INDG 101- Lec 2: Colonialism

Which three groups are recognized as Aboriginal People in Canada under The Constitution Act?

First Nations, Métis, and Inuit.

The colonial term "Indian" is primarily associated with which piece of Canadian legislation?

The Indian Act

According to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, how is a single story created?

By showing a people as one thing, as only one thing, over and over again.

According to the Merriam-Webster definition, what is colonialism?

The political domination of a people or area by a foreign state or nation, extending and maintaining control over another people or area.

How does Dr. annie ross describe the philosophy or attitude behind colonization?

The idea that settlers had that whatever land they came to belonged to them by a creator's law, not man's law.

Dr. annie ross states that colonization believes in a _____, as if nothing of value or rights existed in a place before settlers arrived.

myth of emptiness

What is the "myth of the European miracle" as described by Dr. annie ross?

The incorrect belief that everything from Europe was the root of all that was 'good' and 'worthy' on the planet.

According to Dr. annie ross, what is one of the first things colonizers do to places?

They make new names for mountains, rivers, and sacred places instead of recognizing the existing Indigenous identity of those places.

How did colonialism redefine gender roles in the Americas, according to Dr. annie ross?

It replaced maternalism with paternalism and shifted the political focus from the community to the male-dominated single individual.

Dr. annie ross argues that colonialism uses laws, policies, and treaties to do what?

To enforce all other aspects of colonial policy, such as religious intolerance, gender role changes, and resource exploitation.

How is colonialism a form of education, according to Dr. annie ross?

Colonizers are interested in re-creating history to deify themselves, perpetuating myths like "the European miracle."

What is settler colonialism, according to Chelsea Vowel?

The deliberate physical occupation of land as a method of asserting ownership and applying foreign laws and customs to Indigenous Peoples.

Settler colonialism is an on-going process that includes the continued exploitation of land and _____ against Indigenous Peoples.

violence

The term "Other" was formalized during which European intellectual movement to classify and exclude those who do not fit into society?

The Enlightenment (17th – 18th C).

What is a "colonizer"?

Someone who forces others to give up their land, culture, and way of life, or who participates in the ongoing colonial project.

What is a "settler"?

Anyone who settles on Indigenous lands who is not Indigenous to those lands.

The term "settler" is described as a _____ and _____ term, not a racial signifier.

political and relational

Why is settler status considered to be inherited?

Because the structures of colonial domination remain in place to benefit settlers, though not always equally.

According to Snelgrove and Woldenga, what is the purpose of using the term "settler"?

To denaturalize non-Indigenous status, force colonialism into consciousness, cause discomfort, and create a desire for change.

Why does Chelsea Vowel (Métis) argue that the term "settler" cannot refer to the descendants of enslaved Africans?

Because Black people were kidnapped, cut off from their own lands, and legally defined as property, they could not be agents of settlement.

Author Paulette Regan poses a key question in her book "Unsettling the Settler Within." What does she ask non-Indigenous people to do?

How they can unsettle themselves to name and transform the colonizer within through actions, not just words.

What colonial mindset is described as the single story that "Indians" are "in the way" of "progress"?

The Indian Problem

Who coined the term "Perfect Stranger" to describe an excuse used to justify settler ignorance about Indigenous peoples?

Susan Dion

What is the concept of Etuaptmumk (Two-eyed Seeing), as developed by Mi'kmaq Elder Albert Marshall?

Viewing the world with one eye through Indigenous ways of knowing and with the other eye through Western or Eurocentric ways of knowing.

What are the four components of "Peoplehood" as an aspect of Indigenous identity?

Language, territory, sacred history, and ceremony cycle.

What is Canada's system of government, inherited from the British Empire?

consitutinoal monarchy

Who was the first Indigenous person appointed to the role of Governor General of Canada?

Mary Simon (Inuk)

In what year were First Nations people granted the right to vote in Canadian federal elections?

1960

Which was the last province to grant provincial voting rights to First Nations people, and in what year?

Quebec, 1969

How are leaders often selected in traditional Indigenous governance systems?

By inheriting a position or by accepting a name that comes with social responsibilities, rather than by election.

What does the word "Potlatch" mean?

"To give"; it refers to a give-away ceremony or feast.

A Potlatch is a governance practice held to pass on a family's _____, privileges, or inheritance.

rights

Besides passing on rights, name two other reasons a Potlatch might be held.

To celebrate marriages, name babies, honour the deceased, open ceremonial houses, raise poles, or restore one's reputation.

What is a Circle Talk in the context of Indigenous pedagogy?

A form for teaching, learning, sharing, and making decisions by consensus as a group.

What is a Papal Bull?

A decree made by a sitting Pope, the head of the Catholic Church.

The Papal Bull Inter Caetera, signed by Pope Alexander VI in 1493, granted "discovered" lands to which European power?

The Spanish Crown

What is the Doctrine of Discovery?

A legal and religious concept asserting that any land not inhabited by Christians was available for "discovery" and colonization by European monarchies.

The Doctrine of Discovery remains the basis for _____ laws related to land claims and title today.

Canadian

What is Manifest Destiny?

The 19th-century belief that the expansion of the US across the continent was a God-given right and duty, both justifiable and inevitable.

What does the Latin term "Terra Nullius" mean?

"Land without owners" or "land that is not being used."

How was the concept of Terra Nullius used by colonial governments in legal disputes?

As an argument that Aboriginal Title to land did not exist because the land was deemed "empty" or "vacant."