Speaker 1: Zone media, welcome to krapen here, But you know, very
Speaker 1: few things actually happen am addressage of Thetu channel androism.
Speaker 2: Now, indigenoity is a contentious topic now more than ever,
Speaker 2: not when it comes to flora and fauna. Of course,
Speaker 2: as far as I know, it's a pretty simple matter
Speaker 2: of being considered indigenous to an ecosystem when they haven't
Speaker 2: been introduced through human intervention or manipulated by human cultivation,
Speaker 2: as over millions of years, these living things have become
Speaker 2: well suited to their habitats, carefully adapted to the regions, soil, climate,
Speaker 2: and food web. When it comes to people, we're talking politics,
Speaker 2: they quicks some confusion about what it means to be indigenous,
Speaker 2: especially when questions of land rights, autonomy and reparations and
Speaker 2: to the equation. Most people understand that Native American nations
Speaker 2: and Aboriginal Australians are indigenous, but they don't really know
Speaker 2: what that means. Some might then ask, well, if indigenous
Speaker 2: just means originating from a place, then on all Homo
Speaker 2: sapiens indigenous to Africa, why should one group's claim of
Speaker 2: indigenity take precedence over any other. Others may ask the
Speaker 2: question if a group occupies a region for several generations,
Speaker 2: does that then make them indigenous? A White Americans indigenous
Speaker 2: if their family has been there since the founding of
Speaker 2: the US, A French fupial indigenous to France, And if so,
Speaker 2: does that somehow justify theirs enophobia towards refugees. When generations
Speaker 2: of martialized groups have been struggling to retain their social, cultural, economic,
Speaker 2: and political sovereignty and achieve justice, reparations, and liberation after
Speaker 2: centuries of oppression and attempted annihilation, we need to stand
Speaker 2: in informed solidarity. Thus, it is vital for us to
Speaker 2: understand what it means to be indigenous from what I
Speaker 2: gather through my research, which was focused on the work
Speaker 2: of just a few North American indigenous scholars Tayaki Alfred,
Speaker 2: Jeff Corticell, and Robin Wild Chimera inditionity can be interpreted
Speaker 2: as a matter of colonial relationship and or as a
Speaker 2: matter of a land relationship, a relationship to place. These
Speaker 2: two definitions are of course highly overlappened. You really can't
Speaker 2: get away from how colonization informed the land and vice versa.
Speaker 2: But let's start with the first interpretation of indignity. According
Speaker 2: to Taiyaki Alfred and Jeff Cordicell, indigenousness is an identity constructed, shaped,
Speaker 2: and lived in the politicized context of contemporary colonialism. It
Speaker 2: is an existence oppositional to colonial societies and states, and
Speaker 2: a consciousness of struggle against such forces of colonization. No
Speaker 2: two indigenous groups are exactly alike, of course, there is
Speaker 2: significant diversity in their cultures, contexts, and relationships with colonial forces,
Speaker 2: but they do share that struggle to survive as distinct
Speaker 2: peoples in an environment hostile to their existence. Efforts to
Speaker 2: marginalize and eradicate indigenous peoples may not always be as
Speaker 2: overoid as they once will, with some noticeably overt exceptions,
Speaker 2: but the historic and ongoing dispossession of Indigenous peoples, the
Speaker 2: erasure of Indigenous histories, geographies, and languages, and the current
Speaker 2: situation of deprivation persist. Nonetheless, even so called reconciliation efforts
Speaker 2: are tainted by the reality that Indigenous peoples remain, as
Speaker 2: in earlier colonial eras fundamentally occupied and disempowered peoples, stripped
Speaker 2: of autonomy in their own homelands and pressured into surrender
Speaker 2: and cooperation with an inherently unjust colonial order just to
Speaker 2: ensure their basic physical survival. By this understanding of indigenity,
Speaker 2: it can be set up without a colonizer, without systems
Speaker 2: in place and actions being taken to marginalize, disempower, and
Speaker 2: destroy their societies in favor of a colonial replacement. There's
Speaker 2: no need for the concept of indigenous. Without colonialism, there
Speaker 2: will be no status of indigenous to be imposed upon
Speaker 2: the groups of people whose very existence and claims the
Speaker 2: is an obstacles that colonial endeavor. The un work in
Speaker 2: group of Indigenous Issues drew partially from this understanding when
Speaker 2: attempting to define indigenous peoples in nineteen eighty six. Indigenous communities, peoples,
Speaker 2: and nations are those which have in a historical continuity
Speaker 2: with pre invasion and pre colonial societies they developed in
Speaker 2: their territories. Consider themselves distinct from other sectors the societies
Speaker 2: now prevailing on those territories or parts of them. They
Speaker 2: form at present non dominant sectors of society, and are
Speaker 2: determined to preserve, develop, and transmit to future generations their
Speaker 2: ancestral territories and the ethnic identity as the basis of
Speaker 2: their continued existems as peoples in accordance with their own
Speaker 2: cultural patterns, social institutions, and legal systems. By this definition,
Speaker 2: Amerindians in the Caribbean, Aboriginal Australians, Adivasis in India, Native
Speaker 2: North and South Americans, Siberians, Ainu Goods, Syrians, Yazidi, Palestinians, Amasafe, Sami, Basque,
Speaker 2: Sami Basques, Hawaiians, Maori, san Guti, Papuans, Schams, and many
Speaker 2: more are all indigenous peoples. There are layers of nuance
Speaker 2: yet to be highlighted. The colonial situation is not a
Speaker 2: simple binary of indigenous and colonists. For example, in much
Speaker 2: of the Americas, Africans who were indigenous to their own
Speaker 2: homelands were displaced and enslaved under the colonal regime. They
Speaker 2: may not be indigenous to the Americas, but they won't
Speaker 2: drive and settled colonial society either. In fact, someone enslaved
Speaker 2: for inditionous people as well. At the same time, some
Speaker 2: members of the African diaspora would join existing indigenous societies
Speaker 2: and later create their own, such as the Garifuna of
Speaker 2: Saint Vincent, Honduras and Belize. Meanwhile, in modern Africa, so
Speaker 2: all African ethnic groups can technically be considered indigenous to
Speaker 2: the continent. The concept of specific indigenous peoples within Africa
Speaker 2: refers to those groups whose traditional practices and land claims
Speaker 2: have been placed outside of the dominant state systems and
Speaker 2: exist in the conflict with the objectives and policies implemented
Speaker 2: by post colonial governments, companies, and the surrounding dominant societies.
Speaker 2: Such a definition can similarly be applied to modern day Asia,
Speaker 2: where governments like Indonesia, India, China, Vietnam, and Bangladesh have
Speaker 2: infamously refused to recognize the existence of indigenous peoples within
Speaker 2: their territories. These countries, like most countries in the world,
Speaker 2: did not ratify the International Labor Organization Convention one sixty
Speaker 2: nine in nineteen eighty nine, known as the Indigenous and
Speaker 2: Tribal People's Convention concerning the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The
Speaker 2: UNS Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples pass in
Speaker 2: two thousand and seven, would however, be voted on approvingly
Speaker 2: by most of the world, including the same countries that
Speaker 2: haven't recognized the indigenous peoples within their borders. All four
Speaker 2: of the countries have rejected that particular asis, Canada, America, Australia,
Speaker 2: and New Zealand will later change their vote in favor
Speaker 2: of the declaration, of course, with their own tact on
Speaker 2: interpretations and emphasis on the declarations legally non binding nature,
Speaker 2: as is to be expected from settler colonial societies. There
Speaker 2: are approximately two hundred and fifty to six hundred million
Speaker 2: inditionous peoples around the world today, each facing the reality
Speaker 2: of having their lands, cultures, and forms of organization attacked,
Speaker 2: co opted, commodified, and reconstructed by various states, regardless of
Speaker 2: their legal recognition. Inditionous peoples themselves have long understood that
Speaker 2: the endurances of people will continue to depend on their
Speaker 2: connection to land, culture, and community, which brings us to
Speaker 2: the second interpretation of indigenity, closely related to the first,
Speaker 2: as an identity rooted in a relationship to place, whether
Speaker 2: that be physical as with land, social as with community,
Speaker 2: or cultural as with culture. An indigenous relationship to land
Speaker 2: must be reciprocal with give and take, based on a
Speaker 2: view of the land and water as a gift that
Speaker 2: must be cared for over generations. According to Hodenosuni mythology,
Speaker 2: as recounted by Robin Walkimur in Breaden Sweet Grass, the
Speaker 2: mother goddess Skywoman came to the land as an immigrant
Speaker 2: from the heavens, but became indigenous by listening to the land,
Speaker 2: learning from other species to understand how to live on it,
Speaker 2: given as she received, and caring for the earth and
Speaker 2: its keepers for the sake of those who would inherit
Speaker 2: it when she passed on. In their view, the land
Speaker 2: is identity, It is ancestral connection, it is pharmacy, it
Speaker 2: is library, and it is home, the source of all
Speaker 2: that sustains, and the sacred ground upon which those would
Speaker 2: observe their responsibility to the world. By this understanding, it
Speaker 2: can be said that indigenity is born out of land
Speaker 2: connection established through observation and relationship. Indigenous peoples have historically
Speaker 2: been mobile, either by choice or by force, but regardless
Speaker 2: of where they might find themselves home land or not,
Speaker 2: even if there were other indigenous peoples in their new environments,
Speaker 2: as long as they observed the processes and ceremonies of
Speaker 2: generational relationship building based on mutual respect, understanding, and love
Speaker 2: for the land in common, they remained indigenous. So then
Speaker 2: the question might arise, why aren't settlers indigenous to place
Speaker 2: if their family has lived in land for generations. The
Speaker 2: answer lies in relationship. Settler society as a whole is
Speaker 2: based on an extractivist capitalist relationship with the land, focus
Speaker 2: on exploiting the land and its resources. Without a relationship
Speaker 2: with the land that extends reverence to a deeper understanding
Speaker 2: of its complex into the settler society can never become
Speaker 2: indigenous to place. Of course, it goes with out saying
Speaker 2: that every indigenous group or indigenous practice is perfectly sustainable.
Speaker 2: Some have been rather destructive and even speciocidal. But if
Speaker 2: we are to work with this definition, to conceive of
Speaker 2: being indigenous is something based on cultivating a long term
Speaker 2: relationship to place. That indigenity must be contingent or maintaining
Speaker 2: the health and longevity of that relationship. Without community, there
Speaker 2: cannot be indigenity. Much like the trees in a forest
Speaker 2: are interconnected by subterranean networks of my curacy which enable
Speaker 2: them to share resources and survive as a whole. In
Speaker 2: order to be indigenous to place, community must exist to
Speaker 2: sustain that web of reciprostitute the land so that it
Speaker 2: all may flourish. Indigity to place extends to culture as well,
Speaker 2: which is deeply tied to the land. It develops on
Speaker 2: cultural ceremonies. According to Chimera, focus attention Attention becomes intention.
Speaker 2: If you stand together and profess a thing before your community,
Speaker 2: it holds you accountable. Ceremonies transcend the boundaries of the
Speaker 2: individual and resonate beyond the human realm. Such practices should
Speaker 2: be reciprocal, as ceremonies create communities, and communities create ceremonies
Speaker 2: as well as organic not appropriate in existing cultural celebrations
Speaker 2: or tendon toward the commercial. Our social fabric has become
Speaker 2: withered and fragmented by the pace of modern life, leaving
Speaker 2: little room for ceremonies outside of religion or rites of
Speaker 2: personal transitions such as birthdays, weddings, and funerals. But ceremonies
Speaker 2: and the shared emotions they generate are part of what
Speaker 2: builds community. When we gather for graduations, for example, a
Speaker 2: sense of pride, relief, nostalgia, and excitement build in the
Speaker 2: social atmosphere, hopefully fuel in the confidence and strength of
Speaker 2: those who are going on to pursue their passions. But
Speaker 2: Kimura wants us to imagine standing by a river flooded
Speaker 2: with those same feelings as the salmon margins the auditorium
Speaker 2: of their estuary being indigenous to place means cultivating cultural
Speaker 2: ceremonies that honor the land and all the cycles and
Speaker 2: seasons of life within it. Now that we have a
Speaker 2: clearer understanding of these two distinct yet related understandings of
Speaker 2: indigenity as both an identity formed as part of a
Speaker 2: clual relationship and an identity rooted in a relationship to place,
Speaker 2: I believe that we should explore how this understanding can
Speaker 2: be applied to decolonization and social revolution. Decolonization is the
Speaker 2: process of unsettling colonial power structures, whether that be through
Speaker 2: overturning acts of enclosure by building new commons, overturned acts
Speaker 2: of possession by reclaiming our spaces and identities, or overturning
Speaker 2: acts of administration through social revolution. Social revolution is a
Speaker 2: complete transformation of our society, economy, culture, philosophy, technology, relationships
Speaker 2: and politics, an ongoing and heterogenous change in people's powers, tribes,
Speaker 2: and consciousness through practical education, as well as a progressive
Speaker 2: breakdown and transformation of existence, systems and institutions punctuated by
Speaker 2: major ruptures and advances, or with the aim of self liberation.
Speaker 2: It takes confrontation with the powers that be non cooperation
Speaker 2: with the established order of things, and prefiguration of new
Speaker 2: social relations institutions and infrastructure and practices in the here
Speaker 2: and now. If we maintain the interpretation of indignity as
Speaker 2: based on one's position in a colonial relationship, then the
Speaker 2: decolonization process will entail the abolition of that relationship as
Speaker 2: the premise of identity and therefore the abolition of indignity
Speaker 2: as a status. Colonial legacies have effectively left indigenous communities
Speaker 2: legally and politically compartmentalized and culturally, socially and spiritually weakened
Speaker 2: within the narrow parameters of the state, where they end
Speaker 2: up diverting the crucial energy necessary to confront state power
Speaker 2: and develop the process of the econization toward mimicking the
Speaker 2: practices of the dominant non indigenous legal political institutions through
Speaker 2: for example, land claims and self government processes. What the
Speaker 2: deconalization movement needs, according to Maya Yucateco poet Fliciano Sanchez Chan,
Speaker 2: are zones of refuge, places where indigenous knowledge can be guarded, exercised,
Speaker 2: and sustained. In Mesoamerica, these zones of refuge represent safe
Speaker 2: spaces where the diverse cultural expressions of the region can
Speaker 2: persist in spite of state efforts to create a homogenized
Speaker 2: Mexican national identity. The concept of zones of refuge is
Speaker 2: consistent of the traditional objectives of cultural preservation and autonomy,
Speaker 2: or the social revolutionary aims of prefiguration, which seeks to
Speaker 2: stow the seeds of future relationships, institutions and practices in
Speaker 2: the here and now. To the expansion of zones of
Speaker 2: refuge and other institutions resistance and autonomy, we can realize
Speaker 2: decononization in reality. But again, this idea of indigenativ econization
Speaker 2: is just one understanding of the term. We need to
Speaker 2: explore another approach to the declonization, one that recognizes the
Speaker 2: power and potential of indigenous relationships with the land. Globally,
Speaker 2: the UN recognizes that additionous people to protect eighty percent
Speaker 2: of the world's remaining in biodiversity, and scientists have shown
Speaker 2: that indigenous management practices in Brazil, Canada, and Australia provide
Speaker 2: the same level of ecosystem support and protection as any
Speaker 2: imposed protected area, which makes it abundantly clear the colonial
Speaker 2: approach of conservation via dispossession removes the very people who
Speaker 2: take care of our most important ecosystems over the course
Speaker 2: of braidiance. Sweet grass robin wall chimera highlights the reciprocal
Speaker 2: relationship with the earth that many indigenous groups, including her
Speaker 2: Potwatomi culture, have cultivated over generation. The principles of the
Speaker 2: gift economy is an essential aspect to this relationship, which
Speaker 2: forms the basis of indigenity to place. The gift economy
Speaker 2: is a system of exchange where resources and services are
Speaker 2: shared without expectation of remuneration or quit brokeu. The gift
Speaker 2: economy extends not just a people, but also our non
Speaker 2: human can caring and being cared for. In turn, if
Speaker 2: we want to restore that relationship, we can start by
Speaker 2: planting a garden. A garden could be a heathen for
Speaker 2: native flora, a rest in place verus fauna, a feast
Speaker 2: for dangered pollinators, a sustainer of local water table, and
Speaker 2: a hub of thriving soil. Not only does it benefit
Speaker 2: both our health and the health of the planet, but
Speaker 2: is also a nurstry for nurturing or connection that extends
Speaker 2: beyond that small patch of dute. I don't believe that
Speaker 2: merely building a connection of the land can make someone indigenous,
Speaker 2: but not being indigenous doesn't exclude us from aiding the
Speaker 2: renewal of the world. Kimer uses the exam of the
Speaker 2: broad leaf planting or son as the white man's footprint.
Speaker 2: Despite not being indigenous to the Americas, it has become
Speaker 2: an honored member of the plant community because it thrives
Speaker 2: as a good neighbor instead of as a destructive invader.
Speaker 2: While other invasive species poisonless soil or overrun the land,
Speaker 2: the white man's footprint are called a strategy of helpful
Speaker 2: co existence, even sharing some of its healing properties with
Speaker 2: those who ask of it. It is not indigenous, but
Speaker 2: it has become naturalized. Quote. Being naturalized to a place
Speaker 2: means to live as if this is the land that
Speaker 2: feeds you, as if these are the strains from which
Speaker 2: you drink to build your body and fill your spirit.
Speaker 2: To become naturalized is to know that your ancestors lie
Speaker 2: in this ground. Hey you will give your gifts and
Speaker 2: meet your responsibilities. To become naturalized is to live as
Speaker 2: if your children's future matters. To take care of the
Speaker 2: land as if our lives and the lives of all
Speaker 2: our relatives depend on it, because they do decolonization require
Speaker 2: us to uproot invasive irreferend and destructive individualists, capitalists, setlers
Speaker 2: societies in order to rebuild in a way that treats
Speaker 2: the land like the home that we share. And our
Speaker 2: response will for it will require us to receive honor
Speaker 2: the knowledge in the land, to care for its keepers,
Speaker 2: and pass on that knowledge the next generation. And it
Speaker 2: is crucial that we elevate Indigenous voices, knowledges, and pedagogical
Speaker 2: approaches in pursuit of this aim or power to all
Speaker 2: the people this has been It could happen here peace.
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