Indigenous Politics

3 Indigenous issues

by Indra Overland

Review - James C. Scott, The Art of Not Being Governed (New Haven, 2009)

by Uday Chandra

Religion and Society: Advances in Research, Vol. 2 (2011), pp. 194-96.

Written oral history: Dimensions of identity of Chukotka’s indigenous people in the works of Rytkheu

by Ivan Sablin

published in AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, vol. 8, no. 1, 2012, pp. 27–41.

Through the examination of two autobiographic works of Chukchi writer, Rytkheu, this study demonstrates the research... more Through the examination of two autobiographic works of Chukchi writer, Rytkheu, this study demonstrates the research potential of indigenous literatures, offering a new perspective on the past and present of indigenous peoples. The study seeks to provide new interpretations of identity in Chukotka, the northeastern extremity of Asia, of the 1930s and 1940s and to contribute to the identity debate in indigenous studies. In the article identity is understood as a multidimensional whole, with the discussed dimensions being based on ethnicity, nationality, occupation and place of residence. The article pre-eminently addresses the identity of the coastal sea-mammal hunters of Chukotka.

Mapping indigenous Siberia: Spatial changes and ethnic realities, 1900–2010

by Ivan Sablin

co-authored with Maria Savelyeva, published in Settler Colonial Studies, vol. 1, no. 1, 2011, pp. 77–110.

This article discusses spatial changes in the ethnic territories of Native Siberians from the late nineteenth century... more This article discusses spatial changes in the ethnic territories of Native Siberians from the late nineteenth century to the early twenty-first century. A Geographic Information System (GIS) was developed to model and observe these changes. The GIS also features resource-oriented economic activities, major waterways and railroads. Analysis of the model, textual sources and statistical data made it possible to determine what factors constituted Siberia’s ethnographical pattern of the early twentieth century and led to its changes in the ensuing decades and what impact on the indigenous peoples these changes had. Four special maps showing Siberia in the 1900s–10s, 1930s–40s, 1970s–80s and 2000s–10s were produced from the GIS and are included in the article. The current legal status of the indigenous peoples’ territories was also examined. This article presents an interdisciplinary macroscale case study.

Le pastoralisme en Sibérie occidentale: les défis qu'affrontent les éleveurs de Rennes

by Stephan Dudeck

DUDECK (Stephan).- Le pastoralisme en Sibérie occidentale: les défis qu'affrontent
les éleveurs de Rennes.- Paris : Harmattan, 2010.- In : Pasteurs nomades et transhumants
autochtones / Groupe international de travail pour les peuples autochtones (GITPA) p. 125-
149.- Bibliogr. p. 148-149.-
BLANDIN

New Interethnic Relations and Native Perceptions of Human-to-Human Relations in Brazilian Amazonia

by pirjo kristiina virtanen

2009. Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology 14(2): 332-354.

This article attempts to provide fresh insight into the new kinds of intermediaries found in Amazonian native... more This article attempts to provide fresh insight into the new kinds of intermediaries found in Amazonian native communities, showing how interethnic relations have changed
today’s native communities. The text presents a case study of the Manchineri people living in Brazilian Amazonia, focusing in particular on their spokespeople in rural and urban areas. These intermediaries work to produce equality and relatedness within the new social spaces where negotiations are required. Producing new human perspectives with non-natives is necessary in order to interact in the contemporary Amazonian
interethnic sociocosmologies. However, in the Manchineri community, new social roles have caused widening generational, urban–rural and gender gaps. The social logic
of Amazonian native peoples limits the ways in which specific social roles with special interethnic skills are temporarily adopted, and produces new ways to overcome deepening
social, political, and economic distances.

Illegal evictions? Overwriting possession and orality with law’s violence in Cambodia

by Simon Springer

Springer, S. Forthcoming. Illegal evictions? Overwriting possession and orality with law’s violence in Cambodia. Journal of Agrarian Change.

The unfolding of a juridico-cadastral system in present-day Cambodia is at odds with local understandings of... more The unfolding of a juridico-cadastral system in present-day Cambodia is at odds with local understandings of landholding, which are entrenched in notions of community consensus and existing occupation. The discrepancy between such orally recognized antecedents and the written word of law have been at the heart of the recent wave of dispossessions that have swept across the country. Contra the standard critique that corruption has set the tone, this paper argues that evictions in Cambodia are often literally underwritten by the articles of law. Whereas ‘possession’ is a well-understood and accepted concept in Cambodia, a cultural basis rooted in what James C. Scott refers to as ‘orality’, coupled with a long history of subsistence agriculture, semi-nomadic lifestyles, barter economies, and–until recently–widespread land availability have all ensured that notions of ‘property’ are vague among the country’s majority rural poor. In drawing a firm distinction between possessions and property, where the former is premised upon actual use and the latter is embedded in exploitation, this article examines how proprietorship is inextricably bound to the violence of law.

Bombs, threats don't stop the journalists of Kanaky

by David Robie

Robie, David (1987). Bombs, threats don't stop the journalists of Kanaky. Islands Business, November edition.

Bombs, sabotage, death threats and assaults are all in a day's work for the staff of the fledgling radio stations and... more Bombs, sabotage, death threats and assaults are all in a day's work for the staff of the fledgling radio stations and newspaper campaigning for independence in New Caledonia. The three FM stations, operating in the capital, Noumea, the north-eastern town of Hiénghène, and the Loyalty Islands, and the newspaper Bwenando face formidible obstacles. While they see themselves as the “free” voice of Kanaky, they are portrayed by the French-controlled media as “revolutionary” and trying to subvert the French Republic. New Caledonia does not enjoy the freedom of press which is taken for granted in metropolitan France or in neighbouring South Pacific nations such as Australia, New Zealand and even pre-coup Fiji. Although there are few laws that curb the media, the nature of ownership means the mainstream media is heavily biased against the Kanak population which supports independence.

Beyond Subalternity: The Political Aesthetics and Ethics of Adivasi Resistance in Contemporary Jharkhand

by Uday Chandra

Forthcoming, Contemporary South Asia, BASAS Special Issue (January 2013)

Adivasis are typically viewed by scholars, activists, and policymakers alike as primitive subjects trapped within... more Adivasis are typically viewed by scholars, activists, and policymakers alike as primitive subjects trapped within modern state imaginaries. Adivasi politics, therefore, is understood vis-a-vis the dramaturgy of postcolonial tragedy. Such an understanding, I argue, denies any meaningful agency to adivasis, and prevents an exploration of the rich, multi-layered performances of resistance through which adivasi subject-formation is successfully negotiated in postcolonial India. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in contemporary Jharkhand, this paper probes into the myriad tropes and strategies by which the modes, mechanisms, and meanings of modern state power have been reworked and resisted in two apparently opposed moments of resistance: the "peaceful" Koel-Karo anti-dam movement of the 1980s and the ongoing "violent" Maoist movement. In doing so, I show how the aesthetics of power are tied inextricably, albeit ironically, to the ethics of subaltern resistance, each acting and reacting upon the other to define the potentialities of and proscriptions on political expression in the margins of the postcolony.

Convenio169enMexicoyGuatemala

by Bernardo Mendez Lugo

Médio Solimões: Organizações Indígenas e as Políticas de Reconhecimento

by Rafael Barbi C. e Santos

Co-authored with Deborah Magalhães Lima and Marina Oliveira e Souza. Published as article in: RICARDO, Carlos Alberto; RICARDO, Fany. (Orgs.). Povos Indígenas no Brasil 2006/2010. 1a ed. São Paulo: Instituto Socioambiental, 2011.

Nos cadastros de órgãos indigenistas regionais é reconhecido como índio quem nasceu ou mora em terra indígena, seja... more Nos cadastros de órgãos indigenistas regionais é reconhecido como índio quem nasceu ou mora em terra indígena, seja ela demarcada ou ainda em processo de identificação. Atualmente, no entanto, a luta pela terra não mais a única causa das mobilizações indígenas no médio Solimões e muitos estão interessados nos direitos que o reconhecimento, via demarcação de terra, confere, em especial o direito à saúde diferenciada.

Implementing UNDRIP : Developments and Possibilities

by Ravi de Costa

Prairie Forum Vol. 36 (Fall 2011), 55-78.

This paper explores some of the developments and issues arising since the near-universal endorsement of the UN... more This paper explores some of the developments and issues arising since the near-universal endorsement of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP ) in September 2007. It revisits its origins and passage, then briefly reflects on those states that rejected it at that time and why, in order to frame some of the challenges ahead. The body of the paper surveys postendorsement developments in international institutions and endorsing states including litigation and jurisprudence, legislation, as well as the interaction of international and domestic institutions. Given the very recent endorsement by Canada, the paper then considers the prospects for implementation as well as the existing impact of the Declaration in Canadian debates, deploying the theoretical framework of legal transnationalism, which foregrounds the role of non-state actors. Finally, it considers emerging issues that will need to be addressed as part of the consolidation and implementation of UNDRIP.

Cet article explore quelques-uns des développements et des problèmes issus de l’approbation presque universelle de la Déclaration des Nations Unies sur les droits des peuples autochtones (DNUDPA) en septembre 2007. On y revoit ses origines et ses discussions, puis on se penche sur les nations qui l’ont rejetée et sur leurs raisons, dans le but de définir les défis futurs. La majeure partie de cet article porte sur les développements qui ont suivi l’approbation chez les institutions internationales et les nations en accord avec la déclaration: litiges, jurisprudence, législation, et aussi interaction entre institutions internationales et intérieures. Etant donné l’approbation récente du Canada, on considère également les perspectives de mise en application et l’impact de la déclaration sur les débats canadiens, en faisant usage des notions du droit mondialiste, qui met en relief le rôle des acteur non-étatiques. Finalement, on passe en revue les questions auxquelles il faudra s’adresser pour consolider et mettre en application la DNUDPA.

Asymmetric Encounters in Native Canada

by Ravi de Costa

Co-authored with Tristan Knight. American Review of Canadian Studies Vol. 41, No. 3, September 2011, 212–227

Occasionally in recent decades, relations between the Canadian state and particular Native communities have spiralled... more Occasionally in recent decades, relations between the Canadian state and particular Native communities have spiralled into open confrontation and violence. While such instances reflect the failure of conciliatory or decolonizing politics within a liberal–democratic milieu, scholarship has barely begun to analyze these events in a systematic fashion. This article applies to long-standing questions about political behaviour to the study of Native-state relations in Canada. By this, we particularly mean the dynamics of Native peoples’ mobilization and institutional engagement. Examining several recent cases of open confrontation, we look for the basic circumstances in which violence arises, and how confrontation alters internal political dynamics in Native communities.

Cosmology, mobility and exchange: Indigenous diplomacies before the nation‐state

by Ravi de Costa

In J. Marshall Beier and P. Whitney Lackenbauer, eds. Indigenous Diplomacies (New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).

This paper reflects on what non-Indigenous traditions of knowledge, particularly in anthropology, already reveal about... more This paper reflects on what non-Indigenous traditions of knowledge, particularly in anthropology, already reveal about classical Indigenous diplomacy. Attending to the relationships between communities, trans-communal practices and structures, it reconsiders Aboriginal society and politics in Australia before the arrival of the British in the late eighteenth century. Indigenous Australians developed systems for encountering and engaging others beyond their communal boundaries that were based on sensitivity to the interests of others and a concern for the environment, systems that were founded within a cosmological understanding of totality. Given how central Australia’s Indigenous peoples were to the global anthropological theorising about the innate capacity of peoples in the nineteenth century, a recovered history of their diplomacies is not only an appropriate rebuttal to that era of scholarship but also an invitation to contemporary scholars to rethink the grounds of diplomacy itself.

Reconciliation or identity in Australia

by Ravi de Costa

National Identities Vol. 2 No. 3 (November 2000), 277-291.

The struggle by indigenous peoples to assert their rights against the continuing oppression of colonial societies... more The struggle by indigenous peoples to assert their rights against the continuing oppression of colonial societies forms the substance of much contemporary global conflict. Liberal-democratic states like Australia have managed to contain open violence in that struggle, increasingly by shifting it into a seemingly larger debate about national identity. This article evaluates the Australian debate about Aboriginal reconciliation, drawing on work in political theory to suggest that even a generous revisiting of national identity will impair the self-determination of the country’s indigenous peoples. The possibility for reconciliation to be a process of justice is overwhelmed by an emphasis on positive nationalism.

Reconciliation as abdication

by Ravi de Costa

Australian Journal Of Social Issues Vol. 37 No. 4 November 2002

The lack of scholarly analysis of the reconciliation process in Australia remains notable, given that the policy... more The lack of scholarly analysis of the reconciliation process in Australia remains notable, given that the policy commanded so much public attention and political energy during the 1990s, A frequent lament for reconciliation under the Prime Ministership of John Howard, however, evokes the lack of national political
leadership that has been offered. Andrew Leigh's article 'Leadership and Aboriginal Reconciliation' (AJSI, May 2002), is useful as it brings a concern for rigour to definitions of what leadership might actually mean, while encouraging a renewed
critical engagement with the terms of reconciliation itself. The present paper is an attempt to make that engagement within the terms of political leadership: what sort of leadership is appropriate to the policy of reconciliation?

Treaties in British Columbia: the search for a new relationship

by Ravi de Costa

International Journal of Canadian Studies Vol. 27 (Spring 2003), 173-196.

The British Columbia Treaty Process is clearly at a crossroads. Caught between an antagonised indigenous community and... more The British Columbia Treaty Process is clearly at a crossroads. Caught between an antagonised indigenous community and a populist provincial government, the process and its eight years of work towards building a ‘new relationship’ between indigenous and settler peoples in British Columbia, may now be in jeopardy. What has arisen at treaty tables around the province are a set of fundamental oppositions, on issues such as the size of the land and cash packages offered to First Nations, compensation and ‘certainty’. These oppositions have prevented the kind of substantial progress in negotiations that might have ensured public confidence and political support; yet there are clear signs of these positions becoming increasingly entrenched.

Treaty how?

by Ravi de Costa

Discussion about treaties in Australia has usually emphasised the principled relations between Indigenous and settler... more Discussion about treaties in Australia has usually emphasised the principled relations between Indigenous and settler peoples they may bring about. More recently, there have been efforts to consider treaty-making as a more effective context for Indigenous social policy. However, relatively little consideration has been given to the question of why the Australian state (or States) might need to enter into treaties. In this paper I argue that, rather than being the high-water mark of the relationship between Indigenous and settler peoples, treaties are the product of a long-developed rationale of state instrumentalism. I develop this argument by considering the historical context of treaty-making in North America and New Zealand and then focusing closely on the path to the treaty process currently underway in British Columbia. The evidence suggests that Australian treaty proponents have not demonstrated why treaties are in the best interest of the state, and are unlikely to achieve their goal until they do.

Identity, Authority, and the Moral Worlds of Indigenous Petitions

by Ravi de Costa

Comparative Studies in Society and History (2006), 48 : pp 669-698

The global movement of Indigenous peoples has attracted the attention of a number of scholars, notably lawyers,... more The global movement of Indigenous peoples has attracted the attention of a number of scholars, notably lawyers, anthropologists, and cultural theorists (Muehlebach 2003; Anaya 1996; Battiste 2000; Churchill 2003; Dei, Hall, and Rosenberg 2000; Independent Commission 1987; Jull 1999; Kingsbury 1998; Minde 1996; Passy 1999; Pritchard 1998; Radcliffe and Laurie 2001; Feldman 2002; Smith 1999; Ward and Smith 2000; Wilmer 1993). With few exceptions such as Niezen (2000; 2003) and Radha Jappan (1992), this growing interest has not extended to the origins and development of this movement. There are obvious reasons for this: as in other areas of the discipline, historians have seen indigenous movements as matters of national history. However, the growth of “world history” (Hopkins 2002a; Bayly 2004: 432–50) offers a mode of analysis in which varied and related indigenous histories can be considered fruitfully. Moreover, the success of indigenous actors in creating new institutional spaces and a discourse of “indigenous rights” compels historical research into the emergence of the global movement, not least in understanding how very different and dispersed communities have begun to self-identify with the category of indigenous peoples. This is especially so as the movement works toward the declaration of positive international law that can recognize and protect the diversity of first peoples under precisely that banner.

A política indigenista, para além dos mitos da Segurança Nacional

by Ricardo Cavalcanti-Schiel

2009. In: Estudos Avançados 23: 149-164. (Instituto de Estudos Avançados - Universidade de São Paulo).