Indigeneity: An Introduction

To say “Indigenous and tribal peoples” is to refer to between 370 to 500 million people, found in more than 90 countries worldwide. So, what does this term mean? Officially, indigeneity includes all people native to a land that has since been colonised by another, now dominant ethnic group.

Indigenous people (also called First Nation, Aboriginal, or Native peoples) carry their own culture and ethnicity down through generations; one both preceding and distinct from the mainstream/settler society – such as on the American continent. Tribal people, by contrast, are distinguished from other areas of society at large by the full retention of their own social, cultural, and economic traditions (as opposed to practicing partial integration).

Many Indigenous communities have survived profound trauma—which likewise becomes generational, as descendants find themselves suffering from displacement and inequality— from horrors such as genocide, resettlement, and crude attempts at re-education (basically, the eradication of their homes, languages and customs in the name of “civilisation”). Today, although they are only about 5% of the world’s total population, they make up 15% of our extreme poor, while life expectancy among Indigenous groups is 20 years lower than non-Indigenous people. This is the result of systemic oppression at the hands of affluent, western powers that now claim ownership of their homelands, often exploiting its resources (and native people) for profit.

It’s a tragic reality that Indigenous people still largely lack formal recognition of their land rights and rights to natural resources. Such communities are commonly denied the basic privileges of other citizens: their access to social and legal justice, to democracy and economic opportunity are often limited—if not barred—and they are generally the last to receive government investment. This disenfranchisement leaves them vulnerable to disasters, while wealthier communities are comparably shielded, as seen during COVID-19 or in the mounting climate crisis .

The impact of insecure land rights is far-reaching, leading to conflict and stunted societal development. In cases where Indigenous territories are legally recognised, they still have no guaranteed protection from corporate land grabs of natural resources found therein; not to mention from ongoing environmental degradation; also, commonly due to industrial extraction, such as by fracking or deforestation firms.

Perhaps more tragic is the corresponding debt of gratitude we owe to Indigenous cultures, whilst routinely denying them equal participation in decision-making (on which they are uniquely equipped to weigh in). What commonly unites these varied, global groups is a mutual commitment to ancestral practices that have long seen them operate in harmony with the Earth. Within many native traditions, a reverence for nature is integral to their way of life, the basis for their entire outlook, in fact, as they remain attuned to humanity’s fundamental reliance upon ecological prosperity, seeing themselves as part of the Earth—rather than separate-to or above—which has been lost somewhere amid our great leaps towards modernity and into anthropocentrism.

As the survival of these groups is placed under threat, so too do we risk losing all the knowledge intrinsic to their histories and cultures about how to protect biodiversity and maintain (or rather, improve) environmental health, which are of course essential to our own wellbeing - not that you’d guess from our 21st Century, carbon-intensive cultural norms…

Over the past two decades, Indigenous peoples’ rights have been increasingly recognised, granting them greater authority on the world stage; seen in several UN declarations enshrining their rights in international law. However, this is still not enough to protect them from the capitalist system of impossible growth, and therefore not enough to protect any of us from the outcome of that misguided course. Our best hope is to remember what Indigenous cultures have always understood: that we are all one, and so must act as one – for all of our survival.

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