31-3 Reparations for Indigenous Peoples

UN Adopts the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

After 25 years of negotiation, 10 months of procedural shenanigans, last-minute complications, and hard-won compromises, the United Nations General Assembly finally adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in a near-unanimous vote on September 13. There were 143 votes in favor of the declaration, only 4 against it, and 11 abstentions. “The 13th of September 2007 will be…

The State of the Native Nations: Conditions Under U.S. Policies of Self-Determination

The State of the Native Nations: Conditions Under U.S. Policies of Self-Determination By the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development Oxford University Press, 2008 ISBN 0195301250 Reviewed by Ellen L. Lutz When the National Museum of the American Indian opened in Washington, D.C., on September 21, 2004, some 20,000 Native Americans from the Arctic to Patagonia marched on…

The Glory of Oratory

Speechmaking may not seem like an art form. Certainly it is not one in the United States, where most speeches are made by politicians using strings of prepackaged slogans and even the president delivers his public addresses like he isn’t sure what the words mean. But in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, oratory as expression is the glue that holds society together, practiced in every public…

The Deer that Reigns

A creation story related by Risten Lango, a Sami reindeer herder, tells of a white reindeer creating the world. The reindeer’s veins became rivers, its fur became forest, its stomach became the ocean, and its horns became mountains. For the Sami people of Scandinavia and Russia, reindeer is a staple. Some Sami herd reindeer; they rely on the animal extensively for food, tools, and clothing.…

Reparations: Putting the Past to Rights

Years before joining Cultural Survival, I spent about a decade working with survivors of torture and other traumatic human rights abuses, mostly from Latin America, and another 12 years seeking justice and compensation in a U.S. federal court for survivors of atrocities committed by Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos. That work led to a book I co-authored, titled Serving Survivors of Torture:…

Oh, Canada!

"Residential schools.” On the surface, the term sounds benign, even bucolic, the sort of place where upper-class Britons would send their children in preparation for Oxford. But for Native Peoples in Canada, residential schools are the stuff of nightmares. For a century, from the 1880s until the mid-1980s, the government of Canada maintained a system of boarding schools for Native children that…

Intolerable Intolerance

A new wave of racism against indigenous peoples is emanating from figures so hallowed they are intimidating to confront. But confront them we must; and recognize their words and deeds for what they are. The mistakes of the past are too egregious. We cannot tolerate their recurrence. Let’s start with Pope Benedict XVI’s blasphemy in Brazil in May, when he told a group of Latin American and…

Healing Hidden Wounds

When most people think of reparations, they tend to think of things like money, land, or legislation. Certainly those are useful tools for helping victims regain their sense of dignity and move forward. But human rights violations tend to do much of their damage in the social and psychological realm, so physical reparations don’t really address the problem. If reparations are to be effective,…

For the Children

Throughout her life, Pat Anderson has played various roles in the movement for Aboriginal justice in Australia. She has been an education union officer, community education instructor, and health worker. Now, she is speaking out perhaps more publicly than ever before. Along with former prosecutor Rex Wild, Anderson co-authored “Little Children Are Sacred,” an inquiry report from the Northern…

Don't Worry, Be Guilty

Despite the fact that there are global trends in favor of reparations for indigenous peoples, the United States has no general program of reparations for Native Americans and no prospects for adopting one. Part of the reason for this may be political, but the larger part lies in the origins and basic philosophy of the country. From our earliest founding we Americans have tended to believe that…

Courting Disaster

Ubi jus ibi remedium. Since at least ancient Roman times, Western legal systems have recognized that where there is a right, there also must be a remedy. Western law now dominates the globe and underpins international human rights law. All national legal systems recognize the right to a remedy for general wrongs suffered, and international human rights law extends this by providing a…

Convergence

At the age of 16, Ugandan-born Bernard Kibirige, a member of the Muganda tribe, found himself bearing a burden carried by many children in his country: he lost both parents to AIDS. Being the eldest child in a family of 10, he assumed full responsibility in caring for his younger siblings. It was a difficult undertaking. Uganda is the least-developed country in East Africa, and its economy…

Arctic Son

Arctic Son A film by Andrew Walton. Big Mouth Films, April 2006 Broadcast on the PBS program POV August 2007 The story of Arctic Son could not be simpler: a father attempts to reconnect with his long-estranged son. Yet like the Buddhist epigraph that opens the film—“Before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water; after enlightenment, chop wood and carry water”—its…