This course explores the relationship between Indigenous peoples and the criminal justice systems of capitalist settler-colonies. It draws case examples from Aotearoa, 'Australia,' 'Canada' and the 'United States of America'. Built on the ruins of colonised societies, each of these settler-colonies both owes its wealth to, and ruthlessly discriminates against, its Indigenous peoples. In this class, we will aim to explain how the justice system is implicated in the act of violence which gave birth to the capitalist settler-colonial world, and how the justice system continues to maintain the oppression and exploitation of colonised peoples today.
This course uses critical theory to examine Indigenous perspectives of crime, justice, and decolonisation. These perspectives will be discussed with relevance to local and global criminal justice systems and the structural social problems these systems reflect. Key concepts we will rely on to develop our analysis include indigeneity, capitalism, primitive accumulation, settler colonialism, mass incarceration, decolonisation, and class struggle.
Students are expected to keep up with weekly required readings and to actively engage in small group tutorial discussions. The course has three in-course assignments (seminar group discussions worth 10%, a genealogical analysis worth 20%; an essay worth 30%) and an end-of-course restricted book in-person invigilated exam conducted through the Inspera Integrity Browser (IIB) (40%).
The course involves a two hour lecture plus a one hour tutorial, delivered over 12 weeks. Lectures are delivered by the course convener and guest lecturers.