1 Tribal Membership Governance and the Cultural Production of Indigeneity: Reflecting Inter‐indigenous Recognition in Public Policy

Author(s):  
Gover Kirsty

In the settler states, recognition of indigenous peoples has traditionally proceeded on one of two models: the race model (prioritizing indigenous ancestry) and the nation model (prioritizing tribal membership). This chapter suggests that both models are inadequate, because neither acknowledges inter-indigenous recognition. By reference to tribal constitutions and codes, it shows that many tribes use a concept of indigeneity in their membership criteria. Many allow the enrolment of non-descendants and prefer indigenous persons when they do so. This shows that when they self-constitute, tribes position themselves within a broader cultural association of indigenous communities, enclosed by an indigenous non-indigenous boundary of their own making. Existing models of tribalism, indigeneity, culture, and recognition in political theory and public policy do not adequately account for the relationships between tribes and indigenous persons.

Author(s):  
Gover Kirsty

In settler societies, tribal self-governance creates a legal distinction between indigeneity (defined by settler governments) and tribal membership (defined by tribes). Many legally indigenous persons are not tribal members, and some tribal members are not legally indigenous. This book considers the membership rules included in the constitutions and membership codes of nearly 750 recognized tribes in Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and the United States. It addresses the first-order question of tribal constitutionalism: who are the members of tribes, and how are they chosen? The question is of practical and theoretical import. A large proportion of indigenous peoples in each state are not enrolled in a recognized tribe, and the majority of indigenous peoples do not live near their tribal territories. The book's empirical study challenges many of the assumptions used to model tribalism in theories of cultural pluralism, especially those that depict tribes as distinctively insular, ascriptive, and territorially-confined. The book shows that while they are descent-based groups, tribes also self-constitute relationally, by enrolling non-descendants in accordance with cultural and social criteria, and by recruiting from other indigenous communities. The book draws on tribal law and practice, political theory, legal doctrine, policy, and demographic data to critically assess the strategies used by tribes and states to manage the jurisdictional and ideological challenges of tribal membership governance.


2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (6) ◽  
pp. 1142-1167
Author(s):  
Erica Prussing

Epidemiology for and by Indigenous peoples uses quantitative and statistical methods to better document Indigenous health concerns, and is oriented around providing data for use in advocacy to promote Indigenous health equity. This advocacy-oriented, technoscientific work bridges the often distinct social worlds of Indigenous communities, professional public health research, and public policy-making. Using examples from a multisited ethnographic study in three settings (Aotearoa New Zealand, Hawai’i, and the continental United States), this paper examines the forms of expertise that researcher/practitioners enact as they conduct research that simultaneously harnesses epidemiology’s persuasive power in social worlds like public health and public policy, while also critically challenging legacies of colonialist erasures and misrepresentations of Indigenous health in population statistics. By demonstrating how these continual translations across multiple social worlds enact expertise, this analysis offers a new integration of discussions about both coloniality and expertise within science and technology studies (STS). By focusing on the experiences of technoscientific professionals themselves, this study’s findings also pose new questions for broader STS conversations about how activism is shaping the production of knowledge about health in the twenty-first century.


Author(s):  
Adriaan Bedner ◽  
Stijn van Huis

Although the UN-proclaimed ‘Decade for Indigenous Peoples’ officially ended in 2004, the continuing array of activities in support of special ‘indigenous rights’ shows that this movement has lost little of its impetus. In spite of criticism of the underpinnings and of the consequences of attributing special rights to ‘indigenous communities’ (Kuper 2003), support for them has remained strong – among NGOs, international organizations, governments, and scholars who do not agree with the criticism. The most notable event in this context is that after having failed to do so in 2004 the United Nations finally adopted the ‘Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples’ on 13 September 2007, with an overwhelming 144 countries voting in favour. Thus, there is little reason to suppose that the movement will run out of steam in the near future.


2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 180-195
Author(s):  
Shirley A. Jackson

In 2017, Oregon passed House Bill 2845 requiring Ethnic Studies curriculum in grades K–12. It was the first state in the nation to do so. The bill passed almost fifty years after the founding of the country’s first Ethnic Studies department. The passage of an Ethnic Studies bill in a state that once banned African Americans and removed Indigenous peoples from their land requires further examination. In addition, the bill mandates that Ethnic Studies curriculum in Oregon's schools includes “social minorities,” such as Jewish and LGBTQ+ populations which makes the bill even more remarkable. As such, it is conceivable for some observers, a watered-down version of its perceived original intent—one that focuses on racial and ethnic minorities. Similarly, one can draw analogies to the revision of the Civil Rights Bill of 1964 when it included women as a protected group. Grounded in a socio-political history that otherwise would not have been included, this essay examines the productive and challenging aspect of HB 2845. Framing the bill so it includes racial, ethnic, and social minorities solved the problem of a host of bills that may not have passed on their own merit while simultaneously and ironically making it easier to pass similar bills.


Author(s):  
Elena F. GLADUN ◽  
Gennady F. DETTER ◽  
Olga V. ZAKHAROVA ◽  
Sergei M. ZUEV ◽  
Lyubov G. VOZELOVA

Developing democracy institutions and citizen participation in state affairs, the world community focuses on postcolonial studies, which allow us to identify new perspectives, set new priorities in various areas, in law and public administration among others. In Arctic countries, postcolonial discourse has an impact on the methodology of research related to indigenous issues, and this makes possible to understand specific picture of the world and ideas about what is happening in the world. Moreover, the traditions of Russian state and governance are specific and interaction between indigenous peoples and public authorities should be studied with a special research methodology which would reflect the peculiarities of domestic public law and aimed at solving legal issue and enrich public policy. The objective of the paper is to present a new integrated methodology that includes a system of philosophical, anthropological, socio-psychological methods, as well as methods of comparative analysis and scenario development methods to involve peripheral communities into decision-making process of planning the socio-economic development in one of Russia’s Arctic regions — the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District and to justify and further legislatively consolidate the optimal forms of interaction between public authorities and indigenous communities of the North. In 2020, the Arctic Research Center conducted a sociological survey in the Shuryshkararea of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District, which seems to limit existing approaches to identifying public opinion about prospects for developing villages and organizing life of their residents. Our proposed methodology for taking into account the views of indigenous peoples can help to overcome the identified limitations.


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (Especial) ◽  
pp. 105
Author(s):  
Dante Choque-Caseres

In Latin America, based on the recognition of Indigenous Peoples, the identification of gaps or disparities between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous population has emerged as a new research interest. To this end, capturing Indigenous identity is key to conducting certain analyses. However, the social contexts where the identity of Indigenous persons are (re)produced has been significantly altered. These changes are generated by the assimilation or integration of Indigenous communities into dominant national cultures. Within this context, limitations emerge in the use of this category, since Indigenous identity has a political and legal component related to the needs of the government. Therefore, critical thought on the use of Indigenous identity is necessary in an epistemological and methodological approach to research. This article argues that research about Indigenous Peoples should evaluate how Indigenous identity is included, for it is socially co-produced through the interaction of the State and its institutions. Thus, it would not necessarily constitute an explicative variable. By analyzing the discourse about Aymara Indigenous communities that has emerged in the northern border of Chile, this paper seeks to expose the logic used to define identity. Therefore, I conclude that the process of self-identification arises in supposed Indigenous people, built and/or reinforced by institutions, which should be reviewed from a decolonizing perspective and included in comparative research.


Author(s):  
Andrew Valls

The persistence of racial inequality in the United States raises deep and complex questions of racial justice. Some observers argue that public policy must be “color-blind,” while others argue that policies that take race into account should be defended on grounds of diversity or integration. This chapter begins to sketch an alternative to both of these, one that supports strong efforts to address racial inequality but that focuses on the conditions necessary for the liberty and equality of all. It argues that while race is a social construction, it remains deeply embedded in American society. A conception of racial justice is needed, one that is grounded on the premises provided by liberal political theory.


Author(s):  
Nicholas Owen

Other People’s Struggles is the first attempt in over forty years to explain the place of “conscience constituents” in social movements. Conscience constituents are people who participate in a movement but do not stand to benefit if it succeeds. Why do such people participate when they do not stand to benefit? Why are they sometimes present and sometimes absent in social movements? Why and when is their participation welcome to those who do stand to benefit, and why and when is it not? The work proposes an original theory to answer these questions, crossing discipline boundaries to draw on the findings of social psychology, philosophy, and normative political theory, in search of explanations of why people act altruistically and what it means to others when they do so. The theory is illustrated by examples from British history, including the antislavery movement, the women’s suffrage and liberation movements, labor and socialist movements, anticolonial movements, antipoverty movements, and movements for global justice. Other People’s Struggles also contributes to new debates concerning the rights and wrongs of “speaking for others.” Debates concerning the limits of solidarity—who can be an “ally” and on what terms—have become very topical in contemporary politics, especially in identity politics and in the new “populist” movements. The book provides a theoretical and empirical account of how these questions have been addressed in the past and how they might be framed today.


Ethics ◽  
1984 ◽  
Vol 95 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-159
Author(s):  
Alistair M. Macleod

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. e004484
Author(s):  
Helen Burn ◽  
Lisa Hamm ◽  
Joanna Black ◽  
Anthea Burnett ◽  
Matire Harwood ◽  
...  

PurposeGlobally, there are ~370 million Indigenous peoples. Indigenous peoples typically experience worse health compared with non-Indigenous people, including higher rates of avoidable vision impairment. Much of this gap in eye health can be attributed to barriers that impede access to eye care services. We conducted a scoping review to identify and summarise service delivery models designed to improve access to eye care for Indigenous peoples in high-income countries.MethodsSearches were conducted on MEDLINE, Embase and Global Health in January 2019 and updated in July 2020. All study designs were eligible if they described a model of eye care service delivery aimed at populations with over 50% Indigenous peoples. Two reviewers independently screened titles, abstracts and full-text articles and completed data charting. We extracted data on publication details, study context, service delivery interventions, outcomes and evaluations, engagement with Indigenous peoples and access dimensions targeted. We summarised findings descriptively following thematic analysis.ResultsWe screened 2604 abstracts and 67 studies fulfilled our eligibility criteria. Studies were focused on Indigenous peoples in Australia (n=45), USA (n=11), Canada (n=7), New Zealand (n=2), Taiwan (n=1) and Greenland (n=1). The main disease focus was diabetic retinopathy (n=30, 45%), followed by ‘all eye care’ (n=16, 24%). Most studies focused on targeted interventions to increase availability of services. Fewer than one-third of studies reported involving Indigenous communities when designing the service. 41 studies reflected on whether the model improved access, but none undertook rigorous evaluation or quantitative assessment.ConclusionsThe geographical and clinical scope of service delivery models to improve access to eye care for Indigenous peoples in high-income countries is narrow, with most studies focused on Australia and services for diabetic retinopathy. More and better engagement with Indigenous communities is required to design and implement accessible eye care services.


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