Children and institutions in settler colonial contexts: a trans-imperial perspective

Jensz, Felicity; Swartz, Rebecca

Abstract

Children in settler colonial settings engaged with institutions in diverse ways. They were sometimes coerced, benignly encouraged or lured into these engagements and sometimes they actively engaged and shaped the nature of these institutions over their childhood and subsequent adult years. This lead article provides the historiographical, methodical and conceptual framework for the special issue of Settler Colonial Studies on children, institutions and settler colonial contexts. It provides the basis for the discussion of the following articles which examine children’s interactions with and experiences of institutions in settler colonial contexts in Australia, Palestine, the Philippines, Poland, and Southern Rhodesia that were affected by American, British, German, and Japanese imperialism. Studies of colonialism, and settler colonialism in particular, have tended to overlook the role and position of children in these contexts as objects and agent of change. Rather, focus has been predominantly placed upon the actions and agency of adults of various cultural groups, ones who have left larger traces in the colonial archives. In this article, we provide an overview of some of the broad concepts that frame the special issue being: childhood and race; Institutions and motives; and settler colonialism and imperial contexts.