![]() ![]() Les Malezer: In Australia there is a clear demarcation between who was here before 1788 and who was here after. We know who owned the land before the present Nepal was created. Stella Tamang: In the case of Nepal, indigenous peoples would be those peoples who were living in a specific territory with their own control before the region was conquered by outsiders. These are the things that need to change in order for us to enjoy the rights in the declaration. In a lot of ways, we’re dependent on natural resources that are being expropriated. We don’t have health services we have very few educational resources we have none of the infrastructure to which all people should be entitled. There is constantly a lack of consultation, even on matters touching on our own livelihoods. We’re not included in policy discussions. We have lost our lands and our resources we’re not quite recognized within our state which is always trying to transform us into farmers or whatever else. Our situation-whether political, social, or cultural-is similar to that of indigenous peoples all over the world. These are the issues that go beyond a definition. Just listen to the issues that these peoples are talking about. So I think we should enlighten resistant states with information, facts, and the reality within their own countries. And it didn’t take too long or too much effort it just took thinking and listening and hearing. When the working group conducted a sensitization seminar in September 2006 in Cameroon, there was resistance in the beginning, but Cameroon is now one of the supporters of the declaration. They then have dealt with the problems in their own areas. Sensitive governments have asked the right questions and have gotten the right answers. And in fact, that is what our experience as members of the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights Working Group of Experts on Indigenous Populations/Communities has been. You don’t have to define an elephant to know what it is. ![]() Naomi Kipuri: I think sensitive governments should not talk of definitions I think they should talk of the actual situation of indigenous peoples in their countries. How can a state know to whom the rights in the declaration should apply? She also is a member of Cultural Survival’s Program Council.Ĭultural Survival: The declaration does not have a definition of who is indigenous. She founded Bikalpa Gyan Kendra in Nepal to provide an education and contribute to students’ livelihood by combining book learning with practical skills. Stella Tamang was chair of the International Women’s Caucus at the third session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and is the chair of the South Asia Indigenous Women Forum and an advisor of Nepal Tamang Women Ghedung. She also is a member of Cultural Survival’s Program Council. She is a teacher, spokesperson, curator, interpreter, consultant, and indigenous rights activist. She is a nationally known artist who has revived her tribe’s traditional pottery-making techniques. Ramona Peters (Nosapocket of the Bear Clan) is a Mashpee Wampanoag from Cape Cod, Massachusetts. She also is on the advisory board of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights and the Technical Advisory Council on Land Policy. She is a member of the Working Group on Indigenous Peoples/Communities of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Naomi Kipuri is an anthropologist and the director of the Arid Lands Institute, which grew out of the Arid Lands and Resource Management Network, a regional project on pastoralism in Eastern Africa. He has been the prime lobbyist at the United Nations for the declaration and is a member of Cultural Survival’s Program Council. He also is the chairperson for the international Indigenous Peoples’ Caucus. Les Malezer, native Australian of the Gabi Gabi community, is the general manager for the Foundation for Aboriginal and Islander Research Action in Woolloongabba, Australia. To help dispel fears and misapprehensions, we asked four indigenous leaders to talk about their understanding of the terms of the declaration and to reflect on what the practical implications would be if the declaration is adopted by the United Nations and implemented around the world. But that is largely because states do not entirely understand what it is indigenous peoples are seeking. For those states, these elements seem to threaten economic and political chaos on several fronts. Among the states of the United Nations, the ones that have concerns about the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples tend to focus on three elements: the lack of a definition of “indigenous,” land rights, and the concept of self-determination. ![]()
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