AFRICA

The Hunter-gatherers
The indigenous people of Africa are groups of people native to a specific region; people who lived
there before colonists or settlers arrived, defined new borders and began to occupy the land. This
definition applies to all indigenous groups, whether inside or outside of Africa. Although the vast
majority of Native Africans can be considered to be "indigenous" in the sense that they originated
from that continent and nowhere else (like all Homo sapiens), identity as an "indigenous people" is in
the modern application more restrictive.

Not every African ethnic group claims identification under these terms. Groups and
communities who do claim this recognition are those who by a variety of historical and
environmental circumstances have been placed outside of the dominant state systems. Their
traditional practices and land claims often have come into conflict with the objectives and policies
promulgated by governments, companies, and surrounding dominant societies.

The history of the indigenous African peoples spans thousands of years and includes a
complex variety of cultures, languages, and political systems. Indigenous African cultures
have existed since ancient times, with some of the earliest evidence of human life on the
continent coming from stone tools and rock art dating back hundreds of thousands of years.
The earliest written records of African history come from ancient Egyptian and Nubian texts,
which date back to around 3000 B.C. These texts provide insight into the societies of the
time, including religious beliefs, political systems, and trade networks. In the centuries that
followed, various other African civilizations rose to prominence, such as the Kingdom of
Kush in northern Sudan and the powerful empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai in West Africa.

IP in the Contemporary African Context

The highly diverse and numerous ethnic groups that comprise most modern, independent African
states contain within them various peoples whose situations, cultures, and pastoralist or hunter-
gatherer lifestyles are generally marginalized and set apart from the dominant political and economic
structures of the nation. Since the late 20th century these peoples have increasingly sought
recognition of their rights as distinct indigenous peoples, in both national and international contexts.

The Indigenous Peoples of Africa Co-ordinating Committee (IPACC) was founded in 1997. It is one of
the main transnational network organizations recognized as a representative of African indigenous
peoples in dialogues with governments and bodies such as the UN. In 2008, IPACC was composed of
150 member organizations in 21 African countries.

INDIGENOUS PEOPLE IN ASIA

Two-thirds of the world’s indigenous peoples are estimated to live in Asia, in other words
approximately 260 million people representing 2,000 distinct civilizations and languages. The
different terms used to refer to them at the national level, ranges from “hill tribes” and “indigenous
nationalities”, to “tribal peoples”, “ethnic minorities”, and “natives”, and testify to the variety of
their experiences in the region.
A. Overview of concerned groups in the countries under review

Several countries have established dedicated

national commissions responsible for indigenous
peoples’ affairs, the membership of which
includes indigenous peoples themselves (India
and the Philippines)

National Commission on Indigenous Peoples

The NCIP shall protect and promote the interest and well-being of the Indigenous Cultural
Communities/Indigenous Peoples with due regard to their beliefs, customs, traditions, and
institutions.

▪ Some of the countries covered by the study have legal provisions for public consultation (for
example Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam), which are unlikely to provide sufficient attention
and guarantees relating to the rights and interests of indigenous peoples. Others have
provisions for dedicated consultations with indigenous peoples regarding specific issues, for
example, the consultation requirement contained in India’s Forest Rights Act.

▪ In the Philippines, the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act provides that the Government may not
issue licenses or permits for the exploitation of natural resources unless a consultation
process in line with the Act has taken place, and the National Commission on Indigenous
Peoples issues a certification in this regard.

RIGHTS, ISSUES AND CHALLENGES of IPs in Asia

RIGHTS ON LAND AND NATURAL RESOURCES

The vast majority of indigenous peoples in Asia depend on access to land and natural
resources for their livelihood. As articulated in Convention No. 169, the territories that
indigenous peoples occupy and otherwise use have a special importance for their cultures
and spiritual values. At the same time, their traditional activities, including shifting
cultivation, hunting, gathering, and fishing, are important factors in the maintenance of their
cultures and their economies and development.
 Education and Culture

In the field of education and culture targeting indigenous peoples. Such measures could be
further strengthened as they are crucial for promoting respect for indigenous cultures,
identities, and ways of life, for combatting negative stereotypes that underpin and nurture
assimilationist attitudes and approaches, and for ensuring the access of indigenous girls and
boys to quality education.

Illiteracy and drop-out rates, however, particularly after primary education level, for
indigenous girls and boys remain higher than national averages owing to a range of different
factors, including, among others, discrimination, language barriers, lack of facilities and
teachers, the content of school curricula, distances, and costs. Only in a few countries, such
as Nepal and the Philippines, does the national legislation recognize the right of indigenous
peoples to establish and manage educational institutions.

Decent Work and Social Protection

Decent work and social protection for indigenous women and men is another key policy area
for ensuring inclusive and sustainable development in Asia.

Given that a vast majority live in rural areas, policies for rural development are a key entry
point for addressing the rights and needs of indigenous peoples. Most of the countries
reviewed have policies that emphasize support to communities through access to training
and skills development, entrepreneurship and enterprise development, and access to
markets and credit.

Prejudices and negative attitudes towards indigenous peoples and their traditional livelihood
activities and practices, however, such as shifting cultivation, continue to inform decision-
making processes and public policies on these issues.

Health and Social Protection

▪ Only in some countries do public policies embody specific Health and social protection for
indigenous women, men, and children, despite the fact that available data suggest that they
are disproportionally represented among the poor. For instance, Cambodia’s National Social
Protection Strategy identifies indigenous peoples as a group requiring targeted approaches.

▪ In Viet Nam, special health programs targeting ethnic minorities have been devised. In many
countries, indigenous peoples lack official birth certificates or identification documents,
which significantly impedes access by indigenous peoples to social services in Asia.

Australian Aboriginal Peoples

Aborigines from Galiwnku Island gathering to watch

the proceedings at which Prime Minister Kevin Rudd
formally apologized to the Aboriginal peoples for
their mistreatment under earlier Australian
governments, February 2008.

Mark Graham/AP Images

 Ochre
Ochre, is traditionally used by Aboriginal Australian peoples to decorate objects, to create art,
and in body decoration.

An Australian Aboriginal warrior preparing to throw a boomerang.©Rafael Ben-Ari/Fototlia

Bark canoe
Replica of the bark canoes historically used by Australian Aboriginal peoples.
Courtesy of AIATSIS; creator Jon C. Altman (collection item no. N03187_23)
Australian Aborigines at an event commonly called a corroboree. This ceremony consists of much
singing and dancing, activities by which they convey their history in stories and reenactments of the
Dreaming, a mythological period of time that had a beginning but no foreseeable end, during which
the natural environment was shaped and humanized by the actions of mythic beings.

Courtesy of the Australian News and Information Bureau, New York

Aboriginal warrior

Aboriginal warrior bearing traditional body paint and ritual scars, Western Australia, 1923.

Courtesy of AIATSIS; creator, Commander H.T. Bennett D.S.Q. (collection no. D00029608)

waddy

Australian Aboriginal people demonstrating combat with

waddies (traditional war clubs), Western Australia, 1923.

NEW ZEALAND Aboriginal peoples (MAORI)

Māori are the indigenous Polynesian people of mainland New

Zealand (Aotearoa). Māori originated with settlers from
East Polynesia, who arrived in New Zealand in several waves
of canoe voyages between roughly 1320 and 1350. Over several
centuries in isolation, these settlers developed their own
distinctive culture, whose language, mythology, crafts, and
performing arts evolved independently from those of other
eastern Polynesian cultures. Some early Māori moved to
the Chatham Islands, where their descendants became New
Zealand's other indigenous Polynesian ethnic group, the Moriori.
 ▪ No credible evidence exists of pre-Māori settlement of
New Zealand; on the other hand, compelling evidence
from archaeology, linguistics, and physical anthropology
indicates that the first settlers migrated
from Polynesia and became the Māori. Evidence indicates
that their ancestry (as part of the larger group
of Austronesian peoples) stretches back 5,000 years, to
the indigenous peoples of Taiwan. Polynesian people
settled a large area
encompassing Tonga, Samoa, Tahiti,Hawaiʻi, Easter
Island (Rapa Nui) – and finally New Zealand.

BELIEF AND RELIGION OF MAORI PEOPLE

▪ Traditional Māori beliefs have their origins in Polynesian culture. Concepts such
as tapu (sacred), noa (non-sacred), mana (authority/prestige) and wairua (spirit)
governed everyday Māori living, and there are also many Māori deities. Today, some
Māori follow a variety of Christian faiths such as Presbyterianism, The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints, Māori Christian groups such as Rātana and Ringatū, and
also Catholic, Anglican and Methodist denominations.At the 2018 New Zealand census,
7.7 per cent of Māori were affiliated with Māori religions, beliefs, and philosophies; 29.9
per cent with Christian denominations and 53.5 per cent of Māori claimed no religion.
Proportions of Christian and irreligious Māori are comparable with European New
Zealanders.

▪ Many Māori people observe spiritual traditions such as tapu and noa. Certain objects,
areas, or buildings are tapu (spiritually restricted), and must be made noa (unrestricted)
by ceremonial action. It is common practice, for instance, to remove one's shoes before
entering a wharenui (meeting-house) in token of respect for the ancestors who are
represented and spiritually present within the wharenui. Another spiritual ritual
is hurihanga takapau (purification), practised when fishing to ensure there is no tapu on
the fish.

Socio-economic issues of Maori people

▪ Māori on average have fewer assets than the rest of the population, and run greater risks
of many negative economic and social outcomes. Over 50 per cent of Māori live in areas
in the three highest deprivation deciles, compared with 24 per cent of the rest of the
population.

▪ Although Māori make up 16.5 per cent of the population, they make up 53.0 per cent of
the prison population. Māori have higher unemployment rates than other ethnic groups
in New Zealand, which is believed to partially account for their over-representation in the
criminal justice system; many young Māori, finding themselves unemployed, are picked
up for alcohol-related behaviours or small crimes such as vandalism. Underemployment is
in turn attributed to persistent institutional racism in New Zealand.
 HEALTH

Māori suffer more health problems, including higher levels of alcohol and drug abuse,
smoking and obesity. Less frequent use of healthcare services mean that late diagnosis and
treatment intervention lead to higher levels of morbidity and mortality in many manageable
conditions. Compared with non-Māori, Māori people experience higher rates of heart
disease, strokes, most cancers, respiratory diseases, rheumatic fever, suicide and self-harm,
and infant deaths.

POLITICAL REPRESENTATION

Māori have been represented to the Crown in New Zealand politics since the Declaration of
the Independence of New Zealand, before the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840. Being a
traditionally tribal people, no one organisation ostensibly speaks for all Māori nationwide.
The Māori King Movement (Kīngitanga) originated in the 1860s as an attempt by
several iwi to unify under one leader; in modern times, it serves a largely ceremonial role.
Another attempt at political unity was the Kotahitanga Movement, which established a
separate Māori Parliament that held annual sessions from 1892 until its last sitting in 1902.

EUROPE’S INDIGENOUS PEOPLE/TRIBES

A Brief History of European Ethnography

▪ Europeans are the focus of European ethnology, the field

of anthropology related to the various ethnic groups that reside
in the states of Europe. Groups may be defined by common
genetic ancestry, common language, or both. The total number
of national minority populations in Europe is estimated at 105
million people, or 14% of 770 million Europeans.
 ▪ The earliest accounts of European ethnography date
from Classical Antiquity. Herodotus described
the Scythians and Thraco-Illyrians. Dicaearchus gave a
description of Greece itself, besides accounts of western
and northern Europe.

▪ Roman Empire period authors include Diodorus

Siculus, Strabo and Tacitus. Julius Caesar gives an account
of the Celtic tribes of Gaul, while Tacitus describes
the Germanic tribes of Magna Germania. A number of
authors like Diodorus Siculus, Pausanias and Sallust depict
the ancient Sardinian and Corsican peoples.

▪ The 4th century Tabula Peutingeriana records the names of

numerous peoples and tribes. Ethnographers of Late
Antiquity such as Agathias of Myrina Ammianus
Marcellinus, Jordanes and Theophylact Simocatta give early
accounts of the Slavs, the Franks, the Alamanni and
the Goths.

▪ Ahmad ibn Fadlan in the 10th century gives an account of

the Bolghar and the Rus' peoples. William Rubruck, while
most notable for his account of the Mongols, in his account of
his journey to Asia also gives accounts of the Tatars and
the Alans.

▪ In the 19th century, ethnicity was discussed in terms

of scientific racism, and the ethnic groups of Europe were
grouped into a number of
"races", Mediterranean, Alpine and Nordic, all part of a larger
"Caucasian" group.

Indigenous Minorities

▪ The member states of the Council of Europe in 1995 signed the Framework Convention
for the Protection of National Minorities. The broad aims of the convention are to ensure
that the signatory states respect the rights of national minorities, undertaking to combat
discrimination, promote equality, preserve and develop the culture and identity of
national minorities, guarantee certain freedoms in relation to access to the media,
minority languages and education and encourage the participation of national minorities
in public life.

▪ Definitions of what constitutes indigenous minority groups in Europe can vary widely.
One criterion is the so-called "time element", or how long the original inhabitants of a
land occupied it before the arrival of later settlers. As there is no fixed time frame, the
answer to the question of what groups constitute indigenous minorities is often context-
dependent.
▪ Some groups that claim indigenous minority status in Europe include the
Uralic Nenets, Samoyed, and Komi peoples of northern Russia; Circassians of southern
Russia and the North Caucasus; Crimean Tatars, Krymchaks and Crimean Karaites of
Crimea (Ukraine); Sámi peoples of northern Norway, Sweden, and Finland and
northwestern Russia (in an area also referred to
as Sápmi); Galicians of Galicia, Spain; Catalans of Catalonia, Spain and
southern France; Basques of Basque Country, Spain and southern France; and
the Sorbian people of Germany and Poland.

CHALLENGES FACING EUROPE’S INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

Climate Change

▪ Indigenous peoples in Europe, whose cultures and livelihoods depend so much on their
natural environment, are on the frontlines of climate change.

▪ Scientists estimate that the Arctic is warming up at a rate twice the global average.

▪ As sea ice melts, the hunting, fishing and herding activities that provide the basis of
indigenous communities' livelihoods are at risk.

▪ Indigenous peoples across the world are disproportionally impacted by climate change
even though they contribute least to greenhouse emissions, according to the UN.

Endangered Languages

▪ The survival of their ancestral languages is also among the key concerns of indigenous
peoples across the world and Europe is no exception.

▪ The United Nations has declared 2019 as the International Year of Indigenous Languages,
noting that 40% of the estimated 6,700 languages spoken around the world were in
danger of disappearing and that a majority were indigenous.

▪ "Languages play a crucial role in the daily life of indigenous peoples," Not only as a tool for
communication, education, social integration but also as a source for each person's unique
identity, cultural history, traditions."

▪ "But despite that, indigenous languages continue to disappear at an alarming rate and
that's also true for the Saami languages.”

Land and Resources

▪ Resource and extraction industries on their traditional lands are another vital challenge
for indigenous peoples.

▪ "What we see is that economic development often conflicts with already established
traditional Saami business sectors. Mining, oil and gas all have a short living span, but
traditional Saami food industries for instance, such as reindeer herding or fishing, focus on
sustainable use of resources,"
▪ "From an EU perspective, I find it contradictory that there is more awareness about how EU
investment should be carried out on indigenous land outside the EU, but less focus on how
investments inside the EU affect Saami cultures and way of life,"

Sources:

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Australian-Aboriginal