Subversive: Space as a Movement-Making Tool

By exploring placemaking and indigenous memory, this paper argues that space can and should be utilized in movements against oppression. Grassroots resistance is increasingly necessary as the globally marginalized face the constant threats of colonization, incarceration, and fascism. With a grounding in memory studies and a transnational perspective, I analyze Maori movements in Aotearoa New Zealand and American Indian movements in North America in tandem with each other. Charting the histories of dominant space production in these twin contexts allow for a witnessing of each harmful nation-building project. This informed my conclusion that both global solidarities and place-based movements are critical tools for survival for marginalized communities. In practice, and in the tradition of indigenous struggles, these tactics can be liberatory in their reclamation of land and memory

Indigenous Movements, Democracy, and U.S. Interests in Latin America

Indigenous movements have become increasingly powerful in the last couple of decades and they are now important political actors in some South American countries, such as Bolivia, Ecuador, and, to a lesser extent, Peru and Chile. The rise of indigenous movements has provoked concern among U.S. policymakers and other observers who have feared that these movements will exacerbate ethnic polarization, undermine democracy, and jeopardize U.S. interests in the region. This paper argues that concern over the rise of indigenous movements is greatly exaggerated. It maintains that the rise of indigenous movements has not brought about a market increase in ethnic polarization in the region because most indigenous organizations have been ethnically inclusive and have eschewed violence. Although the indigenous movements have at times demonstrated a lack of regard for democratic institutions and procedures, they have also helped deepen democracy in the Andean region by promoting greater political inclusion and participation and by aggressively combating ethnic discrimination and inequality. Finally, this study suggests that the indigenous population has opposed some U.S. –sponsored initiatives, such as coca eradication and market reform, for legitimate reasons. Such policies have had some negative environmental, cultural, and economic consequences for indigenous people, which U.S. policymakers should try to address. The conclusion provides some specific policy recommendations on how to go about this

The Return of the Native: the indigenous challenge in Latin America

In this paper Rodolfo Stavenhagen explores the evolution of indigenous movements in Latin America. Indigenous organisations have sprung up in their thousands since the 1960s and have become a new and formidable force for social and political change. Stavenhagen describes the factors which account for the rise of awareness within indigenous communities, such as disillusionment with the land reform and populist indigenista policies. He goes on to discuss the way in which small, grassroots organisations, concerned largely with specific socio-economic issues, have developed into large, country-wide coalitions calling for autonomy and self-determination. Although these movements have no universal ideology as such, Stavenhagen argues that the discourse created has changed both indigenous peoples' self-perception and the way in which they are viewed by the political elite both at home and abroad. Moreover, this, in time, and in tandem with the important constitutional and legislative changes already achieved, should encourage the intercultural mestizaje which he sees as the only means by which Indians and Ladinos can live on equal terms

Neoliberal Multiculturalism and Indigenous Movements

Más que un indio (More Than an Indian): Racial Ambivalence and Neoliberal Multiculturalism in Guatemala. By Charles R. Hale. Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research Press, 2006. Pp. xii + 292. $34.05 paper. The Stroessner Regime and Indigenous Resistance in Paraguay. By René D. Harder Horst. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2007. Pp. xi + 224.$50.05 cloth. Who Defines Indigenous? Identities, Development, Intellectuals, and the State in Northern Mexico. By Carmen Martínez Novo. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2006. Pp. ix + 187. $23.95 paper. Now We Are Citizens: Indigenous Politics in Postmulticultural Bolivia. By Nancy Grey Postero. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2007. Pp. xvi + 294.$26.05 paper. The four books under review address several of the most compelling issues that have arisen following the democratic transitions of the 1980s and 1990s in Latin American countries with indigenous populations. The main concerns shared by the authors, all anthropologists, are indigenous mobilization, indigenous-state relations, and official multiculturalism. Reforms that sought to bring marginalized indigenous populations into the political process receive particular attention. The paradox of neoliberal multiculturalism, according to Charles R. Hale, “is that a progressive response to past societal ills has a menacing potential to perpetuate the problem in a new guise” (12). The reforms “intended to heal the rift between the state and the populace,” writes Nancy Grey Postero (220), did not work as planned, and the books reviewed here seek to understand why. Although the authors address several other topics, I focus on how they deal with indigenous organizing, neoliberal ideologies and policies, democratization, and the role of structural racism. The differences among the books are substantial, as a result of different research sites and the various interests, methodologies, and research scope of the authors

Development, Environmental and Indigenous People’s Movements in Australia: Issues of Autonomy and Identity

Indigenous movements in Australia are at a crossroad in their efforts to protect their intrinsic relations with land, nature and culture on the one hand and engaging with the reconciliatory and developmental dynamics of the state on the other. This paper examines the process of articulation and rejuvenation of indigenous identities that negotiate across culture, environment, sustainable livelihood and the developmental needs of the community. Locating these movements within wider socio-historical contexts it focuses on the tensions between a pro-conservation and a pro-development approach in grass roots indigenous movements. Three case studies are presented – drawn from the Sydney region. One indigenous group’s struggle against a housing development, defined as a threat to indigenous and environmental heritage, is contrasted with an indigenous group that is internally divided over an agreement with a mining developer, and a third group that has engaged in constructing housing and welfare projects, and in part has itself become a developer. The article thereby addresses the reformulation of indigenous identities in Australian society as indigenous peoples’ movements have renegotiated the contending pressures of environment and development

The Commonwealth of Nations Indigenous Project

Some Commonwealth governments, indigenous and non-indigenous NGOs, academic and research institutions, and human rights movements will ensure that indigenous rights, self-determination, sustainable development, and governance issues will stay alive. They require active advocacy near and far, not quietism, patience, or lack of confidence in stay-at-home circles

Silent Crusade? Indigenous Women in Taiwanese Indigenous Movements

Among the various indigenous rights movements across different times in Taiwan, the presence of indigenous women often goes obscure. Although in recent years there has been a great deal of publications on Taiwanese indigenous movements, some of the literature -constructed under the structure of the indigenous knowledge system-, while insisting on the status and value of indigenous autonomy, tend to overlook the historical context in Taiwanese society of indigenous women who participated in social movements. What are the issues of concern? This paper primarily serves to reveal the "silent crusades" and to bring forward the directions of interests of the indigenous women's movements by analyzing related reports, autobiographies, interview transcripts, texts, etc. spanning over two decades and published in the weekly newspaper of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan (PCT), Taiwan Church News, in addition to in-depth interviews with the leaders of indigenous women's social movements.Las mujeres indígenas suelen pasar inadvertidas en los diversos movimientos que, a lo largo de los años, reivindican los derechos indígenas en Taiwan. A pesar de que en los últimos años ha habido una gran cantidad de publicaciones sobre los movimientos indígenas en Taiwan, parte de este corpus -construido bajo la estructura del sistema de conocimiento indígena- al insistir en el estatus y el valor de la autonomía indígena tiende a pasar por alto el contexto histórico dentro de la sociedad taiwanesa de las mujeres indígenas que participaron en los movimientos sociales. ¿Cuáles son los principales ejes de interés? Este artículo busca poner de manifiesto las "cruzadas silenciosas" y los principales temas que conciernen a las movimientos de mujeres indígenas por medio del análisis de reportes, autobiografías, entrevistas, y textos en general publicados a lo largo de dos décadas en el periódico semanal de la Iglesia Presbiteriana de Taiwan (PCT), el Taiwan Church News, además de entrevistas en profundidad con las líderes de los movimientos sociales de mujeres indígenas

Climate justice, commons, and degrowth

Economic inequality reduces the political space for addressing climate change, by producing fear-based populism. Only when the safety, social status, and livelihoods of all members of society are assured will voluntary, democratic decisions be possible to reverse climate change and fairly mitigate its effects. Socio-environmental and climate justice, commoning, and decolonization are pre-conditions for participatory, responsible governance that both signals and assists the development of equitable socio-political systems. Degrowth movements, when they explicitly prioritize equity, can help to focus activism for climate justice and sustainable livelihoods. This paper overviews the theoretical grounding for these arguments, drawing from the work of ecofeminist and Indigenous writers. Indigenous (and also ecofeminist) praxis is grounded in activists' leadership for commoning and resistance to extraction, the fossil fuel economy, and commodified property rights. These movements are building a politics of decolonization, respect, solidarity, and hope rather than xenophobia and despair.This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canad

El pasado en el presente: explorando historias indígenas en Bolivia

In this article I analyse the ways in which the inhabitants of an Aymara-speaking village understand history and their place within it and explores the profound differences between their historical consciousness and that of mainstream indigenous expression. This raises questions about how people relate to the past, the importance of the Conquest for indigenous peoples, and the consecuences for contemporary indigenous movements of the existence of an indigenous historical consciousness radically different to what is supposed all indigenous people share