Theory of Knowledge - Course Companion for Students Marija Uzunova Dang Arvin Singh Uzunov Dang

to affirm the diversity among Indigenous
necessary
and their rights to self-determination.
Peoples
are said to be Indigenous based on
People
and recognition from their
self-identification
The idea of measuring indigeneity
community.
bloodline is problematic, as the Australian
by
Rights and Equal Opportunity
Human
reported in2002.
Commission
Aboriginal people may generally be direct
While
of the original inhabitants of a particular
descendants
form of ‘Seth begat Enosh begat Kenan’
genealogical
order to prove membership of the group. … A
in
may have been adopted into a kinship group
person
there is no direct or suitable ospring to carry
where
ceremonial obligations. … Genetic science
out
have no part to play in determining whether
should
not a person should be eligible for benets. If the
or
of descent is to remain in Australian law
element
a test of Aboriginality, it should be interpreted in
as
with Indigenous cultural protocols.
accordance
United Nations Working Group on
The
Populations (WGIP) adopted a
Indigenous
definition in 1982 but would not
preliminary
on a lasting definition. Later, James Anaya,
agree
United Nations Special Rapporteur on
former
Rights of Indigenous Peoples, made an
the
to define Indigenous Peoples as: “living
attempt
of pre-invasion inhabitants of
descendants
now dominated by others [that remain]
lands
distinct groups that find themselves
culturally
by other settler societies born of forces
engulfed
empire and conquest” (Anaya 2004).
of
leaders have argued that any definition
Indigenous
indigeneity must refer to their ties to land and
of
Many, such as Māori scholar Linda Tuhiwai
place.
of the Ngāti Awa and Ngāti Porou iwi,
Smith
referring to a range of distinct peoples and
By
using the single word “Indigenous”, do we
cultures
Rights include individual as well as
Indigenous
rights. It is the collective rights that protect
collective
basis of Indigenous society, and for which
the
recognition is important from nation states
ongoing
multilateral organizations. Collective rights
and
the rights to self-determination, subsistence
include
self-governance and land. In the context
economies,
Indigenous sovereignty, it is worth pointing out
of
settler states are not being petitioned to grant
that
to Indigenous Peoples, but to recognize and
rights
concept of international human rights
The
the Western democratic societies that
reflects
them, and has tended to overlook
designed
rights in favour of individual rights.
collective
relationships did
Indigenous-settler
begin with the “Age of Discovery”
not
between European
encounters
and their colonies. Most
empires
cultures arrived and settled
human
place at some point in history,
into
the messy timeline of who was
and
first, and what happened upon
where
create the backdrop of claims
contact,
indigeneity today.
to
Ainu, Japan’s Indigenous
The
are a noteworthy example.
People,
by the Japanese state
Acknowledged
in 2008, and officially
only
I. Scope
I. Scope
question whether we should use a single term at all.
of Australia, Indigenous customary law does not
part
on linear proof of descent in the Judeo-Christian
rely
undermine and ignore their differing experiences?
uphold Indigenous Rights, Title and Law.
Box 5.1: The Ainu—Japan’s Indigenous People
Figure 5.1
Ainu group from the Island of Hokkaido or Yezo, Department of
Anthropology, 1904 World’s Fair
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