Steven Newcomb: Indigenous people subject to domination

A United Nations pamphlet, The Rights of Indigenous Peoples, focuses our attention on “those who inhabited a country or geographic region at [and prior to] the time when peoples of different cultures or ethnic origins arrived.” The “new arrivals,” says the pamphlet, eventually became “dominant through conquest, occupation, settlement or other means.” (emphasis added) The contrast between the dominant (or dominating) and those under dominance or being dominated is key to the central and idealized image of what it means to be “Indigenous” in the context of the UN system. For this reason, at the end of WWII the terms “indigenous peoples” and “colonial peoples” were used interchangeably, but since that time the term “colonial peoples” has been gradually phased out.

In any case, the descendants of those initially forced under domination are the ones who are today being characterized as “indigenous.” (The pamphlet states that Indigenous peoples “are the descendants—according to one definition--...”) The original peoples’ descendants, who were born into the context and aftermath of domination, are the ones now called “Indigenous.” The UN pamphlet provides a list of those dealing with the context and aftermath and context of domination: “the Indians of the Americas, the Inuit and Aleutians of the circumpolar region, the Sami of northern Europe, the Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders of Australia, and the Maori of New Zealand.”