Indigenous peoples
What defines a people as Indigenous?
When did the concept of indigeneity develop?
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Indigenous peoples, distinct, generally nondominant cultural groups within the countries in which they live. They are typically descended from the population that occupied a territory prior to colonization by another people (who themselves often form the dominant culture of the country). Fundamental to indigeneity is the self-identification as Indigenous, and they frequently have a special relationship with their traditional lands. While the above are commonly cited characteristics, no one definition of âIndigenous peoplesâ exists.
Defining Indigenous peoples
No singular definition of Indigenous peoples exists. The English word indigenous has been applied to peoples (namely, the Samoyed peoples of Siberia) since at least the 16th century. By the 17th century it was applied to the peoples of the Americas. In these early centuries, however, the concept was not an identity in the way it would become in the 20th century.
The 1960s and 1970s saw the rise of indigeneity as an identity that crossed national boundaries as activists connected the struggles of various colonized peoples across the Americas and in Oceania. The United Nations (UN) first attempted a definition of the term indigenous in 1972 when JosĂ© MartĂnez Cobo, the special rapporteur to the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, submitted a report following his study on discrimination against Indigenous peoples. While he did not specify which peoples were to be considered Indigenous, he put forth a definition, writing:
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Indigenous populations are composed of the existing descendants of the peoples who inhabited the present territory of a country wholly or partially at the time when persons of a different culture or ethnic origin arrived there from other parts of the world, overcame them and, by conquest, settlement or other means, reduced them to a non-dominant or colonial condition; who today live more in conformity with their particular social, economic and cultural customs and traditions than with the institutions of the country of which they now form part, under a State structure which incorporates mainly the national, social and cultural characteristics of other segments of the population which are predominant.
Other definitions created in the latter part of the 20th century echo many of these themes. Founded in 1975, the World Council of Indigenous Peoples defined the term, in part, as referring to a group who was descended from the earliest inhabitants of a region but who did not control the modern government of the country. A number of definitions, particularly from this period, drew an explicit connection between Indigenous peoples and European colonialism. In the 1980s some politicians and activists expanded their definitions to include Asian and African groups. Still, some argued that such Old World groups could not be Indigenous at least as late as the 1990s.
The International Labour Organization, in its 1989 convention on Indigenous and tribal peoples, stated that the convention applied to âtribal peoples in independent countries whose social, cultural and economic conditions distinguish them from other sections of the national communityâ as well as peoples who are Indigenous by means of descent from precolonial populations. Perhaps more significantly, it added that self-identification as Indigenous was an important criterion.
Indigenous rights
The first international treaty dealing with the rights of Indigenous peoples across the globe was the International Labour Organization Convention No. 107 on Indigenous and Tribal Populations (1957). A main goal was the âprogressive integration [of Indigenous peoples] into the life of their respective countries.â The protections it established for Indigenous groupsâsuch as the protection of cultural institutions, the respect for customary laws, and the recognition of land rightsâwere meant to last only until the communities were sufficiently integrated into broader society. While the convention was a step toward the recognition of Indigenous rights, many have criticized it as a form of paternalism.
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A revision to Convention No. 107 came with ILO Convention No. 169, called the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention (1989). The goals of this convention were less assimilationist than those of its predecessor. Rather than making the development of systems to protect Indigenous peoples the primary responsibility of governments, as it was in Convention No. 107, the new convention required governments to work with Indigenous groups to develop âco-ordinated and systemic action to protect the rights of these peoples and to guarantee respect for their integrity.â It further recognized the right of Indigenous peoples to set their own developmental priorities and affirmed their connection with their traditional lands.
The aforementioned ILO conventions paved the way for the UNâs 2007 Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This document affirmed that Indigenous peoples have âcollective rights which are indispensable for their existence, well-being and integral development as peoples.â Instead of merely calling on governments to consult Indigenous peoples in matters that affect them, the declaration asserted that governments should get the âfree, prior, and informed consentâ of Indigenous groups before implementing measures that would affect them or relocate them from their traditional homelands, or before approving resource development projects near their lands. It further recognized the inherent right of Indigenous people to self-determination and autonomy in internal affairs.