Across the world, Indigenous communities have historically and repeatedly had their land stolen from them and their legal rights stripped. While some countries have rectified this in other indigenous communities still have virtually no rights.
North America is a prime example of two very different treatments of Indigenous communities — in the United States, Indigenous tribes are considered “domestic dependent nations” and have inherent sovereignty recognised in the Constitution and federal law. They have rights to reservations sanctified in treaties and trusts, however, Indigenous tribes have no independent representation in federal or local governments and have historically been abused by the government, forced to move to government-assigned reservations and attend American Indian residential schools, often run by the church, where horrific abuses and many deaths occurred. On the contrary, in Canada, Indigenous people are referred to as First Nation and have sovereignty recognised in Section 35 of the Canadian Constitution Act. This not only provides the Indigenous people of Canada with constitutional protection of indigenous and treaty rights but also the right to land and self-government. Furthermore, while land rights are a contentious issue in the country, Indigenous communities have rights to treaty lands, unceded territories, and modern land through the Nisg̱a’a Treaty — the first treaty to provide constitutional certainty in respect of Aboriginal people’s right to self-government, recognising land rights of the Nisg̱a’a.
With the largest tropical rainforest in the world, home to at least 10% of the world's biodiversity, land rights and sustainability are a huge point of discussion and concern in Brazil. There are several indigenous tribes that have been living in the rainforest for thousands of years and Indigenous land makes up about 13% of the country’s land mass. In Article 231 of the Constitution, Indigenous people are recognised as “the first and natural owners of the land”, guaranteeing their right to land. Furthermore, the federal government is mandated to demarcate land with Indigenous communities actively engaging with and supporting the demarcation of their lands.
Most Amerindian tribes in Latin America, however, live on reserves called resguardos, where they practice a blend of traditional and modern traditions. There is often legal recognition of Indigenous autonomy in these resguardos and the land is collectively held with the right to consulta previa (prior consultation) by Indigenous communities on projects affecting them. Since the Constitution in 1988, Brazil has continued to make an international commitment to Indigenous land sovereignty with the ILO Convention No. 169 on Indigenous and Tribal People Rights and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP).
New Zealand's Indigenous community is one of the most well-known. New Zealand began recognising some level of Māori authority after the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, one of the country's most important documents, ensuring equality and peace between Māori and New Zealanders. This is largely expressed in the term tino rangatiratanga which is a Māori language term that translates to ‘highest chieftainship’ as well as ‘absolute sovereignty’ or ‘self-determination’. Its use in the treaty expresses “full exclusive and undisturbed possession” over Māori lands and properties. This term has become controversial as, in the first article fo the Treaty, the Māori cede their sovereignty to the British empire. In the second article, they are promised tino rangatiratanga, leading to disputes over what sovereignty and rights the Māori legally have.
With varying levels of sovereignty and land rights across the world, most Indigenous communities still face many legal and political challenges as offsets of colonialism and imperialism. The largest of these is the issue of recognition versus implementation; when countries recognise their sovereignty and needs yet fail to act on this and grant Indigenous people their rights. Furthermore, despite international declarations protecting Indigenous Rights, such as the UNDRIP and the ILO Convention 169, many countries fail to follow these guidelines instead of continuing their existing practices.
Image by Dwayne Reilander via Wikimedia Commons