Description
Millions of people across the world are engaged in resistance against oppression, for their rights to be recognised and justice to be achieved. Resisting alongside and in support of them are ‘allies’ and ‘solidarity’ activists. This paper focuses on a particular group of allies; settler-citizens who refuse. These are members of the colonising population who co-resist alongside the colonised and Indigenous population. Some attention has been given to unpacking what 'decolonial solidarty' means in theory and practice and to conceptualising the anti-colonial settler-citizen, focusing in particular on their complex role and positionality. Existing empirical studies have drawn out some practical examples, with a focus on single case studies. This paper seeks to build on the existing work by providing a practical survey of the ways in which settler-citizens have engaged in decolonial solidarity and supported the resistance of colonised and Indigenous populations. It does so through four cases of settler-colonialism: Apartheid South Africa; Israel/Palestine; Australia and Canada. Data has been gathered through mixed methods: archival work, author conducted interviews and participant observation, social media research and extracting information from existing studies. In providing a broader survey of how decolonial solidarity has been conducted in different cases, this study provides suggestions on how to weaponize the privileged position of the settler-citizen in support of resistance movements, without reinforcing colonial dynamics.
Keywords: Settler-colonialism; resistance; solidarity; Indigenous movements
