Reviews
The White Possessive: Property, Power, and Indigenous Sovereignty, by Aileen Moreton-Robinson
hollen's review against another edition
“The colonizer/colonized axis continues to be configured within this postcolonizing society through power relations that are premised on our dispossession and resisted through our ontological relationship to land. Indigenous people’s position within the nation-state is not one where colonizing power relations have been discontinued. Instead, these power relations are at the very heart of the white national imaginary and belonging; they are postcolonizing.”
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“Patriarchal whiteness invests in property rights and is possessive and protective about asset accumulation and ownership. Here I use the term “possessive” to mean having an excessive desire to own, control, and dominate—"
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“Patriarchal whiteness invests in property rights and is possessive and protective about asset accumulation and ownership. Here I use the term “possessive” to mean having an excessive desire to own, control, and dominate—"
aimiller's review
4.0
Very good, compelling read that really makes clear how settler colonialism functions on both a structural and individual level (though the analysis obviously works more on a structural level--I do think it can be applied to individual white settler folks, and to bring home how they/we can continue to be complicit in settler colonialism.)
Some of the essays sort of repeat themselves, and her use of Foucault left me completely baffled (and why is she using biopower and not necropolitics!!!!) but I am a pendant who should be ignored. I will also say that her explanation of Australian history is almost non-existent, which may be intentional but does make following the court cases that she frequently cites hard to do, and is an interesting choice given she's published this with a US press. But her framework is really powerful and I think very important in thinking about settler colonialism in the future. Def recommended!
Some of the essays sort of repeat themselves, and her use of Foucault left me completely baffled (and why is she using biopower and not necropolitics!!!!) but I am a pendant who should be ignored. I will also say that her explanation of Australian history is almost non-existent, which may be intentional but does make following the court cases that she frequently cites hard to do, and is an interesting choice given she's published this with a US press. But her framework is really powerful and I think very important in thinking about settler colonialism in the future. Def recommended!
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