Fragile Settlements

Fragile Settlements compares the processes by which British colonial authority was asserted over Indigenous peoples in south-west Australia and Prairie Canada from the 1830s to the early twentieth century. At the start of this period, in a humanitarian response to settlers’ increased demand for land, Britain’s Colonial Office moved to protect Indigenous peoples by making them subjects under British law. This book highlights the parallels and divergences between these connected British frontiers by examining how colonial actors and institutions interpreted and applied the principle of law in their interaction with Indigenous peoples “on the ground.”