Editing Indigenous peoples (section)

=== Recent ===
In the 21st century, the concept of Indigenous peoples is understood in a wider context than only the colonial experience. The focus has been on self-identification as indigenous peoples, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territory, and an experience of subjugation and discrimination under a dominant cultural model.{{Sfn|Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues|2009|p=6}}

====United Nations====
No definition of Indigenous peoples has been adopted by a United Nations agency. The Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues states, "in the case of the concept of 'indigenous peoples', the prevailing view today is that no formal universal definition of the term is necessary, given that a single definition will inevitably be either over- or under-inclusive, making sense in some societies but not in others."<ref name="PFII-2009">{{Cite book |last=Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues |title=State of the World's Indigenous Peoples |publisher=United Nations |year=2009 |location=New York |pages=4–7}}</ref>

However, a number of UN agencies have provided statements of coverage for particular international agreements concerning Indigenous peoples or "working definitions" for particular reports.<ref name="PFII-2009" />

The International Labour Organization's (ILO) Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (ILO Convention No. 169), states that the convention covers:<blockquote>peoples in independent countries who are regarded as indigenous on account of their descent from the populations which inhabited the country, or a geographical region to which the country belongs, at the time of conquest or colonisation or the establishment of present state boundaries and who, irrespective of their legal status, retain some or all of their own social, economic, cultural and political institutions.<ref name="Sanders2">{{cite journal |last=Sanders |first=Douglas E. |year=1999 |title=Indigenous peoples: Issues of definition |journal=International Journal of Cultural Property |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=4–13 |doi=10.1017/s0940739199770591 |s2cid=154898887 | issn = 0940-7391}}</ref></blockquote>The convention also covers "tribal peoples" who are distinguished from Indigenous peoples and described as "tribal peoples in independent countries whose social, cultural and economic conditions distinguish them from other sections of the national community and whose status is regulated wholly or partially by their own customs or traditions or by special laws or regulations."{{Sfn|Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues|2009|p=5}}

The convention states that self-identification as indigenous or tribal is a fundamental criterion for determining the groups to which the convention applies.<ref name="UNHR-2013" /> The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples does not define Indigenous peoples but affirms their right to self-determination including determining their own identity.{{Sfn|UNHR Fact Sheet No. 9|2013|pp=4-5}}

==== Inter-American Commission on Human Rights ====
[[Inter-American Commission on Human Rights|The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights]] does not provide a definition of Indigenous peoples stating that, "such a definition is not necessary for purposes of protecting their human rights." In determining coverage of Indigenous peoples, the commission uses the criteria developed in documents such as ILO Convention No. 169 and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The commission states that self-identification as indigenous is a fundamental criterion.<ref name="cidh.org2"/>

==== World Bank ====
The [[World Bank]] states, "Indigenous Peoples are distinct social and cultural groups that share collective ancestral ties to the lands and natural resources where they live, occupy or from which they have been displaced."<ref>{{Cite web |date=6 April 2023 |title=Indigenous Peoples |url=https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/indigenouspeoples#1 |access-date=28 December 2023 |website=The World Bank}}</ref>

==== Amnesty International ====
Amnesty International does not provide a definition of Indigenous peoples but states that they can be identified according to certain characteristics:<ref>{{Cite web |last=Amnesty International |date=2023 |title=Indigenous Peoples |url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/indigenous-peoples/ |access-date=30 December 2023 |website=Amnesty International}}</ref>
* Self identification as Indigenous peoples
* A historical link with those who inhabited a country or region at the time when people of different cultures or ethnic origins arrived
* A strong link to territories and surrounding natural resources
* Distinct social, economic or political systems
* A distinct language, culture and beliefs
* Marginalized and discriminated against by the state
* They maintain and develop their ancestral environments and systems as distinct peoples

==== Scholars ====
Academics and other scholars have developed various definitions of Indigenous peoples. In 1986–87, José Martínez Cobo, developed the following "working definition" :<blockquote>Indigenous communities, peoples, and nations are those that, having a historical continuity with pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories, consider themselves distinct from other sectors of the societies now prevailing in those territories, or parts of them. They form at present non-dominant sectors of society and are determined to preserve, develop, and transmit to future generations their ancestral territories, and their ethnic identity, as the basis of their continued existence as peoples, in accordance with their own cultural patterns, social institutions and legal systems.<ref name="IWGIA-2011">{{cite web |date=2011-04-09 |title=A working definition, by José Martinez Cobo |url=https://www.iwgia.org/en/news-alerts/archive?view=article&id=340:a-working-definition-by-jose-martinez-cobo&catid=143 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191026153237/https://www.iwgia.org/en/news-alerts/archive?view=article&id=340:a-working-definition-by-jose-martinez-cobo&catid=143 |archive-date=26 October 2019 |access-date=2020-03-11 |website=IWGIA - International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs |quote=}}</ref></blockquote>Martínez Cobo states that the following factors are relevant to historical continuity: occupation of ancestral lands, or at least of part of them; common ancestry with the original occupants of these lands; cultural factors such as religion, tribalism, dress, etc.; language; residence in certain parts of the country, or in certain regions of the world; and other relevant factors.{{Sfn|Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues|2009|pp=4-5}}[[File:Chichicastenango-004.jpg|thumb|Guatemalan girls in their traditional clothing from the town of Santa Catarina Palopó on [[Lake Atitlán]]]]In 2004, [[James Anaya]], defined Indigenous peoples as "living descendants of pre-invasion inhabitants of lands now dominated by others. They are culturally distinct groups that find themselves engulfed by other settler societies born of forces of empire and conquest".<ref name="Anaya-2004">S. James Anaya, ''Indigenous Peoples in International Law'', 2nd ed., Oxford University press, 2004, p. 3; Professor Anaya teaches Native American Law, and is the third Commission on Human Rights Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of Indigenous People</ref>

In 2012, [[Eve Tuck|Tuck]] and [[K. Wayne Yang|Yang]] propose a criterion based on accounts of origin: "Indigenous peoples are those who have creation stories, not colonization stories, about how we/they came to be in a particular place – indeed how we/they came to be a place. Our/their relationships to land comprise our/their epistemologies, ontologies, and cosmologies".<ref name="Tuck-2012">Tuck, Eve, and K. Wayne Yang. "Decolonization is not a metaphor." Tabula Rasa 38 (2012): 61-111.</ref> Indigenous peoples such as the Maasai and the Māori have oral traditional histories involving migration to their current location from somewhere else.<ref name=singh/>

Anthropologist Manvir Singh states that the term may lack coherence, pointing to inconsistencies in which ethnic groups are called Indigenous or not, and notes several scholars who suggest that it instead acts as a relabeling of discredited and colonial ideas about "primitive" people.<ref name=singh>{{cite magazine |last1=Singh |first1=Manvir |title=It's Time to Rethink the Idea of the "Indigenous" |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/02/27/its-time-to-rethink-the-idea-of-the-indigenous |magazine=The New Yorker |access-date=3 November 2024 |date=20 February 2023}}</ref> Singh states that some Indigenous people argue that the term and identity has resulted in pressure to appear "primordial" and "unchanging", and erases complex and modern identities.<ref name=singh/>

'''Other views'''

It is sometimes argued that all Africans are Indigenous to Africa, all Asians are Indigenous to parts of Asia, or that there can be no Indigenous peoples in countries which did not experience large-scale Western settler colonialism.{{Sfn|Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues|2009|p=6}} Many countries have avoided the term Indigenous peoples or have denied that Indigenous peoples exist in their territory, and have classified minorities who identify as Indigenous in other ways, such as 'hill tribes' in Thailand, 'scheduled tribes' in India, 'national minorities' in China, 'cultural minorities' in the Philippines, 'isolated and alien peoples' in Indonesia, and various other terms.<ref name="Cultural Survival3"/>