop the land, with colonisation a benign force (rather than one enacted through the processes of conquest and genocide and displacing the indigenous (Razack, 2002)). Closing the community draws attention away from governmental failures to ‘Close the Gap’ and instead displaces the blame on the supposed inadequacies and problems of Aboriginal communities (Amy McQuire) thereby individualising socio-political inequalities rather than revealing them as historic and structural.

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On indigenous voting: Jean Schroedel, Ryan Hart, ‘Vote Dilution and Suppression in Indian Country’, Studies in American Political Development, 29, 1, 2015, pp. 40-67

15Apr15

Abstract: The struggle for Native American voting rights has lasted more than two centuries. Although the 1924 Indian Citizenship Act granted citizenship to indigenous peoples born within the geographic boundaries of the United States, it did not ensure the right to vote. Because the Constitution gives states the power to determine the “times, places, and manner of holding elections,” many states statutorily denied Native Americans the franchise until federal lawsuits forced them to change. Having the statutory right to vote, however, did not ensure that it could be exercised in a meaningful way. Since the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act there have been more than ninety voting rights cases involving Native Americans. While the overall historical trend has been toward extending the vote, periods of enhanced voting rights often have been followed by periods of retrenchment. In this article, we argue that the traditional frameworks used to explain racial inequalities fail to account for the unique character of relations between indigenous peoples and the U.S. government, and we propose a tripartite approach that draws from studies in core–periphery development and “racial institutional orders,” but also considers the many ways that tribal identities intersect with these.

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Researching indigenous peoples and sovereignty: Vigdis Stordahl, Grete Tørres, Snefrid Møllersen, Inger-Marit Eira-Åhren, ‘Ethical guidelines for Sami research: the issue that disappeared from the Norwegian Sami Parliament’s agenda?’, International Journal of Circumpolar Health, 74, 2015

15Apr15

Abstract: Background. In recent decades many indigenous communities, policy makers and researchers worldwide have criticized the academic community for not being aware of the specific challenges these communities have faced and still are facing with regard to research. One result of the decades of discourse in indigenous communities is the development in many Western countries of indigenously sensitive ethical research guidelines. In 1997 the Sami Parliament (SP) in Norway reached a unanimous decision that ethical guidelines for Sami research had to be drawn up. Such guidelines are however still to be created.

Objectives. The objectives of this article are to enquire into what happened to the Norwegian SP’s decision of 1997 and to reflect on why the issue seems to have disappeared from the SP’s agenda. Finally, we consider whether research ethics is to be a subject for the research community only.

Methods. A review of parliamentary white papers on research and SP documents relating to research ethics.

Findings. The response to the SP’s decision in 1997 took place in two different channels, both of them national, namely the research ethics channel and the political channel. Thus, there were actually two parallel processes taking place. In spite of nearly two decades of reports, the concept of the participation of indigenous communities in research is still not an integral part of Norwegian ethical guidelines.

Conclusions. The issue of indigenously sensitive research ethics seems to have disappeared from the SP’s agenda and the research ethics review system with regard to Sami research is with minor adjustments the same as when the SP asked for a revision.

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An instant classic on settler colonialism as a global formation that shapes the present: Mahmood Mamdani, ‘Settler Colonialism: Then and Now’, Critical Inquiry, 41, 3, 2015, pp.

14Apr15

Excerpt: For students of settler colonialism in the modern era, Africa and America represent two polar opposites. Africa is the continent where settler colonialism has been defeated; America is where settler colonialism triumphed. My interest in this essay is the American discourse on the making of America. My ambition is to do this from an African vantage point.

Europeans who came to the New World were preoccupied with the ways in which it was not like Europe. Over the centuries that followed, there developed a body of work known as American exceptionalism. The benchmark text for this scholarship is the mid-nineteenth-century reflec tion on America by Alexis de Tocqueville. Democracy in America remains required reading in most programs in political theory or American politics. Among the arguments Tocqueville advanced in Democracy in America was that the key feature distinguishing America from Europe was the ab sence of feudalism; not tied down by the baggage of feudal tradition, America could enjoy the benefits of revolutionary change without having to pay its price. My concern here is less with Tocqueville than with how the Tocquevillians understood him.

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Patrick Wolfe’s new books

12Apr15

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On indigenous dilemmas: Kyle T. Mays, ‘Can We Live – And Be Modern?: Decolonization, Indigenous Modernity, and Hip Hop, Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 2015

12Apr15

Excerpt: Quite frankly, living as an Indigenous person in the United States of Amerikkka is difficult. For me, adding my blackness to the mix makes it even more challenging. But this essay is not about the difficulty of living in a settler colonial society, where we live in a constant state of occupation/colonialism/racism and other forms of violence; that is a fact of life for all of us (to varying degrees): Indigenous, Black, white–everyone. Instead, this essay is specifically about how we–Indigenous people–relate to one another, and how we understand ourselves living in contemporary society, as modern subjects.

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On the settlers of Kenya: Brett L. Shadle, The souls of white folk: White settlers in Kenya, 1900s–1920s, Manchester University Press, 2015

12Apr15

Description: Kenya’s white settlers have been alternately celebrated and condemned, painted as romantic pioneers or hedonistic bed-hoppers or crude racists. The souls of white folk examines settlers not as caricatures, but as people inhabiting a unique historical moment. It takes seriously – though not uncritically – what settlers said, how they viewed themselves and their world. It argues that the settler soul was composed of a series of interlaced ideas: settlers equated civilisation with a (hard to define) whiteness; they were emotionally enriched through claims to paternalism and trusteeship over Africans; they felt themselves constantly threatened by Africans, by the state, and by the moral failures of other settlers; and they daily enacted their claims to supremacy through rituals of prestige, deference, humiliation and violence. The souls of white folk will appeal to those interested in the histories of Africa, colonialism, and race, and can be appreciated by scholars and students alike.

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