Indigenous Communities Defining and Utilising Self-determination as an Individual and Collective Capability

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Heather Sauyaq Jean Gordon ◽  
Ranjan Datta
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Collective Capability

Economic Development through Treaty Reparations in New Zealand and Canada

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (01) ◽  
pp. 61-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Myra J. Tait ◽  
Kiera L. Ladner
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
First Nations ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
The State ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
Treaty Of Waitangi ◽  
Socio Economic Development ◽  
Law Making

AbstractIn Canada, Treaty 1 First Nations brought a claim against the Crown for land debt owed to them since 1871. In 2004, Crown land in Winnipeg became available that, according to the terms of the settlement, should have been offered for purchase to Treaty 1 Nations. Similarly, in New Zealand, the Waikato-Tainui claim arose from historical Crown breaches of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi. In 1995, a settlement was reached to address the unjust Crown confiscation of Tainui lands. Despite being intended to facilitate the return of traditional territory, compensate for Crown breaches of historic treaties, and indirectly provide opportunity for economic development, in both cases, settlement was met with legal and political challenges. Using a comparative legal analysis, this paper examines how the state continues to use its law-making power to undermine socio-economic development of Indigenous communities in Canada and New Zealand, thereby thwarting opportunity for Indigenous self-determination.

scholarly journals The WTO, Self-Determination, and Multi-Jurisdictional Sovereignty

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 108 ◽  
pp. 287-294
Author(s):  
Michael Fakhri
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Most Favored Nation ◽  
Appellate Body ◽  
The World ◽  
Wto Appellate Body ◽  
The Eu

In EC—Seal Products, the World Trade Organization (WTO) Appellate Body (AB) held that the European Union (EU) Seal Regime banning the importation of seal products could be justified under General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) Article XX(a) as a measure necessary toprotect public morals. It also held that the indigenous communities (IC) exception under the EU Seal Regime is inconsistent with GATT Article I:1 (Most-Favored Nation) because it discriminated against commercial fishers in Canada and Norway and was applied in a manner that favored the mostly Inuit seal hunters of Greenland, and thus ran afoul of Article XX’s chapeau. Since the entire EU Seal Regime is not likely to be done away with, the most important question for Inuit communities is: how will the EU change the discriminatory aspects of the Seal Regime and IC exception? The EU faces an October deadlineto pass its new legislation and this remains a very live issue.

From Individual to Collective Consent: The Case of Indigenous Peoples and undrip

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-269
Author(s):  
Richard Healey
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Informed Consent ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
The State ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Sexual Ethics ◽  
The Third ◽  
Collective Decisions

Much of the debate around requirements for the free, prior, and informed consent of indigenous peoples has focused on enabling indigenous communities to participate in various forms of democratic decision-making alongside the state and other actors. Against this backdrop, this article sets out to defend three claims. The first two of these claims are conceptual in nature: (i) Giving (collective) consent and participating in the making of (collective) decisions are distinct activities; (ii) Despite some scepticism, there is a coherent conception of collective consent available to us, continuous with the notion of individual consent familiar from discussions in medical and sexual ethics. The third claim is normative: (iii) Participants in debates about free, prior, and informed consent must keep this distinction in view. That is because a group’s ability to give or withhold consent, and not only participate in making decisions, will play an important role in realising that collectives’ right to self-determination.

scholarly journals An Indigenous self-determination social movement response to COVID-19

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 395-398
Author(s):  
Sacha McMeeking ◽  
Helen Leahy ◽  
Catherine Savage
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Contemporary History ◽  
The South ◽  
Movement Response ◽  
History Of ◽  
Lower Infection ◽  
First Time

For Māori in New Zealand, COVID-19 is remarkable in two particular ways. First, we bet the odds for the first time in contemporary history. Forecasts predicted that Māori would have double the infection and mortality rates of non-Māori. However, as at June 2020, Māori have a disproportionately lower infection rate than non-Māori. This is perhaps the only example in our contemporary history of the Māori community having better social outcomes than non-Māori. Second is that attribution is due, perhaps not exclusively, but materially to a self-determination social movement within our Indigenous communities that the pandemic response unveiled and accelerated. This article comments on this self-determination social movement, with a particular focus on how that movement has manifested within the South Island of New Zealand. We specifically draw on the work of Te Pūtahitanga o Te Waipounamu, the South Island Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency to illustrate our analysis.

scholarly journals Measuring What Counts to Advance Indigenous Self-Determination: A Case Study of the Nisg̱a’a Lisims Government’s Quality of Life Framework and Survey

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Bouchard ◽  
Adam Perry ◽  
Shannon West-Johnson ◽  
Thierry Rodon ◽  
Michelle Vanchu-Orosco
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
First Nations ◽  
Qualitative Method ◽  
Household Survey ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Participatory Approach ◽  
Self Determination

Abstract Modern Treaties are presented as a means for improving the lives of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples in Canada by providing specific rights, and negotiated benefits. However, the positive impacts of Modern Treaties on Indigenous well-being are contested (Borrows and Coyle 2017; Coulthard 2014; Guimond et al. 2013; Miller 2009; Poelzer and Coates 2015). Developing a more transparent, consistent, collaborative and contextual way of measuring well-being relevant to the cultural realities of Modern Treaty beneficiaries is an important step for generating comparative methods that could systematically demonstrate whether, and under what conditions, such agreements can effectively reduce socio-economic disparities and improve the quality of life of Indigenous communities. The authors first examine previous attempts at measuring Indigenous well-being, then reflect on well-being in relation to the Modern Treaty context. Subsequently, the authors provide an example from one Self-Governing Indigenous Government, the Nisga’a Lisims Government, to collect well-being data through the Nisga’a Nation Household Survey using a mixed quantitative-qualitative method developed through a culturally grounded and participatory approach.

scholarly journals "Anishinaabe time": temporalities and impact assessment in pipeline reviews

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sakihitowin Awasis
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Kinship Relations ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Temporal Modes ◽  
Indigenous Geographies ◽  
And Function

Indigenous ways of living that embrace multiple temporalities have been largely supplanted by a single, linear colonial temporality. Drawing on theoretical insights from Indigenous geographies and political ecology, this article considers how pipeline reviews come into being through contested temporalities and how dominant modes of time dispossess Indigenous peoples of self-determination in energy decision-making. In particular, Anishinaabe clan governance – a form of kinship that provides both social identity and function based on relations to animal nations – is undermined in colonial decision-making processes. Through analysis of documents from Canada's National Energy Board and interviews with Anishinaabe pipeline opponents, I explore tensions between Anishinaabe and settler temporalities reflected in the 2012-2017 Line 9 pipeline dispute in the Great Lakes region. These include divergent understandings of periodicities, timeframes, kinship relations, and the role of nonhuman temporalities in decision-making. Colonial temporal modes that have been imposed on Indigenous communities foreshorten timescales, depoliticize kinship relations, and discount nonhumans in decision-making – resulting in narrower and more short-sighted project reviews than Anishinaabe temporalities would support. I argue that the rich concepts of kinship, queerness, continuity, and prophecy embedded in Anishinaabe temporalities can inform strategies for decolonizing energy review processes and open possibilities for Indigenous self-determination in energy decision-making.Keywords: Anishinaabe studies, Two-Spirit, Indigenous geographies, temporalities, Indigenous knowledge, energy governance, pipeline, National Energy Board

The Right to Self-Determination under the Ethiopian Constitution: A Legal Tool for Indigenous Peoples’ Protection against Land Alienation?

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 359-383
Author(s):  
Tilahun Weldie Hindeya
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Land Resources ◽  
Discretionary Power ◽  
The People ◽  
Constitutional Right ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Right

AbstractSince 2008 the Ethiopian government has allocated vast tracts of land, particularly in the Gambella and Benishangul-Gumuz regions, to agricultural commercial actors with little or no participation from indigenous communities. The marginalization of indigenous peoples in this process primarily emerges from the government's very wide legislative discretionary power regarding decision-making in the exploitation of land. The government has invoked constitutional clauses relating to land ownership and its power to deploy land resources for the “common benefit” of the people, to assert the consistency of this discretionary power with the Ethiopian Constitution. This article posits that the legislative and practical measures taken by the government that marginalize these indigenous peoples in decisions affecting the utilization of land resources are incompatible with their constitutional right to self-determination. Further, it posits that the government's use of the constitution to justify its wide discretionary power in the decision-making process relating to land exploitation is based on a misreading of the constitution.

Realisation of the right to self-determined development and the protection of indigenous women against discrimination in Tanzania

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam Zacharia Matinda
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Indigenous Women ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Cultural Survival ◽  
Central Pillar ◽  
The Right

The UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in 2007, marking the culmination of thorough negotiations, lobbying and advocacy involving indigenous peoples’ representatives as key actors. Among other rights, the UNDRIP affirms the right to self-determination for indigenous peoples. Also referred to as the right to self-determined development, the right to self-determination, as stated in the UNDRIP, encompasses indigenous communities’ rights to determine their development trajectories. To indigenous peoples, the significance of the right to self-determination includes the promotion of cultural distinctiveness, which is central to their survival as communities. However, women’s rights scholars and activists are sceptical about the emancipatory potential of realising the right to self-determination for indigenous women. In contrast, exercising this right might also entail the perpetuation of gender-based violence and other forms of discrimination, thus heightening women’s fragility and subordination among indigenous communities and beyond. Using UNDRIP and other relevant international and regional human-rights instruments as vantage points, this paper seeks to juxtapose the implementation of the right to self-determination and the realisation of indigenous women’s rights in Tanzania. The article posits that the protection of indigenous women’s rights should form the central pillar of the enjoyment of the right to self-determination. This is because the cultural survival, vitality and continuity of indigenous peoples’ distinctiveness largely hinges on respect for the rights of indigenous women.

Capitalism as Nineteenth-Century Colonialism and Its Impacts on Native Californians

Ethnohistory ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 471-495 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte K. Sunseri
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Mono Lake ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
The West ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThis article analyzes the impact of colonialism on nineteenth-century Native California communities, particularly during the American annexation of the West and capitalist ventures in mining and milling towns. Using the case study of Mono Lake Kutzadika Paiute employed by the Bodie and Benton Railroad and Lumber Company at Mono Mills, the lasting legacies of colonialism and its impacts on contemporary struggles for self-determination are explored. The study highlights the role of capitalism as a potent form of colonialism and its enduring effects on tribes’ ability to meet federal acknowledgment standards. This approach contributes to a richer understanding of colonial processes and their impacts on indigenous communities both historically and today.

Addressing Strengths and Disparities in Indigenous Health

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 4
Author(s):  
Suzanne Stewart
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Health ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Strong Impact ◽  
Model Of Care ◽  
Personal View ◽  
Indigenous Knowledges ◽  
Making A Difference ◽  
Clinical Environments

As an Indigenous person, I came into the world of Indigenous health scholarship in the 1990s with a personal view that focused on the strength and solutions of our peoples and our cultures. Over the next two decades in research and clinical environments, I observed how biomedicine remained firmly entrenched as the dominant model of care for Indigenous individuals and communities, with traditional knowledges and medicines as an aside or non- existent entirely. I have built my life’s work as a researcher and clinician in centering Indigenous knowledges and healing in both research and health care. Yet today in 2020, biomedicine and Western academic research still dismiss Indigenous knowledges and remain mostly in command of Indigenous health. There are wonderful pockets of Indigenous researchers and practitioners, supported by Indigenous communities that continue to have very little real autonomy or self- determination from colonialism, who are making a difference in Indigenous health by reducing health disparities, using our strengths such as culture, spirituality, medicines, the land, Elders, youth, and more. This issue highlights some of the work by researchers that are making a strong impact on Indigenous health, uplifting our communities.

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