World Bank Denies Indigenous Peoples' Right to Prior Informed Consent

On October 23, 2001, the World Bank Governing Board denied the right of prior informed consent to indigenous peoples threatened with involuntary resettlement. Bank President James Wolfensohn recommended that the Bank Board ignore the pleas of scores of non-governmental organizations, tribes, and activists. In a September 28 letter, he wrote:

Why Warriors Lie Down And Die

By Richard I. Trudgen Aboriginal Resource and Development Services Inc., 2000 (Paperback) ISBN: 0 646 39587 4

Tourism In Global Society: place, culture, consumption

By Kevin Meethan Palgrave, March 2001 (Paperback) ISBN: 0333760581

Tijah Chopil of Malaysia: A vision of one heart

Tijah Chopil invented the phrase Sinui Pal Nanuk Sngik (SPNS) -- "New Life One Heart." It signifies that solidarity among Orang Asli will ensure a future for them. Tijah established SPNS as an organization in 1995, when she was 17 years old, to improve the life of the Orang Asli in West Malaysia.

Tibet & CS: Building a Residential Primary School in Chungba Valley: A new project for Cultural Survival

One fine morning earlier this year, more than 100 Khampa horsemen, laden with juniper incense and prayer flags, made their way up the sacred mountain of Chubum. This was no ordinary gathering. According to local custom, the people of Chungba meet at this, the holiest of sites, only twice a year -- once in the spring and once in the fall.

The Unapologetic Pursuit of Self-Interest

At the recent World Conference Against Racism (where indigenous peoples had a particularly strong showing), Canada's National Chief Matthew Coon-Come reiterated his call for indigenous peoples to enjoy just and equitable treatment within the states they now live in as vulnerable and threatened nations.

The Rights of Maroons In International Human Rights Law

The vast majority of American states have ratified international human rights treaties that obligate them to respect the rights of individuals and certain groups. Some have also ratified International Labor Organization Convention No. 169 (ILO 169), which deals exclusively with the rights of indigenous and tribal peoples.

The Ndyuka Treaty Of 1760: A Conversation with Granman Gazon

For Maroons in Suriname, treaties are hard-won symbols of freedom consecrated by the blood and power of our most powerful ancestors -- blood that guaranteed our existence as free peoples with autonomous territories and institutions. The treaties were and still are -- at least from the Maroon perspective -- the basis for defining our relationship with the Surinamese state.

Rights Talk, Respect Talk

A Walk to Protect the Earth

Reservation X: The Power of Place in Aboriginal Contemporary Art

In Reservation X: The Power of Place in Aboriginal Contemporary Art, seven artists demonstrate how their native communities influence their work. But the seven installation pieces that compose the exhibition, now showing at Dartmouth College's Hood Museum of Art, go beyond the exhibition's title.

Maroons under Assault In Suriname And French Guiana

The Maroons of Suriname and French Guiana (formerly known as "Bush Negroes") have long been the hemisphere's largest Maroon population. They are at once the most culturally, politically, and economically independent of all Maroon peoples in the Americas and, since the 1970s and 80s, the most heavily under assault. Historical Origins

Racism...at the World Conference Against Racism

At the time of this writing, participant governments still have not reached consensus on the final documents of the World Conference Against Racism (WCAR). The conference, dominated almost exclusively by the political division over the Palestine/Israel conflict and the issue of apology and reparations sought by African Americans for slavery, was plagued by discord and a lack of political will.

Quilombos and Land Rights in Contemporary Brazil

The Brazilian Constitution of 1988 for the first time recognized the right of descendants of slave-era quilombos to receive lands from the state: "The definitive property rights of remanescentes ["remnants"] of quilombos that have been occupying the same lands are hereby recognized, and the state shall grant them title to such lands." (Art.

Quilombo: Brazilian Maroons during slavery

The slave trade to the Americas, which consumed the lives of at least 12 million African men and women, represented one of the most important commercial and cultural ventures in the formation of the modern world and a fundamental element in the creation of a socioeconomic world system. It is estimated that 40 percent of the Africans imported to the Americas ended up in Brazil.

Miners & Maroons: Freedom on the Pacific Coast of Colombia and Ecuador

Slaves freed themselves by means other than escape to fugitive communities. In certain contexts, they also gained freedom through a mix of precious metals mining, subsistence cultivation, livestock raising, and participation in the market economy.

Maroons In The Americas: Heroic Pasts, Ambiguous Presents, Uncertain Futures

Maroons -- descendants of escaped slaves -- still form distinct peoples (sometimes, "states within a state") in several parts of the western hemisphere. Their situations as minorities within nation-states varies but is everywhere severely threatened -- by multinational logging and mining operations and by other assaults on their territories and cultural identities.

Maroon Autonomy In Jamaica

In hemispheric context, the early Maroon communities of Jamaica -- those formed in the 17(th) century, during the late Spanish and early British periods -- were hardly unique. But those that made treaties with the British crown in Jamaica in 1739 were destined for special fame (or infamy, depending on the perspective).

Made In Indonesia: Indonesian workers since Suharto

By Dan La Botz South End Press, 2001 (Paperback) ISBN: 0-89408-642-9

Inter-American Court of Human Rights Rules in Favor of Nicaraguan Indians

On September 17, 2001, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the highest tribunal in the Americas, released its decision in a case concerning the small Mayagna (Sumo) community of Awas Tingni, located on the forested area of Nicaragua's Caribbean coastal regional.

Going Native: Indians in the American Cultural Imagination

By Shari M. Huhndorf Cornell University Press, 2001 (Paperback) ISBN: 0 8014 8695 5

Genocide, Ethnocide, Or Hyperbole? Australia's "Stolen Generation" and Canada's "Hidden Holocaust"

A decade awash in genocide and deadly conflict has passed since Jason Clay lamented that "it is impossible for concerned activists and scholars to agree on which cases constitute genocides, much less how interested people would go about documenting them." (Clay, 1988) While this statement holds true today, a vast array of relevant scholarship on genocide has nonetheless arisen, informed by even

Endangered Peoples Of The Arctic: Struggles to Survive and Thrive

Edited by Milton M. R. Freeman Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000 (Cloth) ISBN: 0313306494

Creating Huaorani Discourse on Tourism

The Hunter and the Hunted I heard his rustlings somewhere ahead, the snap of branches beneath his feet. Mima and Lowentoke were pointing into the thick forest greenery, whispering "oré."

Black Mesa Weavers for Life and Land

The Diné (Navajo) people of Black Mesa in northeastern Arizona are among the most traditional indigenous peoples within the United States and their history is one of ongoing struggle to preserve their culture, land, water, and way of life.

Spiritual Reawakening in Siberia: Indigenous delegates visit Cultural Survival

On October 29, Cultural Survival welcomed five visitors from Siberia as part of a cultural exchange organized by the Massachusetts-based NGO, the Sacred Earth Network.