CONFRONTING COLONIAL LEGACIES IN GEOSCIENCE AND REIMAGINING LAND RELATIONS

Geoscience has long been intertwined with settler colonialism and the systems of power that shape our understanding of land and its uses. Settler colonialism, characterized by the ongoing displacement of Indigenous populations to secure land for settlers, is a structure deeply connected to geology—a discipline also centered on land acquisition and control. This relationship extends to the energy transition, where the demand for critical minerals is reshaping landscapes and perpetuating exploitive practices, often at the expense of Indigenous sovereignty. As the world looks towards finding ways to lower carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels, all eyes are looking towards renewable energy sources, which require Energy Transition Minerals and Metals (ETMs). Often sourcing these minerals from Indigenous lands, geology as an extractive field risks perpetuating the colonial legacies that have defined much of its history. The struggle for land in this context is not only about political power or resource empires but also the existential stakes of Indigenous ways of being and doing. Geoscience has operated as a tool of dispossession and exploitation in a settler colonial state that has perpetuated colonial beliefs while eroding Indigenous sovereignty and knowledge systems. If geoscience is to fulfill its promise to understand the Earth, it must confront these histories and critically examine its methods, reimagining the field through community collaboration, repatriation, and curriculum reform to create better land relations. Although geoscientists may view their work as purely studying the inhuman, their fundamental ways of doing can be far from inhumane and their methods can reflect human values of gratitude and reciprocity.