Decolonising native histories : collaboration, knowledge, and language in the Americas

That one phenomenon can have many histories is an axiom of historiography. That some histories may stand in a ‘de-colonising’ relationship to ‘colonising’ histories is the proposition this collection explores. Along with the editor’s introduction, each of the seven chapters (on Hawaii, the Andes, the southern USA, Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia and Chile) provokes thought about what distinguishes ‘decolonising’ historical practice. Not all contributors explore the possible multiplicity of historical practice; some merely do what they think is best, writing in (what they believe to be) broad sympathy with the colonized. Though no clear criterion of ‘decolonising’ emerges, the book is instructive.