Indigenous Peoples

April 2008 - Issue 410

April 2008
Issue No. 410
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I will return...and I will be millions
Are things beginning to look up for the world’s indigenous peoples? Vanessa Baird begins a series of three reports from Bolivia, where the signs look most hopeful – and most precarious.

The colour of dreams
Aboriginal art from Christine Christopherson and Bronwyn Bancroft.

Questing the ayllu
The journey continues into Bolivia’s mining and peasant heartland. Some surprises are in store.

Plenty to shout about
...if you’re indigenous. THE FACTS.

Journey to the half moon
The battle lines are drawn in Santa Cruz – where resistance to Bolivia’s indigenous President, Evo Morales, is most ferocious.

Arise!
Tales from the indigenous fight-back around the world.

News, views, and & voices

NI SPECIAL FEATURE

The people vs Starbucks
Starbucks has become an icon of globalization – and a target for protesters. It claims to strike a balance between ‘profitability’ and ‘a love of benevolence’. Rowenna Davis finds out if farmers, consumers and workers agree.

The barnstorming barista
Daniel Gross worked as a Starbucks barista for three years before being fired in 2006 for union activity. The Federal Government investigated his termination, concluding that it was illegal under US labour laws, but Starbucks have challenged that ruling.

Currents

Trouble in paradise
Venezuela spreads oil on tropical waters

Africa resists EU bullying
Resistance to the introduction of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs)

Kosovo’s other colonizers
Pitiful UN performance in Kosovo

Fistful of yuan
Oil, war and the fall of the US dollar

E-wasted
Electronic waste from the US and Europe disguised as 'charitable donations' to Lagos

Activists accused of terrorism
Government to be investigated for human rights abuses

Word Power

The language of the built environment...
Word power number 37

Seriously...

Cockroached
A hapless cockroach gets 30 people sacked

Big Bad World

Big Bad World
Polyp on the origins of wealth and poverty.

Making Waves

Interview with Vandana Shiva
Vandana Shiva, Indian environmentalist extraordinaire, on her new movement challenging supermarkets

Mixed Media - Music

Import Export à la Turka
Turkish sounds from Germany

Kül & Ashes
Beautiful music from trained earthquake engineers

Mixed Media - Film

We Are Together (Thina Simunye)
Agape orphanage singers from South Africa

Mixed Media - Books

African Psycho
Alain Mabanckou’s scathing attack on greed and material values

The Rich Man of Pietermaritzburg
A simple tale of great subtlety and power set in Nyanyadu in the rural hinterland of KwaZulu Natal

The Whistler
A beautifully crafted fable by Angolan author Ondjaki

The Trouble with Diversity
Has the left been duped or duped itself into pursuing the holy grail of identity politics?

Southern Exposure

‘Decent Work for Persons with Disabilities’
Asia-Pacific Photo Competition

Essay

The triumph of triviality
Our culture’s tolerance for seriousness has never been lower, argues John F Schumaker.

Country Profile

Lebanon
Living in Lebanon is like watching a dramatic thriller unfold. At times it’s exciting, at other times heart-wrenching or just petrifying.


 

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from
THIS MONTH'S EDITOR

Vanessa Baird

‘Are you indigenous?’ José Bailaba, a representative of Bolivia’s Chiquitano people, asked me.

A simple question to which the simple answer was ‘no’. My attempts at a more ‘thoughtful’ one soon led me into a thicket of ‘it depends on what you mean by’, ‘I suppose, if I went back far enough’, ‘in terms of identity’ and so on... It concluded with a self-definition, the concise version of which is ‘de-racinated mongrel’. By which time José had visibly, and reasonably, lost interest.

What exactly is meant by ‘indigenous people’ is contentious and ambiguous. The term probably persists because it is the most universal and least objectionable of various options.

The International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IGWIA) starts its own very long definition with the following: ‘Indigenous peoples are the disadvantaged descendants of those people who inhabited a territory prior to the formation of the state.’ Often their cultures and ways of life are perceived as inferior by the dominant society. Insisting on the right to self-determination is indigenous peoples’ way of overcoming not only discrimination but threats to their very survival. Self-identification is key, however: it’s up to indigenous people to say who they are and not for others to define them. So José Bailaba’s question really was a simple one – that deserved a simple answer.


Vanessa Baird for the
New Internationalist Co-operative
vanessab@newint.org