ABSTRACT
This chapter focusses on the role of settler colonialism and FASD through an exploration of contemporary justice issues in Canada. One need only look to Canada, Australia, and New Zealand to see the ways in which each of these settler states are articulating settler colonialism through the over-representation of Indigenous peoples in child welfare and justice systems. Complacency with these statistics serves as tacit agreement with the violent aspirations of settler colonialism. Offering a conceptual framework through which to think about FASD and settler colonialism, the author discusses the need to decolonise justice practices and, in so doing, to decolonise FASD. The chapter investigates the role of settler discomfort and a particular type of ‘dis-ease’ that can surround the complexities of FASD – and the ways in which settler colonialism can be bracketed out as part of those complexities. The chapter argues for the need to position oneself and to take a position in the work we do, emphasising that decolonising our own practices is necessary, critical, and ongoing work.
