Who is indigenous?

15th January 2012

Post reblogged from Ardeur en l'Odyssée with 102 notes

Who is indigenous?

by selchieproductions

Many people turn to official documents and definitions when they want to define something or someone, but the reality is that there is no universally agreed-upon definition of indigeneity. What is more - a contemporary approach to indigeneity states that we should start moving away from simply defining indigenous people and instead start identifying them; in other words, it’s time to stop trying to define the term and instead start talking with indigenous peoples and attack the real issues facing their communities today.

What is more, when it comes to the term ‘indigenous’ it is important to remember that while the term is taken to be universally applicable to similar people around the world, different countries have and use their own terms alongside ‘indigenous’.

Thus terms like Adivasi may seem more appropriate when talking about Indian indigenous groups, whereas aboriginal is used for the same thing in both Australia and Canada. Canada at the same time, however, uses the term First Nations, whereas the States have gone back and forth between American Indian and Native American for many years. Tribal peoples have been used to refer to certain stratospheres of the pan-indigenous community and some post-colonial critics use the term original people, as they compare the use of ab- in front of original with the use of ab in words like abnormal.

At the same time, however, a number of criterions exist that are, if not universally agreed upon, then at least more or less taken for granted as guide lines when trying to establish who is and who isn’t indigenous.

Read More

Source: selchieproductions

Onedropcolors

Who is indigenous?