Colonial Practices Research Articles

Of Goavddis and Runic calendars

Sámi artefacts are today exhibited in numerous European museums. Since the Renaissance, members of the educated elites were fascinated by the North and acquired Sámi items for their private cabinets of curiosities. Over the centuries most of these collections were dispersed. In a few cases though, some of the items once in these modern collections re-emerged from the past, to be displayed in contemporary museums. This is the case for a few Sámi artefacts currently part of Italian and Vatican collections: a goavddis and a Sámi runic calendar. The paper retraces the stories and histories of these objects, addressing colonial practices and ideologies connected with the acquisition of Indigenous artefacts in Modern Europe. In doing so, this contribution highlights how the presence of these coveted commodities in early museums bore witness to entangled colonial histories.

My pronouns are fuck ICE: on the colonial gender continuum, colonial dysphoria, and loving illegality

This paper examines the role of the Multicultural Community Center (MCC) at the University of California, Berkeley in fostering inclusivity for trans-Latinx students, with a focus on Afro-Latinx and Abya Yala Indigenous students. It explores the emotional and social impacts of recognizing trans identities within educational settings, assessing how these recognitions interact with broader transgender inclusion practices. The study introduces the “Colonial Gender Continuum” framework to highlight the pervasive colonial influences on gender equity efforts, emphasizing the complex realities trans students navigate. Through detailed narratives, it reveals the intersectional challenges faced by trans Black, Indigenous, and Students of Color (BISOC), including colonial dysphoria—a profound psychological turmoil rooted in the historical and ongoing colonial impacts on gender identity. This condition exacerbates the struggles of trans students, highlighting the need for educational practices that address and rectify colonial practices in gender equity efforts.

Transnational and Decolonial Feminist Insights Into the Neoliberalization of Estonian Academia

Since the 1990s Estonia has been characterized by the acceptance of neoliberal values, as an antidote to the Soviet past. Neoliberal practices, like quantification and market- orientation, have permeated most spheres of society, including academia. There has been very little critical reflection on the epistemic inequalities created by this academic model for Estonia as a semi-peripheral country. In this article, the authors aim to place the neoliberalization of academia within a broader framework of colonial practices within global knowledge production, continuing their previous work on the blind spots of transnational feminism and intersections of feminisms and neoliberalism. Building on insights developed within transnational and decolonial feminism, the authors propose three interventions into neoliberal academic culture: telling better stories, practicing slow scholarship to tease apart complex colonial entanglements and using creative writing practices.

Wardian case, glass, and fountain: A reflection on the history of shopping mall in Hong Kong

This article examines the history of Hong Kong's shopping malls by exploring the complex relationship between colonialism, capitalism, and localism, which shape the temporary nature of these malls. We trace the origins of modern retail spaces to the colonial practice of transporting plants using Wardian cases, revealing how colonial influences are embedded in mall design. By analyzing the use of glass, we demonstrate how it facilitates the flow of desire and capital. Using a music fountain in a Sha Tin mall as a case study, we highlight the tension between malls as nonplaces and the local community's desire for meaningful experiences, resulting in malls becoming spaces for political protests in recent years in Hong Kong.

The Franco-Algerian War: Narrating the Failure of the French Imperialist Project in Norman Lewis’s Darkness Visible (1960)

This article examines the political attitude towards representing French colonialism to Algeria during the Franco-Algerian war (1954-1962) in Darkness Visible (1960) by the Welsh-British Norman Lewis. It probes how Lewis’s novel portrays French colonial project, which was intended to bring civilization to Algerians, as a failure through raising an anti- colonial thought. In the novel, the Mission does not only fail to achieve the goals of its agenda, but also fails in the sense that it exposes more negative consequences of exploitation, oppression, and cultural destruction of the colonized people. The paper also scrutinizes Lewis’s use of immediacy of the narrative and Manicheanism in characterization as literary device to critique French colonial practices against the natives; while, in parallel, Lewis highlights the aspect of nationalist mobilization to unearth the legitimacy of the Algerians fighting for liberty. Therefore, this article ventures thematically into Darkness Visible within anti- colonial discourse parameters. Keywords: Darkness Visible, Franco-Algerian war, immediacy and Manicheanism, nationalist mobilization, Norman Lewis

Hopeful, but Worried for the Future: An Analysis of the Lived Consequences of Colonisation as Narrated by Older South Sámi in Norway

Various forms of colonisation and discrimination processes are unfortunately common to Indigenous Peoples worldwide. In this article, the focus is the lived consequences of colonisation in the Norwegian part of Sápmi (the Sámi traditional lands), where systematic state-imposed colonisation officially ended decades ago. Thus, based on a thematic analysis of qualitative in-depth interviews with 12 South Sámi aged 67–84, the aim was to examine how stories about hopes and worries for the future can shed light on how colonisation is experienced among older South Sámi today. The voices of these participants are important, as they can be considered triply muted, due to (a) ageism and (b) continued yet unconscious colonising practices against the Sámi in general and (c) against the South Sámi people in particular, a minority within the minority. Inspired by decolonising perspectives, this article reveals that older South Sámi are worried for the future, not only due to memories from the past but also their experiences with persisting colonial practices such as the ongoing enlargement of windmill parks and cabin areas in the midst of the winter pastures of the South Sámi reindeer herders. Hopefully, the time has come to finally put an end to colonial practices and take collective responsibility for creating a more just future for both coloniser and colonised. Similarly to the participants in this study, the report from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission also stresses issues such as loss of language, experience of racism, and reindeer husbandry being under pressure. This report may therefore be used as an important tool to ameliorate the conditions of the Sámi people if taken into consideration in the time to come.

Community-led water governance: Meanings of drinking water governance within remote First Nations and Métis communities in Saskatchewan

Access to safe drinking water remains a significant challenge for many Indigenous communities in Canada, particularly for remote communities. This stems from historic colonial practices of water governance that have relied on Western worldviews and excluded Indigenous Peoples. Using an Indigenist research framework and a Community-Based Participatory Research design, we, as Indigenous and non-Indigenous collaborative research team wanted to learn from remote Indigenous communities, including Star Blanket Cree First Nation and the Cumberland House Village at the Treaty 4 and 5 territories (known as Saskatchewan) that have not been adequately represented in water governance. Following this, we used storytelling and deep listening to engage seven Elders and knowledge-keepers from the two communities. The findings show Indigenous People have spiritual and historical worldviews and practices surrounding water and its governance. Promoting Indigenous worldviews in water governance is critical to enhancing access to safe drinking water within the two communities. Therefore, reviving and reconnecting Indigenous drinking water governance promotes community healing and water protection. Insights from this paper propose a meaningful bridge between Western and Indigenous perspectives and the capacity to govern water through deep and complex practices and meanings of water governance.

Indigenous and colonial influences on Amazonian forests

Societal Impact StatementGlobal climate models that incorporate carbon sources and sinks usually consider that forest uptake of carbon is in a state of equilibrium. Both historical and paleoecological records suggest that this is commonly not the case for Amazonia. Here, the impacts of colonial practices on Amazonian Indigenous peoples and forests are reviewed. Human activities affect forests' successional stages, trajectories, and species composition. By increasing the spatial coverage of paleoecological records that focus on pre‐ and post‐Columbian periods, the long‐term interactions between humans and Amazonian forests and their role in affecting Earth's climate may be better understood.SummaryLegacy effects left by the activities of Indigenous people in Amazonia are well known. Although severe, widespread, and recently occurring, the impacts left post‐1492 CE have been less investigated. We review the impact of colonial practices on Indigenous peoples and Amazonian forests. We suggest that forests comprise the sum of their past events, in a mosaic of different cumulative successional trajectories depending on the type, frequency, intensity, and timing of human influence. In regions with a history of minimal human influence, old‐growth species sensitive to fire would be the dominant landscape. In regions with high pre‐Columbian and low colonial influence, old‐growth forests carrying pre‐Columbian ecological legacies would be prevalent. Regions occupied by Indigenous groups post‐1492 CE would also carry similar ecological legacies. In regions influenced by the Jesuits, mid‐successional forests are expected to be enriched with cacao trees. In regions of latex extraction during the rubber boom, mid‐growth forests would present high abundances of early and mid‐successional species and depletion of some species. In deforested areas, we expect early successional forests with influence of exotic useful species. This patchwork of history probably plays a large role in shaping today's forests, and the biodiversity and carbon dynamics documented within them. Paleoecological work focusing on the last millennium, although scarce, has the potential to detect these mosaics of past human influence, and they should be considered when estimating forest ages and successional stages across the basin.

On the researcher as parasite

An Australian reimagining of the Aesop fable of the fox, the flies and the hedgehog introduces critical exploration of spatial planning-related imaginaries whereby practices of settler colonialism and urban expansion have caused disruption and destruction of hundreds of thousands of human and other-than-human lives. The argument is grounded in Serres’ concept of the parasite, questioning what type of parasitic relationship spatial planning has with its more-than-human context. Resetting the coordinates of planning practice through a relational transversal approach is proposed. Transversality is a vehicle of rupture and convergence constituted through events and alliances as temporary resting places in which the agential capacities of humans and other-than-humans are temporarily suspended, so that their relations can be reassembled in a form of inclusive disjunctive synthesis, sensitive to the place and issues involved.

Advancing equity in cross-cultural psychology: embracing diverse epistemologies and fostering collaborative practices.

Psychology, and cross-cultural psychology (CCP) in particular, plays a pivotal role in understanding the intricate relationship between culture and human behavior. This paper sheds light on the challenges of inequity and marginalization, especially concerning scholarship from the Global South, which have roots in historical colonial practices. It highlights how intellectual extractivism and the predominance of Western research methodologies often overlook the contributions of Global South scholars and indigenous ways of knowing. Such imbalances risk narrowing the scope of psychological inquiry, privileging American and European perspectives, and undermining the richness of global human experiences. This paper calls for a shift toward more equitable collaborations and the recognition of diverse epistemologies. By advocating for genuine representation in research and valuing local knowledge, it proposes pathways for a more inclusive and authentic exploration of human behavior across cultures.

Future-fit and Innovative School Leadership in the African Context: Lesson for Sustainability in Underdeveloped and Developing Countries

ABSTRACT This study explored a future-fit scoping review from the perspective of leadership in schools within the context of Africa. A qualitative method was adopted for the study following a search of four databases, using specific key terms. Sequel to the search, articles were retrieved, coded and thematically analyzed. The findings of the study showed that while past colonial practices influence the current practices in the education system and societies of countries in Africa, the Fourth Industrial Revolution, together with its challenges, influences the envisaged future. Thus, curricula revision for alignment, and investment in human capital development and technology is needed.

Shauri, Images of Arabs, and Representation of Colonial Hierarchies in the Visual Sources of German East Africa

The article deals with the display of colonial hierarchies in the shauri scene (in German colonial practice shauri was a council, a meeting of the administration of the colony and local residents, where the decisions of the administration were announced and brought to the attention of the population; a court and other meetings with the participation of locals were called shauri too) in the visual sources of the German East Africa, namely on postcards, in photography, sketches, illustrations of memoirs, and on the so-called trading cards. Studying of these sources shows that the position in space and postures of shauri participants are never random: they demonstrate dominance, the presence of might, or, conversely, subordination, and reflect the balance of power that is relevant both for specific participants in the meeting and sometimes for the entire region. Significantly, in this expression of dominance, the Arab-Swahili component of the German East Africa population occupies a special place. Artistic and compositional means emphasize the significant influence of Arabs and Arabized Swahili on shauri; sources depicting them outside the council scenes also demonstrate visual superiority over African inhabitants of the colony. It turned out that there are stable contexts in which Arabs appear in the visual sources, notably in the scenes depicting trade, markets, and slave trade. The constant topos of Arabs’ connection with slavery and their role as brutal slave traders in German verbal and visual colonial discourse is also embodied in the shauri scenes and in the general visual material. These sources allow us to trace the reflection of the racialized and hierarchized picture of the world of both the German colonialists and the local Arab and Arab-Swahili elite.

Excavating Whiteness in the African Archive: The Story of Amandus Johnson's 1920s Expedition to Angola for the Penn Museum

AbstractAs we further seek to “decolonize” museum images of Africa, the museum archives of African Collections—the correspondence, ledgers, diaries, photographs, and other documents of White explorers working in Africa—suture the colonial practices that produced ways of seeing Africa—and Blackness more broadly—back onto the objects that museums maintain and display today. As increasing scholarly attention seeks to rectify the anti‐Black colonial violence of the archive, this research aims to situate the pedestrian colonial ethnographic practices and spectacular African explorer mythmaking found in museum archives within the foundation of museum anthropology and the museum itself. It also looks to the possibilities of contemporary museum practice to reframe and repair colonial museum constructions of Africa.

RACIAL INEQUITY IN GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE AND GENTRIFICATION: Challenging Compounded Environmental Racisms in the Green City

AbstractThis article explores the role that green gentrification plays in exacerbating racial tensions within historically marginalized urban communities benefiting from new environmental amenities such as parks, gardens, waterfront restoration and greenways. Building on extensive qualitative data from three cities in Europe (Amsterdam, Vienna, Lyon) and four cities in the United States (Washington, Austin, Atlanta, Cleveland), we use thematic analysis and grounded theory to examine the complex relationship between historical environmental and racial injustices and current racial green inequities produced by the green city agenda. Our analysis also offers insights into the main differences in how community members articulate concerns and demands over racial issues related to green gentrification in Europe versus North America. Results show that urban greening—and green gentrification specifically—can create ‘compounded environmental racisms’ by worsening racial environmental injustices and further perpetrating green racialized displacement, re‐segregation and exclusion. The latter is produced by the racial inequities embedded in green infrastructure projects and the related unequal access to environmental benefits, affordable housing, political rights and place‐making. Moreover, we find that settler colonial practices combined with persisting exposure to toxins and re‐segregation in the United States together with neocolonial spatial and social practices in Europe shape how racialized community members perceive and interact with new green amenities.

A conversation towards post-colonial futures for disaster risk reduction in South Asia

PurposeThis conversation highlights the need to rethink how we approach disaster risk reduction in different South Asian contexts.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is based on the webinar held as part of Asia Week at the University of Copenhagen which was organised by Asian Dynamics Initiative and Copenhagen Centre for Disaster Research on the September 12, 2023.FindingsThe prominent themes emerging from this conversation represents hybridity, self-rule and self-recovery. Along with this we suggest a fundamental turn to ensuring hope, solidarity and empathy is part of a post-colonial future.Originality/valueThe conversation contributes to the ongoing discussions on moving away from colonial practices in disaster risk reduction and disaster studies broadly.

As the Nile Flows or the Camel Walks

Abstract Between 1884–1885, Britain requested a contingent of boatmen – “voyageurs” – from Canada to assist transport troops and supplies through the Nile's system of cataracts (rapids). The expedition's cross section of participants included Egyptians, Sudanese, roughly one hundred indigenous subjects from Canada and subjects from across Britain's empire. Primary sources authored by four participants are central to understanding how the role of travelogues and their accompanying illustrations and photographs combine with discourses of imperialism to establish a foundational framework for the discursive practice of colonialism. Two authors – Louis Jackson's Our Gaughnawagas in Egypt (1885) and James D. Deer's The Canadian Voyageurs in Egypt (1885) – were members of the Mohawk community of Kahnawake near Montreal, Quebec. This visual essay is interested in the way in which indigeneity is produced through contact and exchange under conditions of imperial conquest. It intersperses maps, historical illustrations, photographs, fragments of musical transcription texts and travelogues that were produced in Canada, Britain, Egypt, and Sudan during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Absence makes the heart grow colder: the harmful nature of invisibility of contemporary American Indians

ABSTRACT In settler colonial societies, settlers employ various practices to eliminate, replace, and erase Indigenous Peoples. We posit that the rarity of representations of contemporary American Indians in mainstream US culture legitimates other settler colonial practices in US society. We studied whether less exposure to representations of contemporary American Indians is associated with less support for challenges to other settler colonial practices. Using survey data from 903 White Americans, we examined associations between exposure to representations of contemporary American Indians, belief that American Indians are “a people of the past”, and support for challenges to settler colonial practices. We found that less exposure to representations of contemporary American Indians was indirectly associated with less support for challenges to settler colonial practices. This association occurs via double mediation – first through belief that American Indian Peoples are not contemporary and second through belief they are “a people of the past”.

Community Risk and Resilience to Wildfires: Rethinking the Complex Human–Climate–Fire Relationship in High-Latitude Regions

Community risk and resilience to high-latitude wildfires has received limited conceptual attention, with a comprehensive, integrated framework that unpacks the complex human–fire–climate relationship in high-latitude environments largely missing. In this paper, we use insights from both the climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction literature to build a conceptual framework to understand the factors and dynamics of risk and resilience to wildfires at the community level in high-latitude regions. Using an illustrative case study, the framework demonstrates how unique social and ecological features of high-latitude communities elevate their risk of wildfires and emphasizes the need to think holistically about the different spatial–temporal interactions and interdependencies between fire, humans, and climate in these regions. We find that remoteness, indigeneity, subsistence-based activities, and colonial practices, along with accelerated climate warming, are notable features influencing community risk and resilience to wildfires in high-latitude regions. This framework can help unravel the complex nature of wildfires, guide stakeholders through each phase of the disaster process, and facilitate the development and design of wildfire-related policies and strategies in high-latitude regions.

Exploring ethical space in land use planning

ABSTRACT Planning theorists have long called for planning practices that interrogate dominant power imbalances. However, planning policy and practice would benefit from clear frameworks to implement ethical decision-making in land use planning. Ethical Space, a conceptual approach used to balance power between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, may prove to be a critical intervention in the modernist and colonial practice of land use planning. This paper considers how land use planners can apply Ethical Space to their work. Research methods included semi-structured interviews with practitioners, document analysis, and reflective practices. Research findings present theoretical and practical advancements for using Ethical Space in planning theory to advocate for respectful planning practice.

Re-storying schools as “research sites” of climate change in the Chthulucene: diffractively reading through the land of a primary school in South Africa

Inspired by Karen Barad’s agential realism and Donna Haraway’s use of the Chthulucene, our paper profoundly troubles and unsettles the humanist subject that has been the cause of so much trouble. Re-turning to a government primary school in Cape Town as the “research site,” we adopt temporal and spatial diffraction as a postqualitative research methodology. The colonial practices related to land ownership, are not in the past, but remain in its be(com)ing. Land “use” in South Africa during Apartheid, was, and still is, a form of violence. Thinking-with Neimanis and McLauchlan, we understand a school as not separate from the phenomenon of climate change, but as one of its sites and as a feminist project. A diffractive image articulates aesthetically and politically how the land as the more-than-human is a significant part of the phenomenon and queers school as a concept and “research site.”