Narrative

Abstract

Settler colonialism has been resistant to decolonisation. Some settler polities decolonised later, some tentatively, some not at all.¹ And yet, as underscored, for example, by the 2007 UN declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and by its careful assertion of an indigenous right to self-determination that must be respectful of the sovereignty of existing states, there is a need to focus on the possibility of post-settler colonial futures in a not-yet post-settler colonial world.² Considering the at times irresistible trajectory of decolonisation processes during a number of crucial decades in the twentieth century, the resilience of settler colonialism requires explanation.