Place, borders and the decolonial

The violent imposition of colonial borders, accompanied by the subjugation and attempted erasure of the borders of First Nations Peoples, are core technologies of colonization. In this chapter, we critically examine these twin practices of colonial re-bordering and the attempted erasure of the borders of First Nations Peoples, using the example of the Australian settler colonial state. We consider the potential for the decolonization of contemporary settler-state borders from both within and without, with decolonization understood to mean a practice that fundamentally alters the exercise of power beyond mere theorization. We are mindful that decolonization must avoid becoming a “buzzword” (Mbembe, 2016, p. 29) or a “metaphor” which can undermine its radical objectives concerning the “repatriation of Indigenous land and life” (Tuck & Yang, 2012, p. 21). In other words, the question of what decolonization might mean in relation to colonially imposed borders is a substantive and structural one.