Democracy and the Politics of Indigenous-Settler Reconciliation in Australia and Canada

The chapter explores Indigenous-settler relationships in two former colonial settler states, Australia and Canada. The chapter highlights some of the democratic experiences of Indigenous peoples and offers an assessment of the efficacy of the reconciliation agenda that became necessary in the 21st century as a consequence of European colonization. In former setter colonies, owing to a series of Truth Commissions, there has been a call to reconcile the relationship between Indigenous peoples and the state. The chapter questions the prospects for reconciliation within the context of settler liberal democracies that still enforce discriminatory colonial laws and policies against Indigenous peoples. What does it say about the nature or design of democracy that these democratic states legally dispossess and dominate the lives of sovereigns? The chapter argues that liberal democracy in former settler colonies from its inception has been exclusionary and illiberal for non-white peoples generally and Indigenous peoples specifically. Liberal democracy as experienced by Indigenous peoples is not incompatible with group discrimination, dispossession, and state violence. It also suggests that since the reconciliation projects as proposed by those in power do not change the power dynamics of the settler state and keep discriminatory policies and laws intact, Indigenous peoples’ self-determination, the ultimate goal of reconciliation, is not likely. Simply put, democracy has failed Indigenous peoples in Australia and Canada and the reconciliation agenda will likely stall, leading Indigenous peoples to look beyond the settler state to reaffirm their self-determination and reclaim their lands.

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