Reverberating Historical Privilege of a “Middling” Sort of Settler Family
Critical family history illuminates societal relations of inequality through focusing on the experiences and trajectories of particular families. Here, I focus on unequal relations between white settler colonizers and indigenous communities within Aotearoa, New Zealand. I use data gathered from fami...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2020-04-01
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| Series: | Genealogy |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2313-5778/4/2/46 |
| _version_ | 1797571247175892992 |
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| author | Avril Bell |
| author_facet | Avril Bell |
| author_sort | Avril Bell |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Critical family history illuminates societal relations of inequality through focusing on the experiences and trajectories of particular families. Here, I focus on unequal relations between white settler colonizers and indigenous communities within Aotearoa, New Zealand. I use data gathered from family wills and archival research to sketch aspects of the economic privilege of branches of my own ancestral families in contrast to the economic dispossession and injustices faced by the Māori communities alongside whom they lived. The concept of historical privilege forms the analytic basis of this exploration, beginning with the founding historical windfalls experienced by the Bell and Graham families through their initial acquisition of Māori lands and the parallel historical trauma experienced by Māori at the loss of these lands. I then explore how these windfalls and traumas underpinned the divergent economic trajectories on both sides of this colonial relationship, touching on issues of family inheritance and structural and symbolic privilege. Neither the Bells nor the Grahams accumulated significant wealth, but the stories of such “middling” families are helpful in illuminating mechanisms of historical privilege that we inheritors of such privilege find it difficult to “see” or remember. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T20:37:36Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-3a2bcd69509d49f8841dbefba5fea3ef |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2313-5778 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T20:37:36Z |
| publishDate | 2020-04-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Genealogy |
| spelling | doaj.art-3a2bcd69509d49f8841dbefba5fea3ef2023-11-19T20:54:31ZengMDPI AGGenealogy2313-57782020-04-01424610.3390/genealogy4020046Reverberating Historical Privilege of a “Middling” Sort of Settler FamilyAvril Bell0Sociology Programme, School of Social Sciences, University of Auckland, Auckland 1010, New ZealandCritical family history illuminates societal relations of inequality through focusing on the experiences and trajectories of particular families. Here, I focus on unequal relations between white settler colonizers and indigenous communities within Aotearoa, New Zealand. I use data gathered from family wills and archival research to sketch aspects of the economic privilege of branches of my own ancestral families in contrast to the economic dispossession and injustices faced by the Māori communities alongside whom they lived. The concept of historical privilege forms the analytic basis of this exploration, beginning with the founding historical windfalls experienced by the Bell and Graham families through their initial acquisition of Māori lands and the parallel historical trauma experienced by Māori at the loss of these lands. I then explore how these windfalls and traumas underpinned the divergent economic trajectories on both sides of this colonial relationship, touching on issues of family inheritance and structural and symbolic privilege. Neither the Bells nor the Grahams accumulated significant wealth, but the stories of such “middling” families are helpful in illuminating mechanisms of historical privilege that we inheritors of such privilege find it difficult to “see” or remember.https://www.mdpi.com/2313-5778/4/2/46historical privilegehistorical traumaindigenous-settler relationsstructural privilegesymbolic privilegeconstitutive forgetting |
| spellingShingle | Avril Bell Reverberating Historical Privilege of a “Middling” Sort of Settler Family Genealogy historical privilege historical trauma indigenous-settler relations structural privilege symbolic privilege constitutive forgetting |
| title | Reverberating Historical Privilege of a “Middling” Sort of Settler Family |
| title_full | Reverberating Historical Privilege of a “Middling” Sort of Settler Family |
| title_fullStr | Reverberating Historical Privilege of a “Middling” Sort of Settler Family |
| title_full_unstemmed | Reverberating Historical Privilege of a “Middling” Sort of Settler Family |
| title_short | Reverberating Historical Privilege of a “Middling” Sort of Settler Family |
| title_sort | reverberating historical privilege of a middling sort of settler family |
| topic | historical privilege historical trauma indigenous-settler relations structural privilege symbolic privilege constitutive forgetting |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2313-5778/4/2/46 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT avrilbell reverberatinghistoricalprivilegeofamiddlingsortofsettlerfamily |