“Decolonization Is Not a Metaphor” (cite: Tuck & Yang, 2012) is a 2012 article by Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang, published in Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society. The paper argues that the term “decolonization” has been adopted by settler institutions and progressive movements in ways that empty it of its specific meaning: the repatriation of Indigenous land and life.
Tuck and Yang identify several “settler moves to innocence” — rhetorical strategies by which settlers adopt decolonial language without confronting the material basis of settler colonialism (land theft). These moves include claiming Indigenous ancestry, equating all oppressions with colonization, adopting decolonial frameworks as metaphors for social justice, and treating Indigenous futures as compatible with continued settler occupation.
The paper insists that decolonization is incommensurable with other social justice frameworks: it requires the return of land, not simply the reform of settler institutions. This incommensurability is not a failure of solidarity but a condition that honest solidarity must confront.