decolonization

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

the dismantling of colonial structures, relationships, and epistemologies that subordinate indigenous peoples and their knowledge systems to settler-state authority; in political terms encompasses the transfer of land, governance, and resources to indigenous peoples; in intellectual and educational terms involves questioning which knowledge is considered valid and whose ways of knowing are taught, valued, and funded; scholars including Eve Tuck and K Wayne Yang have argued that decolonization is not a metaphor but requires material repatriation of indigenous land and life