ABSTRACT
Research has highlighted the positioning of accounting within processes of colonialism and imperialism, suggesting that accounting discourses and technologies have been used to influence and control indigenous peoples. This chapter provides a critical review of this research and proposes several future research directions. The chapter begins with a brief discussion of the linkages between accounting and colonialism. It then examines four geographic locations – Fiji, the United States, Canada and Australia – where accounting has been used by colonial rulers to ‘manage’ local populations. The examination of the individual sites highlights both commonalities as well as differences in the role and functioning of accounting. For example, the analyses illustrate how the language of accounting resonates with and sustains more general discourses about the inferiority of indigenous peoples. The analyses also make visible how accounting techniques allowed colonial rulers to put into practice specific programmes that attempted to control and govern the activities of indigenous peoples. In this way, the studies show how accounting was a central linchpin not only in thinking about indigenous peoples in certain ways (as inferior, etc.) but also in translating into practice programmes of government that sought to ‘civilise’ these populations. The chapter concludes by proposing that additional research – that both compares different settings and explicitly considers the role of accounting experts – is needed. Such research will help us to better understand the positioning of accounting in colonial processes and to contribute to current policy debates about governmentindigenous relations.
