A slow tale highlighting the ongoing violence of colonialism in its obvious and visceral bulletins of the real killings of 1979 and the quiet sinister ways art and language are abused, stolen, wiped out and forgotten. The Colony is brilliant in the way it lets us into the inner workings of so many characters on the island, most of them wholly awful. Lloyd and JP in particular are led by motives that are so incredibly selfish that they can’t see the harm they bring to the Island. Lloyd is ignorant of it while JP is so blinded by his own desires for greatness he can’t see the irony of how his behaviour is part of the problem. 
The real life killings of people through the troubles in 1979 interspersed throughout just emphasise the more violet harm that’s ongoing.