Contested Frontiers
Indigenous Power, Settler Rights and the Re-Constitution of Federal Territories
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6238936 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Aaron John Spitzer (0000-0002-8542-0236, University of Bergen, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Pages | 1-24 |
| Publication date | 2025-08-07 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Canadian Journal of Political Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0008-4239 • E-ISSN: 1744-9324 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0008423925100577 |
| OpenAlex | W4413135304 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 33 |
Australia, Canada and the United States are settler-colonial federations comprising two types of federal units. The first are states/provinces: full, permanent federal partners, securely settler controlled. The second are territories. Historically, territories were “partners in waiting,” slated for federal incorporation once settlers achieved control of the jurisdiction, outnumbering and disempowering Indigenous peoples. The “rights revolution” made achieving control by force less acceptable. Meanwhile, in Australia, Canada and the US, there remain several territories where Indigenous peoples hold significant power. I find today’s remaining territories experience a new way settlers target Indigenous power, not through force but through rights-challenges. Further, I show these rights-challenges provoke “constitutive contests,” the outcome of which are consequential, potentially “re-constituting” territories in a manner fostering settler control. Finally, I explore why territories might be especially vulnerable to re-constitution through settler-rights challenges
Colonialism · Constitution · Human rights · Indigenous · Indigenous rights · Jurisdiction · Political science · Power (physics · Development, Ethics, and Society · Ecology · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights · Law · Mining and Resource Management
The Structure of Political Geography
Enduring Legacies
The Rights Revolution
Framing, Suppression, and Colonial Policing Redux in Canada
Clearing the Plains
A National Crime
Settler silencing and the killing of Colten Boushie
Settler colonial history, commemoration and white backlash
Assessing Devolution in the Canadian North
The Territory as a Frontier Institution
The settler-rights backlash
PROMESA, Puerto Rico and the American Empire
American Identity, Congress, and the Puerto Rico Statehood Debate
The Evolution of the Termination Policy
When tribalism meets liberalism
Preferences, perceptions, and veto players
Aboriginal Societies and the Common Law
Negotiating Aboriginal Self-Government Agreements in Canada
Contested Colonialism
Politics on the Last Frontier
Settler colonialism and the elimination of the native
Settler-State Political Theory, 'Canzus' and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Aboriginality and the Northern Territory Intervention
Sovereignty's Entailments
Infrastructure and Colonial Difference in Puerto Rico after Hurricane María
Anthropological Theory and Government Policy in Australia's Northern Territory
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |