Contradictory intersections of class and race in settler colonial societies

Consideration of the social positions and experiences of Indigenous people within settler colonial societies poses challenges to conventional understandings of race and class. Indigenous peoples, displaced and marginalized through the development of colonial structures, have also demonstrated remarkable resiliency, contributing in significant ways to the development of settler societies. While they often share similar positions and circumstances with other minoritized groups based on class and racial factors, they are distinguished by their longstanding relationships with lands and waters, their encounters with colonization, and their rights and status as Indigenous or first peoples. This article, focusing on the Canadian context, explores the implications that these Indigenous experiences hold for understanding the intersections among capitalist relations and colonialism, in conjunction with the emergence of and struggles against contemporary systems of inequality and oppression.