Settler colonial theory and Canadian cultural nationalism

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines Canadian cultural nationalism since Confederation through the lens of settler colonial theory, engaging with questions arising from this exercise. Along the way it discusses how settler colonial theory meshes with other theoretical perspectives, particularly nationalism theory. The main body of the paper is a historical overview of how settler cultural production colonized Indigenous peoples symbolically from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. Appropriation from and stereotyping of Indigenous peoples are analyzed. While these forms of indirect erasure were common, a direct erasure that simply ignored the Indigenous fact was far more prevalent. Nationalist cultural producers focused instead on Eurocivility, settler colonizations of other settlers, and Canada’s dual imperia. Moreover, settler colonialism was not the only form of colonialism influencing cultural nationalism: extractive colonialism affected it as well. Settler cultural discourse changed dramatically in the late twentieth century. Radical shifts in the realpolitik of settler-Indigenous relations and settler morality delegitimized erasure practices. Some cultural producers responded by integrating Indigenous peoples into new formulations of national identity, while others popularized representations of settler guilt. The article concludes with observations on the historicity of these new perspectives and how Canada’s legacy of cultural nationalism might constructively inform decolonization.