Interpretive Narratives of Settler Colonialism and Indigenous Marginalization

• In Event: Logics of Colonialism and Practices of Emancipation

Abstract

The historical and ongoing marginalization of Indigenous voices, political practices, and political theories in settler colonial states has been well documented. Yet, how should marginalization be explained? Some political theorists have suggested that particular political structures or forms of knowledge/power systematically allow for, or legitimize, ongoing colonial practices, and inscribe Indigenous voices to the margins of the political. Taking up narratives of Indigenous marginalization offered by Glen Coulthard and Karena Shaw, this paper discusses the risks of an explanation of settler-colonialism that maintains structuralist themes. Structuralist narratives usually suggest that Indigenous political movements in and against settler-states are necessarily constrained by certain political systems or forms of knowledge. While such narratives can have significant strategic value, this paper argues that the structuralist themes of narratives of settler-colonialism can reify political conditions or political theories that perpetuate colonial violence. As a consequence, such narratives can overemphasize closures or the futility of Indigenous political action within and against such seemingly immutable structures. This paper offers an alternative historicist and interpretive approach to narrating settler-colonialism, which emphasizes contingency and nominalism. Rather than viewing contemporary politics in settler-states as immutably formed and constrained by structures of domination or marginalization, the marginalization of Indigenous peoples in politics can be explained through analysis of political actors’ beliefs, contextualized by their inherited practices and traditions. In contrast with narratives of marginalization grounded in structuralist assumptions, an interpretive and historicist narrative reveals possibilities for contestation of political practices, power, and beliefs.

Author

• Sophie Major, UC Berkeley