In July of last year, Kurnai/Gunai, Gunditjmara, Wiradjuri and Yorta Yorta freelance writer Nayuka Gorrie asked on her Twitter account, ‘For my non-mob followers — do you identify as a settler? If not, why?’.

At the time, I read the thread was curiosity and interest. Was I a settler? What did it mean to be a settler? I began asking my non-Indigenous friends around me what their thoughts were on the matter: did they identify as settlers? Some reacted with intrigue and were open to discussing it with me, and others reacted with strong distaste. ‘No’, they would say, ‘I just don’t like the word — it doesn’t describe who I am’.
More and more, I begun to see the term appear within my bubble, and understand that I, of English and Scottish ancestry, was in fact a settler too. Within my sphere, I saw the term used by non-Indigenous Australians, especially around Invasion Day.
On Invasion Day this year, Zambian-Australian singer-songwriter and rapper Sampa The Great tweeted, ‘I stand in solidarity with First Nations peoples of Australia. As a settler on Wurundjeri and Boonwurrung Lands, I know the 26th of January marks the beginning of colonisation and genocide, not a day of celebration. Always was, always will be, Aboriginal land!’
On the same day, Australian author and journalist Benjamin Law tweeted an image of the AIATSIS map of Indigenous Australia with the caption, ‘On this day, non-Indigenous folks celebrate our multicultural. Too few know Australia’s always been this way. Fellow settlers: let’s stop being defensive and instead use today as an opportunity to learn about the survival humanity’s oldest civilisation. #AlwaysWasAlwaysWillBe’.
However, outside of the realms of Twitter, I didn’t really hear the label much, as it still only seemed to be used by those in the progressive fringes of the mainstream. So, why were others rejecting it so quickly out of hand? Well, in answer to this, I believe it’s due to the uncomfortable nature of the word, as it nods to the dark part of the British settlement that began in 1788, which saw genocide, massacres and the brutal treatment of Aboriginal peoples as a result. The term settler reminds us of this past, and many would prefer to ignore it than confront the shame and guilt associated with it.
'To me, the term settler acknowledges that we live in settler colonialism, which continues the systematic oppression of Indigenous and Aboriginal Australians. This is a system that because of my ethnicity — the same as the invaders who breached the Australian shores in 1788 — I benefit from.'
Furthermore, a lot of rejection around the term settler comes from the idea that what’s in the past is in the past, and all we can do is look to the future. I heard a lot of takes on the matter involving the notion that current Australians, and their parents and parents’ parents, did not invade or settle here — they themselves are not settlers, simply just Australian.
There is also an argument that a lot of non-Indigenous Australians today are descendants from those who came to Australia many years after the original European settlement. But as Indigenous Canadian member of the Gwawaenuk Nation and author Bob Joseph explains in VICE, when asked how he defines settles in regards to the Canadian experience, he explained, ‘When I think about settlers, there are those who came over here because their colonial governments back home said, ‘Hey, there’s all this free land over here if you wanna make a move, it’s a land of opportunity, you can take it up for free or buy it.’
Many Australians are citizens of this nation as they, their parents or ancestors, came to Australia with the notion that the country was one of opportunity for them. All the while, the original custodians of the land were being oppressed. On my paternal side, my ancestors came to Australia in the 1800s, a time when massacres of Indigenous Australians were still extremely rife.
In fact, researchers have said that as many as 500 massacres of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples occured well into the 20th century. Since the original settlement, the further colonisation spread, the further the massacres over the country did too. And it is colonisation that allowed my ancestors to be here whether they had a direct hand in the massacres or not.
Furthermore, the idea that the past is the past and we cannot change it continues the unrecognition in mainstream Australia of the brutality faced by Aboriginal people and the racism in which the nation is built. To me, the term settler acknowledges that we live in settler colonialism, which continues the systematic oppression of Indigenous and Aboriginal Australians. This is a system that because of my ethnicity — the same as the invaders who breached the Australian shores in 1788 — I benefit from.
Musical artist Lonelyspeck responded to Gorrie’s original tweet with, ‘!! i find it’s basically always so much more productive to treat ~identity labels~ as describing processes and interactions as opposed to fixed states. verbs do so much more than nouns & adjectives’.
This notion plays into how I view my own settler identity label; as not so much that I physically came onto Australian shores, invaded and settled, but rather that I am a product of the settler-colony of Australia. I live, work, form relationships, pay rent, and play on stolen land; land that always was, and always will, Aboriginal land.
Marnie Vinall is a freelance writer and copywriter in Melbourne, Australia. She is a regular contributor of Beat Magazine and Concrete Playground, and has bylines in ABC News, Mumbrella, B&T and Globo Hobo.
Main image: Illustration by Chris Johnston