Settler Colonialism and Justice: From Turtle Island to Palestine

Abstract

This thesis investigates the inherent limitations of state-led justice within the structure of settler colonialism through a relational analysis of the Indigenous peoples of Canada and the Palestinian people. Central to this inquiry is erasure—an ongoing “logic of elimination”, as articulated by Patrick Wolfe, which seeks to dissolve native societies to facilitate settler replacement and territorial acquisition. By evaluating Canadian mechanisms of reconciliation, such as official apologies, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and land acknowledgments, this study argues that these symbolic gestures often function as “settler moves to innocence”, a framework developed by Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang. These mechanisms frequently historicize colonial violence as a “sad chapter” of the past, thereby neutralizing ongoing dispossession and securing settler futurity through what is identified as the “erasure of erasure” or “double denial”, drawing on the work of Saree Makdisi.

The research further critiques the application of transitional justice frameworks to non-transitional colonial contexts, contending that such models create a “post-colonial” façade while leaving oppressive structures intact. In response to these liberal narratives, the thesis centers Indigenous and Palestinian modes of resistance, including Audra Simpson’s politics of refusal, resentment as moral protest, and Sumud (steadfastness) as a grounded rejection of state-led “gifts” and normalization. The final analysis reflects on Palestinian futures, contrasting the “liberal trap” of the two-state solution with the material necessity of the Right of Return. Ultimately, this work contends that “true” justice and settler colonialism are mutually exclusive, asserting that decolonization requires the dismantling of settler structures and the physical restoration of the relationship between the people and the land.