The term “settler,” explained
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
152.78049
Summary
In recent news coverage, we have been seeing more of the term settler. According to Chelsea Vowell, the author of Indigenous Rights: A Guide to First Nations, MĂ©tis, and Inuit Issues in Canada, settlers are the non-indigenous peoples living in Canada who form the European-descended socio-political majority. Upon seeing that definition, you kind of wonder: okay, so we re acknowledging indigenous people, we're acknowledging European-Descended people, so Anglo-Canadians? But what about the multitude of people from other cultures who reside in Canada? How do they fit into this indigenous settler dichotomy? And I don t think the people who use the word settler have actually figured that out?
Transcript
00:00:00.000
In recent news coverage, we have been seeing more of the term settler. The dictionary definition of
00:00:10.540
settler is someone who settles in a new region or colony, or a person who goes to live in a new
00:00:17.100
place where few people have lived before. Sounds like a neutral enough term, but it has become
00:00:23.560
somewhat politicized by activists who essentially see Canada as an illegitimate state occupying
00:00:30.880
stolen land. According to Chelsea Vowell, the author of Indigenous Rights, a guide to First Nations,
00:00:37.380
MĂ©tis, and Inuit issues in Canada, settlers are the non-indigenous peoples living in Canada who form
00:00:44.780
the European-descended socio-political majority. Upon seeing that definition, you kind of wonder,
00:00:50.480
okay, so we're acknowledging indigenous people, we're acknowledging European-descended people,
00:00:55.560
so Anglo and Franco-Canadians, but what about the multitude of people from other cultures who
00:01:00.480
reside in Canada? How do they fit into this indigenous settler dichotomy? And I don't think
00:01:05.480
the people who use the word settler have actually really figured that out. Outlets like Vice have
00:01:11.700
tried to cover the question of who is and who isn't a settler. One author interviewed in this
00:01:17.720
vice piece, Jade Brooks, was asked, how do you define settlers? She answered, basically European
00:01:24.300
people, anyone outside of indigenous or black Canadians. She was then asked, so who is a settler
00:01:30.940
and who isn't? She said that settler word is tricky. I wouldn't be a settler because I was born and raised
00:01:37.740
here. All my family is from here. My parents are from here. I guess I wouldn't want to use that term
00:01:43.360
towards black people because we're really indigenous to everywhere in the world. Okay,
00:01:48.460
so European-descended people who were born and raised here and whose parents and families are
00:01:53.620
here are settlers. So Europeans, yes, settlers. But if the same situation applies to someone who is
00:02:01.340
not European-descended, then they are not a settler. I guess they are just something else.
00:02:07.300
A professor also gives their definition of settler in this Vice article. Ashley Marshall says,
00:02:14.300
I think the term settler means or comes from the idea that we are setting up shop. We are settling
00:02:19.780
in here. We are not indigenous to the land. I think it's a confession of we are foreigners.
00:02:26.820
Now, did you catch that phrase indigenous to the land? Well, it is an inaccurate phrase,
00:02:32.580
as the most reliable research we've got postulates that no peoples are indigenous to the North American
00:02:38.440
continent. The most accepted theory is that indigenous or native peoples actually came to
00:02:43.560
North America via the Bering Strait crossing. So what would have been a land bridge connecting
00:02:48.760
Siberia and Alaska about 20,000 years ago when sea levels were lower? There have been some disputes
00:02:55.080
about some aspects of that theory. Some researchers are saying that perhaps people actually sailed
00:03:01.260
along the coast to get to North America, or perhaps they came up from South America,
00:03:07.040
but there is currently no evidence to indicate that any people originate in North America. As the
00:03:13.240
United Nations says, indigenous is used to refer broadly to peoples of long settlement and connection
00:03:20.880
to specific lands. So there's that word settle, right? Settlement, settler. In a recent opinion piece
00:03:26.880
in the Washington Post, an academic at the University of Ottawa writes,
00:03:31.660
when a settler reacts to being called a settler by bunching up his or her guts and getting all worked
00:03:37.020
up, he or she is betraying a guilt that proves just how useful the term is. Calling someone a settler
00:03:44.500
has the effect of asking the person to recognize their power and position within a colonial state.
00:03:51.000
Some people see the term settler as divisive. You know, it erases the unity of being called a
00:03:56.920
Canadian. It pits Canadians against each other, or they feel that it erases their heritage. It erases
00:04:03.780
their ancestors who have been in Canada for generations. So is it offensive? Well, offense
00:04:10.360
is largely subjective. If someone were to call me a settler, it wouldn't bother me. But when someone
00:04:15.580
uses the word settler, you're kind of alerted that there is a high possibility that they subscribe to
00:04:21.740
a mentality wherein European-descended Canadians should confess to perpetuating a genocidal state,
00:04:28.300
or they should apologize constantly for the sins of their ancestors, or you should subscribe to a
00:04:34.700
decolonization agenda and start calling North America Turtle Island, and you should be considering
00:04:39.980
yourself a guest on land that does not belong to you, and all that. So is the term settler offensive?
00:04:46.220
I don't think so. But the term does come along with some questionable implications that we should
00:04:52.140
be aware of. I'm Lindsay Shepherd with True North.