Colonization occurs in different forms; settler, external and internal. Settler colonialism, for example, operates through the acquisition of indigenous land through genocide which disrupts the natural relationship of land. According to tuck and yang, settler moves to innocence refers to the positioning’s or strategies that aim at reliving the settler of responsibility or guilt feelings without giving up privilege power or land, and without changing at all. They argue that decolonizing means the repatriation of land to the indigenous people from the settlers. Decolonization, therefore, is not a metaphor for resist objectives instead the term is reserved in the American context as undoing settler-colonialism. The indigenous people should be granted the freedom to occupy, and use domestic resources and to uphold a high degree of responsibility to future generations. The decolonization endeavor is enshrined in the human rights and legal frameworks which seeks to make land use beneficial to settlers without the indigenous people feeling oppressed.
Settler Moves to 1nnocence
There exists a long history of settlers making moves aimed at alleviating the colonization impacts. Adoption of decolonization discourse is the easy part of the history which makes decolonization a metaphor[1]. The moves to innocence aim at reconciling no-indigenous people complexity and guilt rescuing the settler futurity. There exist different types of settler moves to the innocence that include colonial equivocation, settler nativism, fantasizing adoption, Conscientization, asterisk-ing native peoples and re-occupation and urban homesteading. According to post-colonial theories, there exist two types of colonialism. External colonialism that denotes the expropriation of living things from their origin with the intention of transporting them to build fortune, privilege or to feed the settlers. Internal colonization involves the use of control models like prisons, schools, ghettos and minoritizing to ensure ascendancy. Another key component of decolonization is the desire of settlers to find relief or mercy and to be made innocent of the settler haunting and guilt[2].
Settler nativism refers to the situations surrounding the activities that take place when a settler discovers and locates a person with whom they are distantly related. According to tuck and yang, it is not necessary that the claims are true or otherwise but the reason behind settlers believing in such possibilities. In this move, settlers locate a long lost ancestor who is believed to share a common blood. Settlers use the claim to claim themselves blameless in the attempt of eradicating indigenous people. The nativism deflects a settler’s identity while they continue to enjoy the settler benefits. Settler adoption fantasies assert the need for being able to become without becoming. There are many instances where indigenous families or nations adopt settlers. The adoption is associated with the understanding of the native that they are becoming extinct and extends a hand to a settler for safekeeping in a sovereign nation, indigenous people decide who is to be considered family. Becoming without becoming entails adding indigenous identity to an already existing self- identity.
According to tuck and yang, the tales of James Cooper's leather stocking offers a classic example of settler adoption fantasies where all the indigenous people living in North America either got assimilated or died leaving the settlers to be the only remaining people to claim the land. The adoption narrative symbolizes the transfer of nativity where indigenous futurity is replaced by settler futurity. Colonial equivocation refers to the error of reasoning where an argument involves two different word senses[3]. Tuck and Yang explain colonial equivocation regarding the oppression of certain marginalized groups in society. The settler moves innocence result to tension and friction on social justice frontier, especially between antiracist and indigenous organizations. The idea “we are all colonized” by tuck and yang claims that no one is truly a settler to suppress the formulation of demands by non-indigenous movements for full inclusion and the demand by indigenous organizations who seek sovereignty.
Conscientization involves cultivation of critical consciousness and stands in for the task of relinquishing stolen land. The initial steps of decolonization are freeing the mind. Pedagogy, literature, and curricula can be formulated in a way to aid people to learn to see settler colonialism, set aside settler values and histories and articulate settler epistemology critiques[4]. At risk-ing argue that indigenous people are too small statistically to specifically warrant decolonization in settler institutions. Urban homesteading and re-occupation ideologies argue that “decolonize” and re/occupy are political agendas that are incommensurable. Occupy do not grasp the attachment of land to wealth. Decolonization, therefore, impoverish the settler population by eliminating settler sovereignty and property rights.
Conclusion
Repatriation of land from settlers to the indigenous people grants the natives an opportunity to for freedom to occupy, and use the land resource through decolonization. Settler move to innocence plays a key role in facilitating decolonization of land. The moves of innocence include settler nativism where settlers locate and identify to a long distantly related ancestor. Fantasizing adoption deals with the idea of becoming without becoming where indigenous people assimilate the settlers. Colonial equivocation fosters the idea of "we are all colonized" to mitigate the implications of oppression in land use and ownership. Asterisk-ing indigenous people refer to the argument that the indigenous population is too small to warrant decolonization. Re-occupation and urban homesteading lead to an impoverished nation of the settler population.
Bibliography
Betts, R. and Betts, R.F., 2004. Decolonization. Routledge.
Bird, G., 1993. Towards a Decolonization of the Mind and Text 1: Leslie Marmon Silko's" Ceremony." Wicazo Sa Review, pp.1-8.
Tuck, Eve, and K. Wayne Yang. "Decolonization is not a metaphor." Decolonization: Indigeneity, education " society 1, no. 1 (2012).
Wildcat, M., McDonald, M., Irlbacher-Fox, S. and Coulthard, G., 2014. Learning from the land: Indigenous land-based pedagogy and decolonization. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education " Society, 3(3).
[1] Tuck, Eve, and K. Wayne Yang. "Decolonization is not a metaphor." Decolonization: Indigeneity, education " society 1, no. 1 (2012).p.3
[2] Bird, G., 1993. Towards a Decolonization of the Mind and Text 1: Leslie Marmon Silko's" Ceremony." Wicazo Sa Review, pp.4
[3] Betts, R. and Betts, R.F., 2004. Decolonization. Routledge.p.35
[4] Wildcat, M., McDonald, M., Irlbacher-Fox, S. and Coulthard, G., 2014. Learning from the land: Indigenous land-based pedagogy and decolonization. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education " Society, 3(3).p 51
