Colonization and Colonialism

There are two important terms whose definitions will help to support our understanding of the content of this toolkit. The first is colonization. Colonization occurs when a person or group of people settle in a geographic area and work to establish control over the Indigenous people in that place (University of Saskatchewan, n.d.). Colonization is an active action or process that is put into motion by those who settle on a piece of land. Colonialism is the policies and practices that a person or group of people engage in to exert control over an Indigenous population, as well as to exploit that Indigenous population and their land (Blakemore, 2019; University of Saskatchewan, n.d.).

Colonization and colonialism are not exclusive to a particular country or a particular part of the world. Many ancient empires like the Greeks and Romans engaged in colonialist actions, but the acts of colonialism that took place across the Americas are considered to be more ‘modern’ because they occurred in the 15th century during the age of discovery (Blakemore, 2019). By the early 20th century, most of the world had been colonized in one way or another by European countries (Blakemore, 2019). Some notable historic acts of colonization include Portugal’s conquering of Mozambique, Angola, and Cape Verde (among many other countries); Christopher Columbus’ subjugation of Indigenous people in the United States of America, and France’s colonization of Algeria, Guadeloupe, and Haiti.

Acts of colonization and colonialism are not without harm. Within the Americas alone, it has been estimated that 56 million people died due to colonialism, colonization and their after-effects (like war, disease, and slavery) (Pruitt, 2019). Colonization and colonialism also led to the separation of families and forced Indigenous peoples to flee their homes for fear of losing their lives. These harms, however, are not limited to the past. Intergenerational trauma has passed the effects of these harms from those who experienced them down though familial lines to their present-day descendants (Conching & Thayer, 2019). Intergenerational trauma is the transmission of oppression and the effects of historically harmful events (Duke University, n.d.) Intergenerational trauma compounds the harm that people experience since it transmits the effects of past trauma experiences within their families and comingles these harms with the present-day traumas a person is experiencing. These intersecting traumas can have a deleterious toll on mental and physical wellbeing. An example of how colonization and colonialism move from the past to the present is the Indian Act, a piece of legislation that curtails Indigenous people’s ability to self-govern, much in the same way that the original act of colonization did (Gone et al., 2019).

The Indian Act also forced Indigenous people to choose between having status and attending university by making it so that if an Indigenous person graduated from university, their status would be revoked Canada has its own unique history of colonization and colonialism that has a broad impact on Canadian society, touching every realm, including that of post-secondary education.

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