Teach about Indigenous Peoples

This newsletter focuses on indigenous peoples of the world (In Danish: Oprindelige folk). According to the UN, approximately 400 million indigenous people worldwide comprise more than 5,000 distinct tribes, spanning over 90 countries. While indigenous peoples total 6% of the world’s population, they represent 90% of the cultural diversity. (kilde mangler)

There is no rigid definition of what makes a group indigenous, but there are characteristics:

“- We are descended from the pre-colonial/pre-invasion inhabitants of our region.


- We maintain a close tie to our land in both our cultural and economic practices.


- We suffer from economic and political marginalization as a minority group.


- A group is considered indigenous if it defines itself that way.” Deepening (dødt link)

Why it is important to focus on indigenous peoples:

1: Indigenous peoples have a right to exist according to the ”United Nations Declaration of Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples”. These rights are often violated, however, and there is need for worldwide recognition and support to the fight for these rights.

- 3 films: “Indigenous Peoples and the United Nations” 

  Part 1 (8 min.) (No part 2)  Part 3 (9min.)

United Nations Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples

- This yearbook contains a comprehensive update on the current situation of indigenous peoples and their human rights:

The indigenous world, free pdf and find all previous editions

- “Wanna See the Earth Breathe For Real?” Watch this GIF

2: Indigenous peoples practice sustainability, but have not been widely respected for their practices. Now, in a number of projects, scientists are working on combining scientific and traditional indigenous knowledge.

- Example from South Africa: "Legal Recognition of Indigenous Knowledge" (IWGIA.org website)

- The Inuits in the Arctic understands the ice and seasonal changes of the ice as the breath of life called Sila. This exemplifies that “oral traditions convey understandings that are much broader than data”. Hastrup & Schaffer in "Communicating Climate Knowledge" (Chicago Journals, website)

3: There is a wealth of inspiration and knowledge on the richness of culture and human ability to develop diverse answers to big questions that all humans have to find answers to.

“ ‘Any existential human problem will have found diverse solutions, which must be worth knowing about, thinking about, and comparing’ (Barth 1994:5). It is this respect for the diversity of solutions that may eventually dethrone our culture as the yardstick for others and expand the world in which we all live.” Quote from Hastrup & Hervik: Social Experience and AnthropologicalKnowledge. Universiy level textbook. (204 pages pdf)

- “Rocks or hills can never meet. Only our peoples can come together” A Pokot saying from the biography of a Pokot man told by himself: Red-spotted Ox. A Pokot Life. (395 p. pdf)

- How indigenous societies work (First Peoples World, website)

- A textbook on social & cultural anthropology ”Small Places, Large Issues” by Thomas Hylland Eriksen is recommendable for high school and higher education (Norwegian version :”Små steder-STORE SPØRGSMÅL”)

Films etc.  for observation and dialogue from kindergarten and up:

- How the Awajun in Amazonas produce cocoa Film, 6 minutes.

- Women Potters. "As a girl I would watch my mother working clay. She learnt from her mother and later taught me". A film on the production of pottery by the Awajun women of the Peruvian Amazon and its social, cultural, and economic significance.  Film, 7 minutes.

- Indigenous skills of tribal peoples & other photo galleries

- “Tribal Peoples´ Contributions to Humanity”: Infographic

Learning materials to take into use from secondary level and up:

- ”Amazonia for sale”  The Awajun people have inhabited the Amazon rainforest since time immemorial, living in harmony with nature. This ecological balance is now being threatened, but the Awajun fight back.  Documentary 36 min.

- “Malaysian Indigenous Youth in the City … let us have a peek into their lives as they see it, eight Orang Asli and Kadazandusun youths were given compact digital cameras and a little instruction to document their lives, and the urban world they now find themselves in. The result is a collection of images that tell powerful stories of life in rapid transition and of how indigenous identities are being shaped and re-shaped”. Photobook, 109 pages. pdf

- “Forest is Life - A Story of Climate Change, Forest and Communities” Intro The comic book. pdf

- Titles of 13 schoolbooks in Danish: "Hvem er de indfødte?" (Who are the natives?) click here

Learning through actions:

- Help buy a bicycle for paralegals (Danish: Advokatfuldmægtige) & learn about indigenous peoples in Tanzania click here

- Help install landmarks and learn about indigenous peoples in Brazil click here

-Voice your support  for the most vulnerable tribal peoples, those who have the most to lose. They often face complete destruction from disease and land theft. Deepening

Join http://www.survivalinternational.org/, check out the campaigns (more than 30). You can join a campaign by writing a letter: A premade text is available and you may change and fill as you find is best. Then the text is emailed to you as a pdf–file and it is up to you to mail your letter to the responsible authority.

This process of taking your own stand and write your own version is suitable for project work, where students do their own fact checking, then take a stand and act.

… and finally ”The Good news : … Things are changing”. See some of the reasons for optimism: Link


This text is ”Teach GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP”  Network Newsletter no. 6  ___________________________________________________________________

To read any of the  previous newsletters simply visit the blog http://teachglobalcitizenship.blogspot.dk/

Yours

Egon Hedegaard,

Independent instructor and Developer of Education

Email: eghedegaard@gmail.com

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