Racism, Colonialism, and Indigeneity in Canada: A Reader

This unique new collection of works by Indigenous scholars explores how the interplay of racism and colonialism has shaped the lives of Indigenous people in areas such as family relations, criminal justice, territorial rights, identity, citizenship, and relations with settler colonialists. With an emphasis on the Two-Row Wampum treaty--a pact between Western and Indigenous nations--the book discusses the historic and contemporary meaning of key terms like race and racism, and identifies how these factors were and continue to be at play in the lives of Indigenous peoples living in a colonized nation. The editors' objective is to provide insight into what can be done to address historic wrongdoings, while also showing how much can be gained by working across differences, revitalizing original partnerships and agreements, and coming together collectively as Canadians to combat racism.

Martin J. Cannon is assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education at University of Toronto's Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE). He received his PhD from York University in 2004 and taught sociology at the University of Saskatchewan from 2002 to 2007. He is a citizen of the Six Nations of Grand River Territory, and has been writing about his experience as a status Indian and the descendant of a woman who lost and later re-acquired Indian status since the 1980s. His research interests include the history of the Indian Act and Indian policy; racism and gender inequality; colonialism and decolonization; Indigenous Knowledge in education; and social structure and change. He is author of The Regulation of First Nations Sexuality; Bill C-31: Notes toward a Qualitative Analysis of Legislated Injustice; First Nations Citizenship, An Act to Amend the Indian Act and the Accommodation of Sex-Discriminatory Policy; and Revisiting Histories of Legal Assimilation, Racialized Injustice, and the Future of Indian Status in Canada.


Lina Sunseri is assistant professor in the Division of Sociology and Family Studies at Brescia University College, affiliated with the University of Western Ontario. Her areas of research include Indigenous women's issues in relation to colonialism and decolonialism; gender and nationalism; representation of Indigenous peoples and other racialized groups in mainstream media and popular culture; gender and sports; gender and popular culture; community development; critical pedagogy; law and inequality. Lina is a member of the Oneida Nation of the Thames, Turtle Clan, and her Longhouse name is Yeliwi:sasks, which roughly translates to 'Gathering Stories and Knowledge'.