Why UVic Faculty Protested a Talk That Promoted 'Jewish Indigeneity' Why UVic Faculty Protested a Talk That Promoted 'Jewish Indigeneity' Why UVic Faculty Protested a Talk That Promoted 'Jewish Indigeneity' A Māori academic and evangelical Christian argues Israel is an example of successful 'decolonization.' 'We're not the only people with a relationship to this land'

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Why UVic Faculty Protested a Talk That Promoted 'Jewish Indigeneity'
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A Māori academic and evangelical Christian argues Israel is an example of successful 'decolonization.'
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Jen St. Denis
26 Jun 2026
Jen St. Denis is a reporter and senior editor with The Tyee. You can follow her on Bluesky, Instagram or TikTok.
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A Māori academic and evangelical Christian argues Israel is an example of successful 'decolonization.' … Article written by Jen St. Denis.
When another Indigenous professor sent waaseyaa'sin Christine Sy an email about a talk being given by a Māori academic who says Israel is an example of an Indigenous people "decolonializing" their homeland, she decided to attend to try to understand the argument.
"I was very curious about her logic," Sy, who is Ojibwa and a professor of gender studies at the University of Victoria, told The Tyee.
"I wanted to understand, because I very much see Zionism and settler colonialism as... under the same umbrella."
Sheree Trotter has been giving public talks and podcast interviews to argue that Jewish people should be considered indigenous to Israel, and the foundation of the nation of Israel should be seen as an example of successful decolonization. She's also founded an organization called the Indigenous Embassy Israel, which she says is not funded by the Israeli government.
On June 14, Trotter was invited to speak at the University of Victoria by the Jewish Federation of Victoria and Vancouver Island.
The concept of settler colonialism is usually used to describe the history and ongoing effects of European colonization on Indigenous people in countries such as Canada and New Zealand. Some pro-Palestinian activists have argued that Israel's displacement of Palestinians, occupation of contested lands and militarized society that maintains divisions between Jewish and non-Jewish people are also a form of settler colonialism.
Trotter argues it's incorrect to describe Israel's treatment of Palestinians as "settler colonialism." She critiques how the concept of settler colonialism has been used, she says, to "divide all of humanity into a binary of oppressor and oppressed.... This simply does not fit history."
Trotter also denies that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians: "Those who make such claims seem uninterested in evidence, but rather in perpetuating libels and fuelling a hate movement," she told The Tyee via email.
The United Nations, Amnesty International and two Israeli human rights organizations have all determined that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The United Nations Human Rights Council recently found that Israel has been deliberately targeting Palestinian children and has had "genocidal intent" during its war against Gaza, which was sparked by the Oct. 7 Hamas attack against Israel.
Barry Zalmanowitz, the president of the Jewish Federation of Victoria and Vancouver Island, said his organization invited Trotter to speak to counter the idea that Zionism is settler colonialism.
"A popular claim of antisemites is that the belief that the right of Jewish people to self-determination in their ancestral homeland, i.e., Zionism, is settler colonialism," he told The Tyee in an email.
"Dr. Trotter is a respected Māori Indigenous historian who points out the historical fallacy of the ideological claim by some academics that Zionism is settler colonialism."
Zalmanowitz said the talk was "broadly publicized including [to] many First Nations."
LJ Slovin and several other members of the Jewish Faculty Network's Vancouver Island chapter decided to also attend Trotter's talk in solidarity with Sy and Chaw-win-is, a PhD candidate at the University of Victoria.
Slovin managed to smuggle in severa...