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On Settler Colonialism in Canada: Lands and Peoples
An unflinching examination of the impacts of settler colonialism from first contact to the contemporary nation state.
On Settler Colonialism in Lands and Peoples is the first installment in a comprehensive collection investigating settler colonialism as a state mandate, a structuring logic of institutions, and an alibi for violence and death. The book examines how settler identities are fashioned in opposition to nature and how eras of settler colonialism have come to be defined. Scholars and thinkers explore how settlers understood themselves as servants of empire, how settler identities came to be predicated on racialization and white supremacy, and more recently, how they have been constructed in relation to multiculturalism.
Featuring perspectives from Indigenous, Black, mixed-race, and other racialized, queer, and white European-descended thinkers from across a range of disciplines, On Settler Colonialism in Lands and Peoples addresses the fundamental truths of this country. Essays engage contemporary questions on the legacy of displacement that settler colonialism has wrought for Indigenous people and racialized settlers caught up in the global implications of empire.
Asserting that reconciliation is a shared endeavor, the collection’s final section exposes the myth at the heart of Canada’s constitutional legitimacy and describes the importance of affirming Indigenous rights, protecting Indigenous people (especially women) from systemic violence, and holding the Canadian settler nation state—which has benefited from the creation and maintenance of genocidal institutions for generations—accountable.
On Settler Colonialism in Lands and Peoples is the first installment in a comprehensive collection investigating settler colonialism as a state mandate, a structuring logic of institutions, and an alibi for violence and death. The book examines how settler identities are fashioned in opposition to nature and how eras of settler colonialism have come to be defined. Scholars and thinkers explore how settlers understood themselves as servants of empire, how settler identities came to be predicated on racialization and white supremacy, and more recently, how they have been constructed in relation to multiculturalism.
Featuring perspectives from Indigenous, Black, mixed-race, and other racialized, queer, and white European-descended thinkers from across a range of disciplines, On Settler Colonialism in Lands and Peoples addresses the fundamental truths of this country. Essays engage contemporary questions on the legacy of displacement that settler colonialism has wrought for Indigenous people and racialized settlers caught up in the global implications of empire.
Asserting that reconciliation is a shared endeavor, the collection’s final section exposes the myth at the heart of Canada’s constitutional legitimacy and describes the importance of affirming Indigenous rights, protecting Indigenous people (especially women) from systemic violence, and holding the Canadian settler nation state—which has benefited from the creation and maintenance of genocidal institutions for generations—accountable.
368 pages, Hardcover
Published September 30, 2025
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9 people want to read
About the author
David MacDonald
110 books3 followersDavid MacDonald was born and grew up in southern Ontario.
After studying English Literature at the University of Toronto, David became a writer and editor, specializing in books for young people. In addition to co-authoring A Native American Thought of It (2008), David has written several educational books for young readers, and has edited over 40 books for children, including picture books, fairy tale anthologies, biographies, and nonfiction on a wide variety of topics.
David lives in Toronto, Ontario.
After studying English Literature at the University of Toronto, David became a writer and editor, specializing in books for young people. In addition to co-authoring A Native American Thought of It (2008), David has written several educational books for young readers, and has edited over 40 books for children, including picture books, fairy tale anthologies, biographies, and nonfiction on a wide variety of topics.
David lives in Toronto, Ontario.
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January 30, 2026
This work is an anthology from various scholars in various fields of study writing about settler-colonialism in Canada. They're not all about settler-colonialism all of itself, some essays write about specific subjects related to settler-colonialism in Canada.
I find this work a good introduction to the various debates and concepts in and adjacent to settler-colonialism. I could see why someone would recommend this as an introduction to settler-colonialism itself though I would disagree. The introduction chapter does provide an explanation of both settler-colonialism as a concept/framework as well as a history to the discourse around it, but it is only 8 pages long. There are other books that would work better as an introduction than this one, such as Lorenzo Veracini's "Settler Colonialism: A Theoretical Overview" or "Colonialism in Question: Theory, Knowledge, History" by Frederick Cooper.
The book is divided into four parts: one concerning the Canadian settler state and its violence, one about the structures and sense of colonialism, one on current-day living within the settler society (often from non-white perspectives), and the last in regards to challenge, through an Indigenous focus/lens, the settler state in Canada.
I enjoy reading more about the first parts of the text as they primarily had material analyses and frameworks I either better understood or that I found more engaging. This is not to say that the other chapters were bad, just that I had more personal issues with the form than the content. Many essays in the other parts were autoenthographical.
Now this review will be more detailed. The introduction by David B. A. MacDonald and Emily Grafton (who are also the editors) offers a sound chapter to start, presenting what the text will discus and providing some background detail to the subjects. There are some areas I found issue with. On page xxvi, they were providing definitions to settler colonialism. In it, they wrote "instead of Indigenous self-determination and autonomy ... settlers as the *numerical majority* are largely in control of the state, its intuitions, and its norms" (emphasis my own). Granted, this is about Canada where indeed settlers are the numerical majority but that wasn't always the case. British Columbia only had a settler majority population by the 1890s-1900s while it, as a colony, had existed for far longer (1858). To insinuate that the numerical population is what enables control or defines the colonial relations is wrong. This sentence wouldn't be as offensive as I make it out if it was a one-off that could be brushed away, but it isn't. On page xxx (heh), the first sentence following the sub-header titled "Settler States and Settlers" reads "Settler states are not defined in international law, but social scientists identify these as states where *the majority of the population are descended from those who colonized and settled territories originally inhabited and controlled by Indigenous Peoples*" (emphasis my own). A citation isn't provided for this claim but apparently that's what the nebulous social scientists say. This definition is, of course, ridiculous. Known and infamous settler states such as Rhodesia, South Africa, French Algeria, Liberia, etc would not be classified as settler states under this hogwash definition because they either had a settler minority population or had a rotating settler population (such as the case of Rhodesia, that had settlers moving in and out such never really having a stable or "descended population"). The "descended" aspect is also troubling, are we to say that colonial imposition and popular replacement isn't settler-colonialism if the settlers afterwards aren't biologically related or that settler-colonialism isn't imposed (regardless of material relations) so-long not one baby from some settler is born?
A damning part of language used in this introduction is in regards to current events. The book and its authors tackle genocide, especially as it relates to settler-colonialism and Indigenous peoples. So it comes as a surprise that the editors write "this book is written in the shadow of many conflicts around the world, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the *ongoing violence and death in Gaza*, repressive misogynist rule in Afghanistan under the Taliban, and further conflicts in Sudan, Yemen, Ethiopia, the Sahel, Haiti, and Burma/Myanmar, amongst other places". The elephant in the room being the widely recognized genocide in Gaza by Israel. Israel, a settler-colonial state, conducting a new episode of genocide against Palestinians, the words absent from this book about settler-colonialism. There are more descriptors used for Afghanistan than Gaza. There's misogynist rule, not just misogynist rule but repressive misogynist rule. By who? By the Taliban. What's happening in Gaza? Violence and death. Who's causing the violence and why, who is dying, why and how? I'd be hard-pressed to find a place doesn't have on-going violence and death so why is Gaza here? One wouldn't know without external sources. If I had to guess its crucial absence from the introduction, it might have to do with not wanting to offend one of the writers. My bet would be on Bernie Farber, former member of the Canadian Jewish Congress (now the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs) and noted for protesting the inclusion of Queers Against Israeli Apartheid to the Toronto Pride March. It is unknown why the editors would include Farber (who only collaborated with another author in one chapter), an apologist for a settler-colonial state. Even in 2025, he wrote about the anguish of the hostages but not one word utter about the Israeli destruction of Gaza (https://archive.is/CUzYG) though of course he's a liberal so he supports the Bantustan system. His inclusion does generally lower the quality of this book.
The first part ("Considering Violence and Genocide in the Canadian Settler State"), is tied as being the largest part.
The first chapter by Karine R. Duhamel is interesting in its focus on the word "crisis" and the ways that can limit our understanding of current tribulations (such as the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls), my only gripe would be one passage that essentializes.
James Daschuk, writer of the great work "Clearing the Plains", provides an autoethnographical chapter but the majority of it discusses a specific violent episode around capital punishment and the start of the settler-colonial state in the historic north-west (the Prairies).
David B. A. MacDonald's chapter discusses the importance of the recognition of genocide in Canada and the lacklustre response from the government in regards to this.
Malissa Bryan provides an insightful chapter on the "third" person in settler-colonialism, not the settler or the native but the "arrivant" (that is, the enslaved or coolies). My only issue would be the sentence "there is yet to be a point in history where Black people have 'settled' within Canada because, in the colonial sense, settling necessitates both power and acceptance of that power or position of normativity" (p. 73). While that is true for the majority of Canada, it is not true for British Columbia. There was a period, under James Douglas, when Black Americans were invited to settle the colony. This historical affair didn't last long and failed. What would be interesting to discuss and study would be why this waned and failed (as in, why did the white settler state then dismantle black settlement). This would add more understanding to the dynamics of both settlement and race. This is a bit address in the following page when she mentioned that newly emancipated African Americans were still "[controlled by whiteness], [showering] violence on them, [subjugating] them to widespread poverty, [criminalizing] them, [imprisoning], and [killing] them with umpunity" (p. 74) but historical specifics are always worth investigating especially when looking to dynamics, especially as the historical example I'm discussing started in 1858 (before emancipation in the US). The rest of the essay is better.
Angie Wong's essay is similar though focuses on Chinese labour and Chinese women. An interesting essay on a specific focus. Though she is broad and vague at times, noting she doesn't have the time to discuss exceptions. Which I think is odd.
Part two ("Logics of Empire, Colonialism, and Unsettlement") is the shortest of the book.
Liam Midzain-Gobin provides a voluptuous start with his analysis of the settler-Empire relation in Canada and its racial development. This chapter is a recommended read.
Peter Kulchyski discusses the historiography of colonial Canada as well as a scheme on how to periodize it. Another recommended read.
Ajay Parasram provides a full autoethnography. It starts off as this: "I am a multigenerational, transnational by-product of the British Empire". The content is of interest, talking about the dynamics of internal movement of people for Empire, such as coolies. The writing style is simply not to my taste.
Andrew Woolford writes an interesting essay on how the material relations that supports and produces settler-colonial structures also shapes the way people see their environment. The specific focus on this essay is on water.
Part three is the one tied with part one in length. Titled "Settler Colonial Society: Relating, Reckoning and Uneconciliation"
Chris Lindgren and Michelle Stewart write about police violence in the context of the Canadian settler state and its racialized layer. It is a personal story too as it follows the tragedy of one of the writers' siblings. I'd recommend if one wants to read about police violence in Canada, sources that are harder to come-by due to the sea of sources on police violence in the US.
Fazeela Jiwa writes an autoethnography about identity and a sense of alienation to the imperial displacement. Not a fan of the writing style ("folks" is used unironically along with the phrase "cue eye-roll").
The most unique and interest chapter in my opinion is the one by Jérôme Melançon. Too often are Francophone Canadians comfortable in pretending to be colonially oppressed as Indigenous peoples. I'm a francophone Canadian, I'm allowed to say this. Anyone would be allowed to say it, it's true! Melançon tackles, analyzes and showcases the way in which the micro-state the Francophone Canadians have set up for themselves (in Québec but also outside of Québec as is the focus of the chapter) is also a tool of colonialism. He also talks about the ways francophone Canadians try to "move to innocence" through specific histories they tell and hear. A highly recommend chapter for a topic, francophone communities outside of Québec, that needs more study.
Desmond McAllister writes another autoenthography. On the last page, I wrote "bof".
BB'Chol Dor v'Dor is Len Rudner's and.... Bernie Farber's chapter. They also discuss the importance of recognizing genocide in Canada, but also it's important for them, as Jews, to see some sense of solidarity with Indigenous peoples in Canada. There is a part in the chapter that actually goes like "I thought us Jews were the exception!" ("We [Barnie and his congress] recognized, of course, the reality of other genocides, yet we placed a fence around our own communal tragedy. The pain was too great to be endured, yet at the same time too great to be shared [let's forget about the Rom]" (p. 241). The opening page talks about "approaching this subject [genocide] as Canadians, as settlers, and as Jews" which just means "we're approaching this as settlers, as settlers and as settlers". An actual waste of a chapter.
Part 4 is the shortest in terms of page count but the largest in different authors, as some of these are small poems.
Joyce Green writes about her Indigenous home and the settler structures on-top it but has a contradictory statement in it. She writes about how settlers shouldn't come in inter-Indigenous land disputes and pick sides but also says to settlers to not recognize the other Indigenous nations that claim (have land dispute) with her nation, picking a side (p. 269). It was interesting but that along took away a sense of credibility.
Rebecca Major writes on politeness in Canada, but within the lens of the systematic medical abuses linked to racism against Indigenous people in the Canadian medical industry. A recommended chapter.
Paul Simard Smith writes on the illegitimacy of Canada according to Canada's own constitutional fundamentals. It is a piece of analytical philosophy (one of Britain's worst crimes) but is straightforward, concise, and precise in what it's dealing with.
The last chapter before the afterword is Resistance and Resurgence by Emily Grafton. It's about Indigenous rights, the spectrum of what that means, and how those rights both aid in colonialism and serves as a vessel of resisting against it.
The book is worth a read if one is interested on the debates going on in settler-colonial scholarship, especially in Canada. Though some chapters are more interesting and better written than others and it has a chapter entirely wasted on a colonial apologist.
I find this work a good introduction to the various debates and concepts in and adjacent to settler-colonialism. I could see why someone would recommend this as an introduction to settler-colonialism itself though I would disagree. The introduction chapter does provide an explanation of both settler-colonialism as a concept/framework as well as a history to the discourse around it, but it is only 8 pages long. There are other books that would work better as an introduction than this one, such as Lorenzo Veracini's "Settler Colonialism: A Theoretical Overview" or "Colonialism in Question: Theory, Knowledge, History" by Frederick Cooper.
The book is divided into four parts: one concerning the Canadian settler state and its violence, one about the structures and sense of colonialism, one on current-day living within the settler society (often from non-white perspectives), and the last in regards to challenge, through an Indigenous focus/lens, the settler state in Canada.
I enjoy reading more about the first parts of the text as they primarily had material analyses and frameworks I either better understood or that I found more engaging. This is not to say that the other chapters were bad, just that I had more personal issues with the form than the content. Many essays in the other parts were autoenthographical.
Now this review will be more detailed. The introduction by David B. A. MacDonald and Emily Grafton (who are also the editors) offers a sound chapter to start, presenting what the text will discus and providing some background detail to the subjects. There are some areas I found issue with. On page xxvi, they were providing definitions to settler colonialism. In it, they wrote "instead of Indigenous self-determination and autonomy ... settlers as the *numerical majority* are largely in control of the state, its intuitions, and its norms" (emphasis my own). Granted, this is about Canada where indeed settlers are the numerical majority but that wasn't always the case. British Columbia only had a settler majority population by the 1890s-1900s while it, as a colony, had existed for far longer (1858). To insinuate that the numerical population is what enables control or defines the colonial relations is wrong. This sentence wouldn't be as offensive as I make it out if it was a one-off that could be brushed away, but it isn't. On page xxx (heh), the first sentence following the sub-header titled "Settler States and Settlers" reads "Settler states are not defined in international law, but social scientists identify these as states where *the majority of the population are descended from those who colonized and settled territories originally inhabited and controlled by Indigenous Peoples*" (emphasis my own). A citation isn't provided for this claim but apparently that's what the nebulous social scientists say. This definition is, of course, ridiculous. Known and infamous settler states such as Rhodesia, South Africa, French Algeria, Liberia, etc would not be classified as settler states under this hogwash definition because they either had a settler minority population or had a rotating settler population (such as the case of Rhodesia, that had settlers moving in and out such never really having a stable or "descended population"). The "descended" aspect is also troubling, are we to say that colonial imposition and popular replacement isn't settler-colonialism if the settlers afterwards aren't biologically related or that settler-colonialism isn't imposed (regardless of material relations) so-long not one baby from some settler is born?
A damning part of language used in this introduction is in regards to current events. The book and its authors tackle genocide, especially as it relates to settler-colonialism and Indigenous peoples. So it comes as a surprise that the editors write "this book is written in the shadow of many conflicts around the world, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the *ongoing violence and death in Gaza*, repressive misogynist rule in Afghanistan under the Taliban, and further conflicts in Sudan, Yemen, Ethiopia, the Sahel, Haiti, and Burma/Myanmar, amongst other places". The elephant in the room being the widely recognized genocide in Gaza by Israel. Israel, a settler-colonial state, conducting a new episode of genocide against Palestinians, the words absent from this book about settler-colonialism. There are more descriptors used for Afghanistan than Gaza. There's misogynist rule, not just misogynist rule but repressive misogynist rule. By who? By the Taliban. What's happening in Gaza? Violence and death. Who's causing the violence and why, who is dying, why and how? I'd be hard-pressed to find a place doesn't have on-going violence and death so why is Gaza here? One wouldn't know without external sources. If I had to guess its crucial absence from the introduction, it might have to do with not wanting to offend one of the writers. My bet would be on Bernie Farber, former member of the Canadian Jewish Congress (now the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs) and noted for protesting the inclusion of Queers Against Israeli Apartheid to the Toronto Pride March. It is unknown why the editors would include Farber (who only collaborated with another author in one chapter), an apologist for a settler-colonial state. Even in 2025, he wrote about the anguish of the hostages but not one word utter about the Israeli destruction of Gaza (https://archive.is/CUzYG) though of course he's a liberal so he supports the Bantustan system. His inclusion does generally lower the quality of this book.
The first part ("Considering Violence and Genocide in the Canadian Settler State"), is tied as being the largest part.
The first chapter by Karine R. Duhamel is interesting in its focus on the word "crisis" and the ways that can limit our understanding of current tribulations (such as the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls), my only gripe would be one passage that essentializes.
James Daschuk, writer of the great work "Clearing the Plains", provides an autoethnographical chapter but the majority of it discusses a specific violent episode around capital punishment and the start of the settler-colonial state in the historic north-west (the Prairies).
David B. A. MacDonald's chapter discusses the importance of the recognition of genocide in Canada and the lacklustre response from the government in regards to this.
Malissa Bryan provides an insightful chapter on the "third" person in settler-colonialism, not the settler or the native but the "arrivant" (that is, the enslaved or coolies). My only issue would be the sentence "there is yet to be a point in history where Black people have 'settled' within Canada because, in the colonial sense, settling necessitates both power and acceptance of that power or position of normativity" (p. 73). While that is true for the majority of Canada, it is not true for British Columbia. There was a period, under James Douglas, when Black Americans were invited to settle the colony. This historical affair didn't last long and failed. What would be interesting to discuss and study would be why this waned and failed (as in, why did the white settler state then dismantle black settlement). This would add more understanding to the dynamics of both settlement and race. This is a bit address in the following page when she mentioned that newly emancipated African Americans were still "[controlled by whiteness], [showering] violence on them, [subjugating] them to widespread poverty, [criminalizing] them, [imprisoning], and [killing] them with umpunity" (p. 74) but historical specifics are always worth investigating especially when looking to dynamics, especially as the historical example I'm discussing started in 1858 (before emancipation in the US). The rest of the essay is better.
Angie Wong's essay is similar though focuses on Chinese labour and Chinese women. An interesting essay on a specific focus. Though she is broad and vague at times, noting she doesn't have the time to discuss exceptions. Which I think is odd.
Part two ("Logics of Empire, Colonialism, and Unsettlement") is the shortest of the book.
Liam Midzain-Gobin provides a voluptuous start with his analysis of the settler-Empire relation in Canada and its racial development. This chapter is a recommended read.
Peter Kulchyski discusses the historiography of colonial Canada as well as a scheme on how to periodize it. Another recommended read.
Ajay Parasram provides a full autoethnography. It starts off as this: "I am a multigenerational, transnational by-product of the British Empire". The content is of interest, talking about the dynamics of internal movement of people for Empire, such as coolies. The writing style is simply not to my taste.
Andrew Woolford writes an interesting essay on how the material relations that supports and produces settler-colonial structures also shapes the way people see their environment. The specific focus on this essay is on water.
Part three is the one tied with part one in length. Titled "Settler Colonial Society: Relating, Reckoning and Uneconciliation"
Chris Lindgren and Michelle Stewart write about police violence in the context of the Canadian settler state and its racialized layer. It is a personal story too as it follows the tragedy of one of the writers' siblings. I'd recommend if one wants to read about police violence in Canada, sources that are harder to come-by due to the sea of sources on police violence in the US.
Fazeela Jiwa writes an autoethnography about identity and a sense of alienation to the imperial displacement. Not a fan of the writing style ("folks" is used unironically along with the phrase "cue eye-roll").
The most unique and interest chapter in my opinion is the one by Jérôme Melançon. Too often are Francophone Canadians comfortable in pretending to be colonially oppressed as Indigenous peoples. I'm a francophone Canadian, I'm allowed to say this. Anyone would be allowed to say it, it's true! Melançon tackles, analyzes and showcases the way in which the micro-state the Francophone Canadians have set up for themselves (in Québec but also outside of Québec as is the focus of the chapter) is also a tool of colonialism. He also talks about the ways francophone Canadians try to "move to innocence" through specific histories they tell and hear. A highly recommend chapter for a topic, francophone communities outside of Québec, that needs more study.
Desmond McAllister writes another autoenthography. On the last page, I wrote "bof".
BB'Chol Dor v'Dor is Len Rudner's and.... Bernie Farber's chapter. They also discuss the importance of recognizing genocide in Canada, but also it's important for them, as Jews, to see some sense of solidarity with Indigenous peoples in Canada. There is a part in the chapter that actually goes like "I thought us Jews were the exception!" ("We [Barnie and his congress] recognized, of course, the reality of other genocides, yet we placed a fence around our own communal tragedy. The pain was too great to be endured, yet at the same time too great to be shared [let's forget about the Rom]" (p. 241). The opening page talks about "approaching this subject [genocide] as Canadians, as settlers, and as Jews" which just means "we're approaching this as settlers, as settlers and as settlers". An actual waste of a chapter.
Part 4 is the shortest in terms of page count but the largest in different authors, as some of these are small poems.
Joyce Green writes about her Indigenous home and the settler structures on-top it but has a contradictory statement in it. She writes about how settlers shouldn't come in inter-Indigenous land disputes and pick sides but also says to settlers to not recognize the other Indigenous nations that claim (have land dispute) with her nation, picking a side (p. 269). It was interesting but that along took away a sense of credibility.
Rebecca Major writes on politeness in Canada, but within the lens of the systematic medical abuses linked to racism against Indigenous people in the Canadian medical industry. A recommended chapter.
Paul Simard Smith writes on the illegitimacy of Canada according to Canada's own constitutional fundamentals. It is a piece of analytical philosophy (one of Britain's worst crimes) but is straightforward, concise, and precise in what it's dealing with.
The last chapter before the afterword is Resistance and Resurgence by Emily Grafton. It's about Indigenous rights, the spectrum of what that means, and how those rights both aid in colonialism and serves as a vessel of resisting against it.
The book is worth a read if one is interested on the debates going on in settler-colonial scholarship, especially in Canada. Though some chapters are more interesting and better written than others and it has a chapter entirely wasted on a colonial apologist.
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