Indigenous Urbanisms

Abstract

Indigenous urbanism is an analytic and vital experience that captures everyday life and extreme moments of conflict in settler colonies. While highly localized, Indigenous urbanism/s are comparable across time and space. Delivered from different parts of the world, the essays in this collection highlight that Indigenous urbanism is politically, socially and culturally significant not only for Indigenous peoples in cities, but also for urban settlers and non‐Indigenous people of color. While Indigenous urbanisms are foregrounded by settler‐colonial structures and processes, they also underscore the unresolved nature of social relations in cities, and indeed, the unsettled character of the city itself. This introduction briefly sketches the themes and scope of each essay and draws them into conversation. Taken together, this collection illustrates the relational—rather than reactionary—character of Indigenous urbanisms as structure, in and of the (settler) city. Indigenous urbanisms shape cities by engaging with broader categories of human relations, intimate connections, conflict and resistance.

The inheritance and repetition of colonial practices of dispossession

“…Indigenous efforts of making city space, offer multiple examples where the (re)asserting of Indigenous principles, governance and authority in relation to land and place has undermined the status quo (see special issue Blatman and Mays, 2023;Coulthard, 2014;Dorries, 2022;Mays, 2022;Mckinnon, 2020;Porter and Barry, 2016;Rey and Harrison, 2018). Kiddle et al's (2023) analysis of their own project, Imagining Decolonised Cities (IDC), in Porirura, Aotearoa New Zealand, discusses Indigenous planning that aimed to produce a place which was equitable and just for all families, whilst reflecting Maori values and identity.…”