Land Rights
Indigenous land rights outline Native peoples’ claim to their ancestral homes and the natural resources found within, usually in colonised countries where they have been pushed to the margins (and robbed of autonomy, as well as territory, in the process). Issues of ecological conservation and human rights are likewise central to many Indigenous peoples’ relationships with the land that provides their livelihoods.
That is why colonisation, such as the conquering of North America, has been so profoundly devastating: it robbed First Nation people of their homes, while their social, cultural and spiritual identities were stolen too; treated as collateral damage in the cause of Western Expansion.
And as well as the cultural significance of land access, many Indigenous groups depend on the environment financially. Land is an invaluable asset for Indigenous communities—resources like land and water form the basis of many household economies, including farming, fishing and medicine—making the question of land rights one of autonomy and upward-mobility too.
Many Indigenous groups still use traditional farming practices, yet struggle to defend the land that provides their food and income, often living well below the poverty line as a result. Secure access to land and resources is both a precondition for wellbeing and a vital tool for self-determination in the modern world. Land rights are therefore integral to Indigenous freedom. When land rights are violated, so are all other human rights.
Aboriginal Title (sometimes known as Indigenous or Native Title) is a law stating that Indigenous land rights should continue even after the assumption of power by colonisers. The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, adopted in 2007, forbids governments from allowing lands to be taken without the free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) of their Indigenous peoples. However, these rights are loosely upheld rather than enforced through official channels, leaving territories vulnerable to ownership disputes and environmental degradation. Rights therefore often prove hollow in practice, with implementation commonly delayed or concessions provided to extractive industries – irrespective of native communities.
Despite evident need, there remains little legal process to ensure these rights. No international body deals specifically with the rights of Indigenous people to their ancestral lands. Instead, various provisions are made across disconnected documents, overall failing to safeguard against further theft and exploitation by corporate operations.
Nowhere, and no one—especially marginalised cultures—is safe from corporate interests so long as land rights remain unsecured. These protections are critical in the face of industrial agriculture, which has gladly permitted fertilisers, pesticides, and plantations to destroy many ancient ecosystems in a few decades alone (places which local communities have relied upon to survive for generations) and triggered forced resettlement: a tragedy seen across the globe.
The impact of industrial pollution is rife among such communities, often contaminating their limited land and water supply. In other cases, development projects such as the vast palm oil plantations of Liberia have caused displacement and mass unemployment. As a result, many are advocating for responsible use of the land and for sustainable practices to be implemented that better serve present and future generations. Yet this resistance can place them in greater danger.
The continued, systemic failures to Indigenous people worldwide must be amended for such communities to survive the onslaught of industrial agriculture and other land-polluting practices, but also for their ancestral wisdom to endure, which can provide critical input about how to preserve biodiversity and benefit the whole planet going forward.
To truly provide justice to Indigenous communities, land rights must not just be granted, but rigorously upheld. Due diligence must also be paid by corporations to the Rights of Indigenous People—as laid out by the UN—before developments. These rights must be universally recognised if communities are to stand a chance against financial interests. Principles can’t simply exist on paper. Failure to enact them is not only costing the lives of Indigenous people, widely considered the Earth’s protectors, but the rest of the world too. We are all bound up with their wellbeing, and must see this reflected in government action.
