Patrick Belanger has produced, in a single muscular volume, one of the most forward-thinking analyses of truth and reconciliation politics in Canada and the most honest prescriptive for moving along productively with decolonial solutions. Rhetoric and Settler Inertia: Strategies of Canadian Decolonization balances a colonial critique of settler culture in Canada with on-the-ground ways of moving toward a reparative program of reconciliation for Indigenous peoples. Rhetoric and Settler Inertia promises to be a high water mark in reconciliation politics, working applicably and practically from the more theoretical work being done on Indigenous decoloniality.

Jason Black, University of North Carolina, Charlotte

Patrick Belanger’s Rhetoric and Settler Inertia offers a pragmatic approach to Canadian First Nations decolonization that directly addresses the indifference and ignorance of the settler public. This book tempers the celebratory idealism of truth and reconciliation with the cold yet practical reality of what it will take to achieve indigenous political and cultural sovereignty. Through close readings of Indigenous-Canadian dialogue, Belanger illustrates how First Nations have shaped and can continue to shape the public memory of Canada’s colonial past and provide a roadmap for possible decolonial futures.

Casey Ryan Kelly, University of Nebraska - Lincoln