Unsettling Colonial Automobilities: Criminalisation and Contested Sovereignties

Unsettling Colonial Automobilities explores the vehicle's role in imposing colonialism on Indigenous people and proposes an Indigenous automobility that reclaims sovereignty over place and centricity.

Based on extensive fieldwork within First Nations communities, accounts from Indigenous scholars and activists in Australia, New Zealand/Aotearoa, Canada and the United States, and cinematic/literary representations, this contribution challenges unrestricted mobility in modernity and highlights the vehicle's impact on Indigenous communities. Chapters examine how Indigenous people are criminalized for non-compliance with vehicle regulations, explores the vehicle as a tool of racial violence, and discusses how Indigenous communities utilize vehicles for protection, cultural expression, and reconnection with their land.

By demonstrating the vehicle's involvement in colonial violence and its potential for empowering Indigenous cultures, Unsettling Colonial Automobilities acknowledges the significance of human movement, migration, and boundary-transcendence in modern life while acknowledging the dark history associated with these phenomena.

Thalia Anthony is Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia.

Juanita Sherwood is Professor of Indigenous Education, Health and Research in the Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia.

Harry Blagg is Professor of Criminology at the University of Western Australia.

Kieran Tranter is the Chair of Law, Technology and Future at Queensland University of Technology, Australia.