The Colonizer Who Lurks Within: The Most Effective Ways to Shift One's Consciousness and Decolonize the Minds of Settlers


Carla Dew, London Ontario Activism

Shifting the colonial mentality or consciousness of settlers requires that the hegemonic narratives of our society be disrupted. The social scientific literature says that education, relationship, and experience are the most effective ways to shift consciousness and to decolonize the minds of settlers. Consciousness refers to the understanding that a person interprets the world through lenses constructed by the society in which they live (Trent university, 2014). Indigenous peoples, anti-colonial theorists, anti-oppression educators, Marxists, and cultural critics have thoroughly examined ‘colonial mentality’– a saturation of consciousness by hegemonic narratives of the settler or colonial state. In order for the consciousness of contemporary Canadians to change to a new story, where Canadians recognize and acknowledge themselves as perpetrators of cultural genocide, occupiers of indigenous homelands, and sustainers of settler colonial practices in the present, their hegemonic narrative of what Canada’s past history and present reality are must be dismantled (Davis et al., 2017, p.399). Paulette Regan (2010), refers to this dismantling process of exposing and unearthing the deep colonial mentality as ‘unsettling the settler within’ (p.17). ‘unsettling the settler within’ or decolonizing the minds of settlers is not a quick or easy task. Anti-colonialists and anti-racists have been talking to Canadians for hundreds of years with no results. For instance, look at how numerous Canadians have known the truth about residential schools for a long time and did not care. Currently, if you tried to talk to the vast majority of Canadians about colonialism, they would simply shut down the conversation, refuse to listen, and become defensive. I seek to dream and work toward co-liberation with community organizers and academics enacting decolonization to explore the question: how do settlers (those who are positioned as hegemonic subjects within the state) come to perceive and come to grips with the foundation-rocking realities of their existence, leading them towards the decolonization of their mind and actions? My experience with London Ontario activism, @london.ontario.activism [1], and in active solidarity relationships with indigenous and Palestinian community, has taught me the importance of relationships that consist of active listening, exposure and time, and common ground, highlighting relationships between adversaries and relationships between indigenous-non-indigenous peoples. From this experience, i want to share questions, challenges, decolonial visions, and lessons learned through coalitions and alliances, dialogue, and shared ceremony with indigenous peoples that have opened up spaces in which settlers can witness a different way to be, drawing clear connection between the impediment of ‘settler certainty,’ decolonization, and land relations. I am keen to connect beyond the workshop and throughout the year to enact beloved community, community care, and resistance.

This paper will be presented at the following session: