What is Settler Colonialism?
Settler colonialism is a form of colonialism in which foreign populations permanently relocate to Indigenous territories with the intent to establish sovereignty and replace existing populations, rather than merely extracting resources or labor. Australian historian Patrick Wolfe, who founded the field in the 1990s, defined settler colonialism as “a structure, not an event”—an ongoing system rather than a historical moment that ended.
Unlike other forms of colonialism that exploit Indigenous labor, settler colonialism is driven by a “logic of elimination” that seeks land rather than workers, pursuing the displacement or assimilation of native peoples. Settler colonialism involves the complete destruction and replacement of Indigenous people and their cultures by the settler’s own in order to establish themselves as the rightful inhabitants.
Origins & Lineage
The field of settler colonial studies was established as distinct from but connected to Indigenous studies beginning in the mid-1990s. Patrick Wolfe (1949-2016) published his seminal work Settler Colonialism and the Transformation of Anthropology in 1999, with his 2006 article “Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native” in the Journal of Genocide Research becoming foundational to the field.
Lorenzo Veracini, historian and professor at Swinburne University of Technology, became editor-in-chief of Settler Colonial Studies and a key figure in developing the field. His 2010 book Settler Colonialism: A Theoretical Overview was described as “probably the best justification of the imperative to view settler colonialism as significantly different from traditional or classical colonialism”.
Jane Carey and Ben Silverstein noted that settler colonial studies “began as a response to the perceived limitations of postcolonial theory. Where the ‘post’ in postcolonialism refers to the ongoing effects of colonial rule in states that have been formally decolonized, settler colonial studies consider those political and geographic contexts in which the colonizers never left”.
Wolfe himself acknowledged: “I didn’t invent Settler Colonial Studies. Natives have been experts in the field for centuries”.
How It’s Practiced
Settler colonialism is not a practice but an analytical framework for understanding historical and ongoing colonial structures. Settler colonial studies have often focused on English-speaking settler colonies in Australia and North America, though settler colonialism is not restricted to any specific culture; it has been practiced by non-Europeans.
Different forms include apartheid, military occupation, national policies of assimilation, or biological warfare. In North America, Western European nations justified colonization through the Doctrine of Discovery, with Americans later using Manifest Destiny to continue justification for Indigenous dispossession.
Settler colonialism takes claim of environments, replacing existing conditions with those of the settlement and settlers, intrinsically connected to displacement or elimination of existing residents through destruction of their environment and society.
Settler Colonialism Today
Within conscious and spiritual wellness communities, understanding settler colonialism illuminates ongoing issues of cultural appropriation, land relationships, and ethical practice. Retreat venues stand on lands where Indigenous peoples were displaced; Indigenous Peoples cared for land, water, and medicines long before “wellness” was a market, but colonization disrupted those relationships through dispossession, bans on ceremony and language, boarding schools, and laws that privileged extraction.
When programs borrow ceremonies, objects, or stories without relationship, consent, and compensation, they repeat colonial harms. Decolonization is about the repatriation of Indigenous land and life—returning context, control, and resources to the communities from whom practices come.
Settler colonial power differentials have historically relegated Indigenous spiritual and faith practices to a lower status than Western European religions. Under British rule in India, practices like yoga and Ayurveda were banned; similarly, Indigenous peoples in North America were punished for engaging in their own spiritual ceremonies.
The framework helps practitioners examine how wellness spaces may perpetuate settler colonial logics through appropriation of Indigenous and non-Western healing practices while excluding originating communities from access due to pricing, location, or cultural dynamics.
Common Misconceptions
It’s not just historical. Settler colonialism did not only happen in 1492, 1788, 1840, or 1967—it describes the structure of settler societies that persist to this day.
It’s not the same as immigration. Scholar Mahmood Mamdani writes: “Immigrants are unarmed; settlers come armed with both weapons and a nationalist agenda. Immigrants come in search of a homeland, not a state; for settlers, there can be no homeland without a state”.
It’s not identical to all colonialism. While both colonizers and settler colonizers are exogenous elements that assert dominance, a colonial system, unlike a settler colonial one, is premised on the presence and subjugation of exploitable ‘Others’. Classical colonialism extracts resources and labor; settler colonialism seeks to replace populations.
It’s not only about the past. Settler colonialism is not something historical that can be simply left behind, or forgiven and forgotten—it remains structurally embedded in land ownership, legal systems, and cultural institutions.
It’s not a practice you “do.” Settler colonialism is an analytical framework for understanding systems of power, not a spiritual or wellness practice. It helps identify structural harm, not a technique for personal growth.
How to Begin
For spiritual practitioners and wellness professionals seeking to understand settler colonialism:
Read foundational texts: Patrick Wolfe’s “Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native” (2006) and Lorenzo Veracini’s Settler Colonialism: A Theoretical Overview (2010) provide accessible entry points.
Learn local Indigenous history: Research whose traditional territories your practice occupies. Understand specific histories of displacement, treaty violations, and ongoing sovereignty struggles in your region.
Examine your practice: Assess whether spiritual offerings commodify Indigenous or colonized cultures’ practices without relationship, consent, or reciprocity with source communities.
Support Indigenous-led initiatives: Direct resources to Indigenous practitioners teaching their own traditions. Prioritize land-back movements and Indigenous sovereignty efforts.
Seek Indigenous scholarship: Read works by Indigenous scholars like Haunani-Kay Trask, Glen Coulthard, Aileen Moreton-Robinson, and Eve Tuck who have described settler colonialism from lived experience.
Engage in ongoing education: Settler colonialism studies continues evolving. Follow Indigenous-led organizations, attend workshops on decolonization, and remain accountable to Indigenous voices in wellness spaces.