International Day of Indigenous Peoples

First Nations, Aboriginal or Indigenous peoples, who are we talking about?

The San, long called the Bushmen in Botswana, live in the Kalahari Desert located between Namibia, South Africa and Botswana.

© GettyImages

Text by: Patricia Blettery Follow

10 mins

They have a very strong relationship to the land, to nature.

They fight against discrimination, assimilation and standardization of their culture, their identity, their way of life.

The words used to designate the first inhabitants of a territory are multiple and have evolved over the years, to the rhythm of their struggles to redefine their collective identities.

Interview with Irène Bellier, anthropologist and research director at the CNRS.

Advertising

Read more

RFI: Why do we no longer (or rarely) talk about indigenous peoples?

Irène Bellier

: The word indigenous means, in the strict sense, a person living in the country where he was born.

At the time of the negotiation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the terms “ 

 ” in Spanish and in English “ 

” were accepted.

These two languages ​​are very important because there are many more Spanish-speaking and English-speaking indigenous peoples than French-speaking ones.

But the French-speaking indigenous peoples refuted the term indigenes because of the unequal, discriminatory status linked to the politics of indigénat practiced in the colonies, especially in North Africa as in other parts of Africa and in Asia. .

Faced with this, the French-speaking indigenous peoples of Africa, North America, Asia and Oceania have aligned themselves with the choice of the term “indigenous peoples”.

Autochthonous means one who is born of the earth, who comes from the earth.

In the expression “indigenous peoples”, the term “people” includes the notion of societies, of collectives which have their own organicity.

Before the colonizer arrived, whoever he was, they governed themselves, had institutions that managed the relationship to the territory, the distribution of land, the education of children.

A clean governance therefore... But when the colonizer arrived, whether Spanish, British, French, Dutch, German or other, he arrived with his religion and relied on the theory of "

to appropriate the land.

This theory dates from the 15th century.

The pope thus authorizes the Castilian and Portuguese kings who are Christians to share the conquered lands, and to appropriate them.

It is in reality a doctrine of dispossession for the benefit of the dominant (and not of property) which leads to the denial of the existence of human beings, non-Christians, who are there, on this earth.  

Is there a definition of indigenous peoples?

A list of those that exist?

There is no substantial definition.

No list either.

It is a generic category which makes it possible to pose the right concerning these populations which were marginalized and despoiled by colonizations.

It has an effect in international law.

The notion of relational political category is important to remember because one is indigenous because of certain historical circumstances and in relation to the other people who make up the dominant society.

The work of Professor José Martínez Cobo, commissioned in 1971 by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations to carry out a study on the discrimination experienced by indigenous peoples, the first step towards the adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007, refers.

For him, are indigenous peoples, people "

”.

Can you remind us why the Native peoples of America have long been called Indians? 

This is now well known evidence.

Christopher Columbus left Spain in 1492 with three caravels.

He wants to restore the route to India.

He sails and arrives on an island now shared between the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

Arrived there, he meets people whom he will call “Indians” because he thought he was in India.

Subsequently, the continent will be called "America" ​​in reference to the first name of Amerigo Vespucci, the pilot of the

on which Christopher Columbus sailed. 

How did the Indigenous Peoples Claims Movement originate? 

Let us remember that the American continent was occupied by British, Spanish, French, Dutch and Portuguese colonizers.

In Asia and the Pacific, colonization began in the 18th century.

In Africa, rather from the 19th century.

On a planetary scale, there is a set of people who are in a situation marked by the remnants or the current existence of colonialism.

In the 1960s, struggles developed on the American continent.

It is the very strong demands for the civil and civic rights of black Americans who demand the end of segregation.

From then on, the Indians of the Americas, who had never renounced their sovereignty, also engaged in similar battles.

It was a trigger.

A movement was created in the 1960s in the United States, the "

”, which still exists.

Also in Canada.

From there, encounters will be set up between the Indian peoples who, it should be remembered, have different names, cultures and languages.

They were all called Indians because of that initial mistake by Christopher Columbus.

Spanish-speaking natives will join the English-speaking movements.

At this time, anthropologists also began to denounce the massacres of indigenous populations and founded the first support organizations that would help bring indigenous claims to the United Nations.

Australia and New Zealand will experience identical situations of struggle by Aborigines (in Australia) and Maoris (New Zealand).

The latter had signed with the British crown,

, which has been continually violated.

In the 1975s, a very important Maori movement demanded respect for the treaty.

From there, arrangements are put in place to ensure that the state respects the treaty, mainly by returning the land that was stolen by the settlers.

In the Australian Aboriginal world it's a little bit different because there isn't really a treaty that concerns the many societies (over 250 distinct languages ​​and nations).

But the fact is that these populations have been savagely decimated.

The Slow Recognition of Australian Indigenous Rights

Australia, like other countries in America, has experienced genocide, to the point that only 10% of the aboriginal populations remain shortly after first contact.

The manhunt existed, against a backdrop of major racism.

The natives, the aborigines were also decimated by epidemics and situations which accentuated their mortality.

This denial of their right to exist will continue before awareness operates.

In 1967, Australia recognized the aborigines as citizens.

In 1993,

asserted the right to the land, and a Supreme Court judgment, now known as

, abolished the "Terra nullius" doctrine.

Why do we find the term aboriginal in Australia and Canada? 

There too, there is a distinction to be made between the French-speaking use and the English-speaking use of the word aboriginal.

" 

 " means those who have been there since the beginning, it is totally accepted by English speakers.

So the English-speaking natives of Canada accept this term, it is used systematically in English.

In Canada, there are three types of aboriginals.

The Canadian government website specifies this.

First Nations (Native Americans), Inuit who live in the Northern part, Alaska, Canada, Greenland.

And the Métis, mainly English-speaking, from a generation of French trappers, therefore of European descent.

About six thousand people are affected by this qualification.  

What do all these peoples have in common?

Their relationship to nature, to the earth? 

Indigenous peoples derive their sustenance from their environment.

It is a characteristic common to all.

They need a living environment, not abused by mines, by oil exploration, by large cattle or other farms, or even by roads.

Because with the road which obviously facilitates the passage of many flows, including illegal ones, colonization is developing on both sides of the road and the forest, for example, is in great danger, as we see in the Amazon, in Central Africa or in Indonesia. .

As soon as it serves a mine, all sorts of people settle near the roads, a colonization front is set up, the noise of explosives scares the animals away.

The waters of the rivers will be contaminated.

VS'

If it weren't for the Indians in the Amazon, the Amazon rainforest would have totally disappeared.

They are really protective and pay for it with their lives.

According to the annual reports of the United Nations Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, for the past ten years, murders for environmental and indigenous reasons have been constantly increasing on all continents.

The natives are murdered because they demand controls and protect the territories from the most flagrant abuses.

A major problem is posed by deforestation and the extractive industries, that is to say the mining and oil industries, the agro-industry with the monocultures of oil palms and soya.

They now represent 5% of the world's population and protect 80 to 90% of biodiversity.

Their ways of

exploitation are infinitely less damaging.

They take the right quantities necessary for their existence.

What do we celebrate every August 9?

It is thanks to international recognition that today we can talk about indigenous peoples, their culture, their language.

Did you learn, in history or geography, whether in primary or secondary school or even at university, that there were indigenous peoples in France?

The Amerindians who live in French Guiana, the six peoples (Arawak, Kalina, Lokono, Wayampi, Wayana, Palikwene) but also the Bushinenge do not want to disappear.

Just like the Kanaks in New Caledonia;

or the Mao'hi in Polynesia, they need support to be able to exist, objects that they must collect to be able to practice their rituals, respect for their practices and their knowledge... The French language is a steamroller .

It's a pity not to consider in France that

one can learn several languages ​​from early childhood.

It took decades, and it is still unrealized, for indigenous languages ​​to be taught.

Why is it so complicated for the French to understand that one can be French and native.

While we understand quite easily that we are French and European.

Dual membership is possible.

The challenge of recognizing the rights of indigenous peoples is all that!

This is not folklore!

Dual membership is possible.

The challenge of recognizing the rights of indigenous peoples is all that!

This is not folklore!

Dual membership is possible.

The challenge of recognizing the rights of indigenous peoples is all that!

This is not folklore! 

On folklore, there are a whole bunch of terms that have disappeared over the years.

We no longer speak of Eskimos which means "eater of raw meat" but of Inuits, we no longer speak either of Lapps but of Sámis.

Why ? 

The disappearance of these terms is linked to the claim of these peoples who have succeeded in obtaining at least the recognition of their own names.

This testifies very concretely to their struggles.

They said “

".

Because Inuit means “human being”.

Similarly, Lapon comes from the English “lap”, which means “rag”.

However, the Sámis wear their identities on very distinctive clothes.

It is difficult for a non Sami to identify the exact community origin of a Sami but the colors, the embroidery, make sense and it is not rags, quite the contrary.

Like many other indigenous peoples around the world today, who were misnamed by colonizers who did not understand their languages ​​as they settled on their lands with all their prejudices, indigenous peoples are reclaiming their names.

Let's not talk about the Orejones anymore, let's talk about the Maijuna.

The Jivaros are now called Shuars and Achuars.

Let's get to know the richness of these worlds, their languages ​​and the cultures they carry!

► 

Indigenous

, article by Irène Bellier on the EspacesTemps.net website

Indigenous peoples around the world.

The challenges of recognition

, by Irène Bellier at L'Harmattan editions

The rights of indigenous peoples: From the United Nations to local societies by Irène Bellier, Leslie Cloud, Laurent Lacroix, L'Harmattan editions

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_EN

• Environment

• Human rights

• Amazon

• Brazil

• Africa

• Company

• UN