Indigenous Self-determination through a Government Agency? The Impossible Task of the Swedish Sámediggi

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Lawrence ◽  
Ulf Mörkenstam
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Institutional Design ◽  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
Government Agency ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Administrative Authority ◽  
Dual Roles ◽  
Daily Work ◽  
Impossible Task ◽  
Depth Interviews

The last two decades have witnessed a growing global acknowledgement of indigenous rights, for instance manifested in the 2007 unDeclaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Nordic countries have all responded to the rights claims of the indigenous Sámi people by establishing popularly elected Sámediggis (Sámi Parliaments) to serve as their representative bodies. Internationally, the Sámediggis are often referred to as ‘models’ for indigenous self-governance and participation. Using in-depth interviews with politicians and civil servants, this article provides the first empirical study of the daily work of the Swedish Sámediggi, with a specific focus on its institutional design as a government agency with dual roles: as an administrative authority under the Swedish government and as a popularly elected representative body of the Sámi people. We examine how these dual roles affect the work of the Sámediggi and if the Swedish Sámediggi safeguards the Sámi right to self-determination.

James Clifford’s ‘Indigenous Articulations’ as Travelling Theory? The Search for Sustainability in Theorising Taiwan’s Indigenous and Han Populations

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-56
Author(s):  
Jess Marinaccio
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Indigenous Populations ◽  
Pacific Region ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Literature Culture ◽  
Original Audience

In 2000, the noted scholar James Clifford delivered an address entitled ‘Indigenous Articulations’ in which he challenged dichotomies of authenticity/inauthenticity that plague theories of indigeneity in the Pacific region. Today, ‘Indigenous Articulations’ has travelled far beyond its original audience, and some Taiwanese scholars who analyse the literature/culture of Taiwan’s indigenous peoples have adopted this work. Yet, in contrast to Clifford, these scholars have used ‘Indigenous Articulations’ to simultaneously explain indigenous and Han Taiwanese populations, positing Han-indigenous creolisation as preferable to indigenous self-determination. In this paper, I adopt travelling theory to examine ‘Indigenous Articulations’ and its movement to Taiwan studies. I then consider the works of Kuei-fen Chiu and Hueichu Chu to show how they use ‘Indigenous Articulations’ to support a creolised existence for Han and indigenous populations on Taiwan. Finally, I explore tensions between theoretical and ethical sustainability in Taiwan studies and possibilities for recognising indigenous rights in this field.

Recent Books on Human Rights and Groups Review Essays International Law and the Evolution of Indigenous Rights

2008 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-131
Author(s):  
Stephen Allen
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
Land Rights ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Critical Stage ◽  
Conditions Of Possibility ◽  
Supranational Level

AbstractThe recent adoption of the United Nations (UN) Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples has reinvigorated the discourse on indigenous rights. This essay reviews three books – Xanthaki's Indigenous Rights and United Nations Standards: Self-Determination, Culture and Land; Gilbert's Indigenous Peoples' Land Rights Under International Law: From Victims to Actors; and Rodriguez-Pinero's Indigenous Peoples, Postcolonialism and International Law: The ILO Regime (1919–1989) – that illustrate the way in which indigenous rights have evolved at the supranational level. Moreover, in their different ways, these important books highlight the conditions of possibility for indigenous peoples at a critical stage in the development of indigenous rights in international law.

Indigenous self-determination in Finland: a case study in normative change

Polar Record ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 229-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Forrest
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
International System ◽  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
International Labour Organization ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Normative Change

Indigenous rights have gained considerable prominence in international forums over the last few decades, and are now being institutionalised through emerging norms within the international system. This paper examines the factors affecting the adoption of the norm of self-determination for indigenous peoples in the Finnish case using current constructivist models of normative change. Explanations for Finland's difficulty in adopting this norm, as symbolised by the ratification process of International Labour Organization Convention No. 169, are found in both the international normative context in which it emerged and in domestic factors within Finland itself. The concept of a ‘corrupt’ norm is introduced as a theoretical device in cases where norms have strong moral- or value-based appeal, but are weak in terms of the clarity of how they will work. This is an INDIPO project paper (Tennberg 2006)

scholarly journals Indigenous Rights and the 1991-2000 Australian Reconciliation Process

2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 35-51
Author(s):  
Andrew Gunstone
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
Land Rights ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Reconciliation Process

The formal reconciliation process in Australia was conducted between 1991 and 2000 and aimed to reconcile Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples by 2001. In this paper, I detail the failure of both this reconciliation process and governments, in particular the Howard Government, to recognise Indigenous rights, such as sovereignty, a treaty, self-determination and land rights.

scholarly journals Neo-extractivist controversies in Bolivia: indigenous perspectives on global norms

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-102
Author(s):  
Jessika Eichler
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Collective Rights ◽  
Implementation Processes ◽  
Indigenous Perspectives ◽  
Increasing Demand

AbstractEver since Evo Morales Ayma became Bolivia's first indigenous president in 2006 and the promulgation of a human-rights-enhancing Constitution (2009) thereafter, indigenous peoples’ rights were gradually recognised. Yet, with the increasing demand for natural resources, indigenous communities have been adversely affected by the state's neo-extractivist policies. While global indigenous rights norms protect their fundamental rights, legal-implementation processes in the country's lowlands reveal dilemmas in terms of the value of laws in practice as well as its reinterpretation on the ground. Namely, in the communities, different positions and camps have emerged in terms of the role and functions of participatory rights. Despite the potential of the latter in strengthening collective-rights regimes and self-determination, community leaders, advisers and other members report how such processes fracture and weaken decision-making mechanisms and human rights claims.

scholarly journals Beyond Academia: Indigenous media as an intercultural resource to unlearn nation-state history

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (21) ◽  
pp. 29-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn Lehman
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Indigenous Media ◽  
Nation States ◽  
State History ◽  
The Right

This article proposes that settler communities cannot teach or understand our shared intercultural history without listening to ideas presented by Indigenous communities about their own history in lands currently occupied by modern nation- -states. This history enables us to understand the power of the ethnographic gaze and its relation to The Doctrine of Discovery (1493), which extinguished Indigenous rights to lands and resources, rights later transferred to the modern nation- -states through the legal notion of “eminent domain”. These rights include the ownership of intangibles such as the image and storytelling through photography and film. Maori scholars Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Barry Barclay and Merata Mita are cited on knowledge production, copyright and image sovereignty to decolonise our understanding of the right to self-representation. The study includes a brief analysis of films that help decolonise an ethnographic gaze at these relationships, particularly the Brazilian documentary “O Mestre e o Divino” by Tiago Campos Torre (2013).Keywords: Indigenous peoples. Nation-state history. Film. Self- -determination.

scholarly journals Being Indigenous in an Unlikely Place: Self-Determination in the Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (1920-1991)

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Evgeniia Sidorova ◽  
Roberta Rice
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Indigenous Populations ◽  
Socialist Republic ◽  
Soviet Socialist Republic ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Republic ◽  
And Control

How and why is Indigeneity expressed differently in different contexts? This article examines the articulation and expression of Indigenous Rights in one of the most challenging contexts—that of Siberia in the Soviet Union era. Based on primary, archival research carried out in the Republic of Sakha, Russia, the review finds that re-claiming and re-defining Indigeneity can serve as the first step in crafting an effective challenge to the domination and control exercised by states over Indigenous populations. The study of Indigeneity in unlikely places has important ramifications for Indigenous Peoples worldwide who are struggling against colonial-minded governments that have not only deprived Indigenous Peoples of their lands and resources, but also suppressed their right to self-identification through imposed administrative definitions of Indigeneity.

scholarly journals Section 35 of the Canadian Constitution Act and Indigenous Self-Determination in Canada

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-21
Author(s):  
Hailey Lothamer
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous People ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Court Cases ◽  
Treaty Rights ◽  
Canadian Government ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
Personal Accounts

This research paper analyzes the impacts of Section 35 of the Canadian Constitution on the enhancement of Indigenous rights in Canadian politics. As outlined in Section 35, Indigenous rights are recognized as pre-existing prior to the Constitution Act of 1982 and the identity of Aboriginal, Inuit and Métis peoples are defined. Academic literature, television broadcasts, and personal accounts of the implementation and effects of Section 35 were used to conduct this research and investigate the origins of this section in the Constitution. Notably, this analysis demonstrated that the inclusion of Section 35 in the Constitution has led to more public discussion and court cases to claim treaty rights by Indigenous peoples. The effect of including Indigenous rights in the Canadian Constitution has expanded the role of the courts in adjudicating relations between the Canadian government and Indigenous people, effectively expanding the accountability of the Canadian government to upholding treaty rights. Overall, the findings of this paper were that Section 35 plays a large role in promoting awareness of reconciliation to the Canadian public, however, it stops short of including Indigenous people as meaningful participants in their own self-determination.  

scholarly journals Indigenizing Climate Policy in Canada: A Critical Examination of the Pan-Canadian Framework and the ZéN RoadMap

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graeme Reed ◽  
Jen Gobby ◽  
Rebecca Sinclair ◽  
Rachel Ivey ◽  
H. Damon Matthews
Keyword(s):  
Climate Policy ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
Energy Transition ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Critical Policy Analysis ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Structural Inequities ◽  
The Right

Climate policies and plans can lead to disproportionate impacts and benefits across different kinds of communities, serving to reinforce, and even exacerbate existing structural inequities and injustices. This is the case in Canada where, we argue, climate policy and planning is reproducing settler-colonial relations, violating Indigenous rights, and systematically excluding Indigenous Peoples from policy making. We conducted a critical policy analysis on two climate plans in Canada: the Pan Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change (Pan-Canadian Framework), a federal government-led, top-down plan for reducing emissions; and the Québec ZéN (zero émissions nette, or net-zero emissions) Roadmap, a province-wide, bottom-up energy transition plan developed by civil society and environmental groups in Quebec. Our analysis found that, despite aspirational references to Indigenous Peoples and their inclusion, both the Pan-Canadian Framework and the ZéN Roadmap failed to uphold the right to self-determination and to free, prior, and informed consent, conflicting with commitments to reconciliation and a “Nation-to-Nation” relationship. Recognizing these limitations, we identify six components for an Indigenous-led climate policy agenda. These not including clear calls to action that climate policy must: prioritize the land and emphasize the need to rebalance our relationships with Mother Earth; position Indigenous Nations as Nations with the inherent right to self-determination; prioritize Indigenous knowledge systems; and advance climate-solutions that are interconnected, interdependent, and multi-dimensional. While this supports the emerging literature on Indigenous-led climate solutions, we stress that these calls offer a starting point, but additional work led by Indigenous Peoples and Nations is required to breathe life into a true Indigenous-led climate policy.

scholarly journals Contesting the ‘we’ of ‘we’: the rights of Indigenous peoples in Australia

2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 96-110
Author(s):  
Heather Formaini
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
Land Rights ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Martin Buber ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
South Wales ◽  
The Way

Introducing three papers which have as their theme Indigenous and non-Indigenous rights, this paper offers a set of frameworks through which to read the various discourses as they have steered debates since colonialisation. It examines the way Indigenous rights have been contested against a colonial legal framework, first through the guiee of assimilation, various definitions of ‘reconciliation’, and self determination, and finally in the claim for land rights in New South Wales. It argues that the philosopher Martin Buber offers a means of achieving rights for everyone, through his I-Thou model of inter-subjectivity.

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