Juno News - The term “settler,” explained

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, Métis, 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?

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 Métis, and Inuit issues in Canada, settlers are the non-indigenous peoples living in Canada who form 0.98

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 0.80

00:02:01.340 not European-descended, then they are not a settler. I guess they are just something else. 1.00

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 0.94

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, 0.93

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.

00:04:55.260 Thanks for watching!

Juno News - March 02, 2020

The term “settler,” explained

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