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