“Decolonization is a process which engages with imperialism and colonialism at multiple

levels. For researchers, one of those levels is concerned with having a more critical
understanding of the underlying assumptions, motivations and values which inform
research practices.” -Linda T. Smith, 2021 (Chapter 1: Decolonizing Methodologies)

Imperialism and colonialism are interconnected and what is generally agreed upon is that
colonialism is but one expression of imperialism. Imperialism tends to be used in at least
four different ways when describing the form of European imperialism which started in the
fifteenth century:
a. Imperialism as economic expansion
b. Imperialism as the subjugation of others
c. Imperialism as an idea or spirit with many forms of realization
d. Imperialism as a discursive field of knowledge

The writing or analysis of imperialism from the perspective of local contexts and challenges
those who belong to colonized communities to understand how colonization occurred,
partly because of the need to decolonize our minds, to recover ourselves, to claim a space in
which to develop a sense of authentic humanity has been referred to more recently in terms
such as ‘post-colonial discourse’, the ‘empire writes back’ or ‘writing from the margins’.

Colonialism became imperialism’s outpost, the fort and the port of imperial outreach.
Colonial outposts were also cultural sites which preserved an image or represented an image
of what the West or ‘civilization’ stood for.
Why is globalization a different sort of and a pressing challenge for indigenous
communities?
While being on the margins of the world has dire consequences, being
incorporated within the world’s marketplace has different implications and in turn
requires the mounting of new forms of resistance.
Some aborigine activists such as Bobbi Sykes have criticised the use of term post-colonial,
not so much to the literary reimagining of culture as being centred in what were once
conceived of as the colonial margins, but to the idea that colonialism is over, finished
business. Because it simply isn’t!!