Hello Gale,
Thank for your comment. In regards to the question you posed, I would look for their answers in two different documents: the first being from the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples (called "Who are Indigenous Peoples?") and the Draft American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which is currently in its 13th round of negotiation between the OAS Member States and indigenous representatives from throughout the region.
As you can see in the UN definition, they use the term indigenous peoples to describe "those who inhabited a country or a geographical region at the time when people of different cultures or ethnic origins arrived." Also, you can see in the section one of the Draft Declaration (the “Scope of Application”), which reads in Article I: 1. The American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples applies to the indigenous peoples of the Americas; 2. Self-identification as indigenous peoples will be a fundamental criteria for determining to whom this Declaration applies. The states shall respect the right to such self-identification as indigenous, individually or collectively, in keeping with the practices and institutions of each indigenous people. (Both agreed upon by consensus on March 25, 2006 – Seventh Meeting of Negotiations in the Quest for Points of Consensus (please find the complete document: www.oas.org/consejo/sp/CAJP/docs/dadin00299e09.doc).
Considering the diversity of indigenous peoples, an official definition of “indigenous” has not been adopted by any UN-system body. Instead the system has developed a modern understanding of this term based on the following:
Self- identification as indigenous peoples at the individual level and accepted by the community as their member.
Historical continuity with pre-colonial and/or pre-settler societies
Strong link to territories and surrounding natural resources
Distinct social, economic or political systems
Distinct language, culture and beliefs
Form non-dominant groups of society
Resolve to maintain and reproduce their ancestral environments and systems as distinctive peoples and communities.
In this sense, someone who was born after a country’s independence can/is considered as Indigenous according to the above. Hope this information is useful!
We appreciate any comment coming from individuals from the Caribbean on the use of the term indigenous peoples in their region.
Please find in the "resources" section of this Group, the presentation made by the Summits of the Americas Secretariat (SAS) in the introductory session of the Sub-regional meeting with Indigenous Peoples from North America and the Caribbean: SAS presentation Subregional in Ottawa_Dec 2010_Final.ppt.
More presentations and outcomes of the discussions will be made available shortly.
The area/term of Indigenous People is still in need of clarification for me. While in some countries there may be first peoples, I will like to ask whetether natives born of these said countris are considered Indigenous. Example, someone from one of the Caribbean Islands who was born after its Independence, can that person be considered Indigenous? If not why not?
This is a new argument re describing Indigenous People of the Caribbean and the follow up to the above article highlighted in terms of its sustainability.
Thank you for your response and interest in ICCTA. Although we have developed the solid foundations and business plan for ICCTA, we are in its formative stages. We did receive some funding from CANADA to enable us to establish ICCTA on this sound footing as well as to develop the business plan. We have a considerable amount of information compiled for our various databases, including the database on best practices. However, we have yet to secure operational funds and therefore have not been able to complete the development of our website with that information. You can download the overview of our plan at www.iccta-citca.org or if you like, I could email it to you. I look forward to keeping in contact on this.
Thank you for your comments Tony. It is great to see that there are individuals interested in debating the use of ICTs by indigenous peoples. Here at the Summit Secretariat we have developed the SVC for a variety of stakeholders of the Summit Process and that includes indigenous peoples, who are part of the social actors. We hope that this tool can be used to strengthen their participation in the process, and continue sending their comments and recommentions as well as interacting with peers to engage in dialogue and share best practices.
Given that you have experience in ICT tools, I would appreciate if you could share with us other projects that works toward the implementation of this article (promote the use of ICT to indigenous peoples). Do you work with any specific project? have any best practices to share?
Look forward to hearing from you and from others who have experience in this issue.
I am obviously interested in the follow up to all of the provisions of the III Indigenous Leaders Summit of the Americas Plan of Action.
I am particularly interested in follow up to Promoting Human Prosperity, Article 3. Facilitate, support, and promote the appropriate use and development of information and communications technologies (ICTs) by Indigenous Peoples to strengthen their legal, political, social, educational, cultural, spiritual and economic well-being, including Indigenous educational systems.
I would like to provide information on the Indigenous Commission For Communications Technologies in the Americas (ICCTA). The Plan: Indigenous Peoples Empowering Themselves through Technologies can be downloaded from ICCTA's website at: www.iccta-citca.org
A new document: "List of recipients of financial support" has been added to the "events" section of this Community (please click here for more details). This list is also published online at www.summit-americas.org/cs_meet.html.
The informative bulletin with information about the hotel and other logistical matters will be published shortly. Please use this space to send us your comments, questions and suggestions for this Sub-regional event. Also, share your documents, photos and other materials prior, during, and after the Sub-regional event of Indigenous Peoples to be held on December 13, 2010.
This statement is ironical since in Trinidad the few Indigenous people that live here have to be begging back for lands taken from them, with a promise to have it returned. This is not even a political problem but a problem of how the ordinary citizen view the the first peoples. They were given a token of land but when we speak of equity and poverty, these people have only been requesting what is rightfully their own.
I believe we are still a long way in recognising ownership of land and its resouces as belonging to the first peoples.
Hola! Hello! I realize that the above mentioned Seminar has (to my dismay) already transpired, but I new to SVC (as of several minutes ago)and am in search for knowledge. Please let me introduce myself. My name is Georgia. I am a 30 year old single mother, and a full-time student with a 4.0 GPA at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, USA. The degree I am pursuing is in International and Comparative Politics with a minor in Spanish. I chose this degree because it seemed the best academic plan offered at my University for my chosen career. That "career", however, is not clearly defined, but rather it is just a passion. I have, through much academic research and soul searching, decided to direct my life towards helping preserve the cultures of the indigenous people in Latin America. I am a determined, independent woman of great strength, an insatiable desire for knowledge, a huge heart, and very little resources. I will be finished with school soon, and am searching for the next step. Could someone kindly direct me to some information on training seminars, internships, volunteer organizations... anything that can train me in the next step in making a difference. I, and my children, are willing to travel where ever the resources allow us. Thank you for your time and help.
To answer your question Gale, the Indigenous people of the Caribbean have began emerging in to groups. For example Trinidad has two basic groups, Carib represented by the Santa Rosa Carib Community and Arawak, represented by the Nepoyo Arawak Nation. Both of which work with the United Confederation of Taino People which is a Caribbean regional body, they could be found at UCTP.org.
For the purpose of information can anyone tell me whether the Indigenous people of the Central and South America and those of the Caribbean carry one voice or are they grouped according to their location. It seems to me that the Caribbean Indigenous people have little or no voice. How can this be rectified?
We can learn from all groups.
Although there were many concerns about what sort of role we would be able to play in the OAS, I think that we need to remember that we are ultimately still responsible for our own development and must keep working together with the highest level ofnrespect and dignity. We must treat and think of ourselves andneach other as valid people and sovereign nations, if we expect others to do the same. Respect is not asked for, but commanded by our actions. Mayauha (Peace) my relatives.
Hello Gale,
Thank for your comment. In regards to the question you posed, I would look for their answers in two different documents: the first being from the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples (called "Who are Indigenous Peoples?") and the Draft American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which is currently in its 13th round of negotiation between the OAS Member States and indigenous representatives from throughout the region.
As you can see in the UN definition, they use the term indigenous peoples to describe "those who inhabited a country or a geographical region at the time when people of different cultures or ethnic origins arrived." Also, you can see in the section one of the Draft Declaration (the “Scope of Application”), which reads in Article I: 1. The American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples applies to the indigenous peoples of the Americas; 2. Self-identification as indigenous peoples will be a fundamental criteria for determining to whom this Declaration applies. The states shall respect the right to such self-identification as indigenous, individually or collectively, in keeping with the practices and institutions of each indigenous people. (Both agreed upon by consensus on March 25, 2006 – Seventh Meeting of Negotiations in the Quest for Points of Consensus (please find the complete document: www.oas.org/consejo/sp/CAJP/docs/dadin00299e09.doc).
Considering the diversity of indigenous peoples, an official definition of “indigenous” has not been adopted by any UN-system body. Instead the system has developed a modern understanding of this term based on the following:
(*Taken from www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/5session_factsheet1.pdf)
In this sense, someone who was born after a country’s independence can/is considered as Indigenous according to the above. Hope this information is useful!
We appreciate any comment coming from individuals from the Caribbean on the use of the term indigenous peoples in their region.
Please find in the "resources" section of this Group, the presentation made by the Summits of the Americas Secretariat (SAS) in the introductory session of the Sub-regional meeting with Indigenous Peoples from North America and the Caribbean: SAS presentation Subregional in Ottawa_Dec 2010_Final.ppt.
More presentations and outcomes of the discussions will be made available shortly.
The area/term of Indigenous People is still in need of clarification for me. While in some countries there may be first peoples, I will like to ask whetether natives born of these said countris are considered Indigenous. Example, someone from one of the Caribbean Islands who was born after its Independence, can that person be considered Indigenous? If not why not?
This is a new argument re describing Indigenous People of the Caribbean and the follow up to the above article highlighted in terms of its sustainability.
Thank you for your response and interest in ICCTA. Although we have developed the solid foundations and business plan for ICCTA, we are in its formative stages. We did receive some funding from CANADA to enable us to establish ICCTA on this sound footing as well as to develop the business plan. We have a considerable amount of information compiled for our various databases, including the database on best practices. However, we have yet to secure operational funds and therefore have not been able to complete the development of our website with that information. You can download the overview of our plan at www.iccta-citca.org or if you like, I could email it to you. I look forward to keeping in contact on this.
Thank you for your comments Tony. It is great to see that there are individuals interested in debating the use of ICTs by indigenous peoples. Here at the Summit Secretariat we have developed the SVC for a variety of stakeholders of the Summit Process and that includes indigenous peoples, who are part of the social actors. We hope that this tool can be used to strengthen their participation in the process, and continue sending their comments and recommentions as well as interacting with peers to engage in dialogue and share best practices.
Given that you have experience in ICT tools, I would appreciate if you could share with us other projects that works toward the implementation of this article (promote the use of ICT to indigenous peoples). Do you work with any specific project? have any best practices to share?
Look forward to hearing from you and from others who have experience in this issue.
I am obviously interested in the follow up to all of the provisions of the III Indigenous Leaders Summit of the Americas Plan of Action.
I am particularly interested in follow up to Promoting Human Prosperity, Article 3. Facilitate, support, and promote the appropriate use and development of information and communications technologies (ICTs) by Indigenous Peoples to strengthen their legal, political, social, educational, cultural, spiritual and economic well-being, including Indigenous educational systems.
I would like to provide information on the Indigenous Commission For Communications Technologies in the Americas (ICCTA). The Plan: Indigenous Peoples Empowering Themselves through Technologies can be downloaded from ICCTA's website at: www.iccta-citca.org
A new document: "List of recipients of financial support" has been added to the "events" section of this Community (please click here for more details). This list is also published online at www.summit-americas.org/cs_meet.html.
The informative bulletin with information about the hotel and other logistical matters will be published shortly. Please use this space to send us your comments, questions and suggestions for this Sub-regional event. Also, share your documents, photos and other materials prior, during, and after the Sub-regional event of Indigenous Peoples to be held on December 13, 2010.
This statement is ironical since in Trinidad the few Indigenous people that live here have to be begging back for lands taken from them, with a promise to have it returned. This is not even a political problem but a problem of how the ordinary citizen view the the first peoples. They were given a token of land but when we speak of equity and poverty, these people have only been requesting what is rightfully their own.
I believe we are still a long way in recognising ownership of land and its resouces as belonging to the first peoples.
Hola! Hello! I realize that the above mentioned Seminar has (to my dismay) already transpired, but I new to SVC (as of several minutes ago)and am in search for knowledge. Please let me introduce myself. My name is Georgia. I am a 30 year old single mother, and a full-time student with a 4.0 GPA at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, USA. The degree I am pursuing is in International and Comparative Politics with a minor in Spanish. I chose this degree because it seemed the best academic plan offered at my University for my chosen career. That "career", however, is not clearly defined, but rather it is just a passion. I have, through much academic research and soul searching, decided to direct my life towards helping preserve the cultures of the indigenous people in Latin America. I am a determined, independent woman of great strength, an insatiable desire for knowledge, a huge heart, and very little resources. I will be finished with school soon, and am searching for the next step. Could someone kindly direct me to some information on training seminars, internships, volunteer organizations... anything that can train me in the next step in making a difference. I, and my children, are willing to travel where ever the resources allow us. Thank you for your time and help.
To answer your question Gale, the Indigenous people of the Caribbean have began emerging in to groups. For example Trinidad has two basic groups, Carib represented by the Santa Rosa Carib Community and Arawak, represented by the Nepoyo Arawak Nation. Both of which work with the United Confederation of Taino People which is a Caribbean regional body, they could be found at UCTP.org.
For the purpose of information can anyone tell me whether the Indigenous people of the Central and South America and those of the Caribbean carry one voice or are they grouped according to their location. It seems to me that the Caribbean Indigenous people have little or no voice. How can this be rectified?
We can learn from all groups.
Although there were many concerns about what sort of role we would be able to play in the OAS, I think that we need to remember that we are ultimately still responsible for our own development and must keep working together with the highest level ofnrespect and dignity. We must treat and think of ourselves andneach other as valid people and sovereign nations, if we expect others to do the same. Respect is not asked for, but commanded by our actions. Mayauha (Peace) my relatives.
This is a wonderful initiative and I look forward to learning more.
Please check the pictures uploaded of the Indigenous Leaders Summit of the Americas visiting the group's resources