Thammasat University students interested in anthropology, sociology, political science, history, human rights, development studies, and related subjects may find it useful to participate in a free 9 August Zoom webinar to celebrate International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples 2024.

The event, on Friday, 9 August 2024 at 8pm Bangkok time, is presented by The United Nations and may be viewed live on the Facebook page of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

The World Bank defines indigenous peoples as 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.

The TU Library collection includes several books about indigenous peoples.

In Southeast Asia:

• The Malay Singaporeans are the Indigenous people of Singapore, inhabiting it since the Austronesian migration. They had established the Kingdom of Singapura back in the 13th century.
• Dayak People are one of the Indigenous groups of Borneo. It is a loose term for over 200 riverine and hill-dwelling ethnic groups, located in Borneo, each with its own dialect, customs, laws, territory, and culture, although common distinguishing traits are readily identifiable.
• The Cham are the Indigenous people of the former state of Champa which was conquered by Vietnam in the Cham–Vietnamese wars during Nam tiến. The Cham in Vietnam are only recognized as a minority, and not as an Indigenous people by the Vietnamese government despite being indigenous to the region.
• The Degar (Montagnards) are indigenous to Central Highlands (Vietnam) and were conquered by the Vietnamese in the Nam tiến.
• The Khmer Krom are the Indigenous people of the Mekong Delta and Saigon which were acquired by Vietnam from Cambodian King Chey Chettha II in exchange for a Vietnamese princess.
• In Indonesia, there are 50 to 70 million people who are classified as Indigenous peoples by the local Indigenous rights advocacy group Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara. However, the Indonesian government does not recognize the existence of indigenous peoples, classifying every Native Indonesian ethnic group as “indigenous” despite the clear cultural distinctions of certain groups. This problem is shared by many other countries in the ASEAN region.
• In the Philippines, there are 135 ethno-linguistic groups, 110 of which are considered as Indigenous peoples by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples. The Indigenous people of Cordillera Administrative Region and Cagayan Valley in the Philippines are the Igorot people. The Indigenous peoples of Mindanao are the Lumad peoples and the Moro (Tausug, Maguindanao Maranao and others) who also live in the Sulu archipelago. There are also others sets of Indigenous peoples in Palawan, Mindoro, Visayas, and the rest central and south Luzon. The country has one of the largest Indigenous peoples population in the world.
• In Myanmar, indigenous peoples include the Shan, the Karen, the Rakhine, the Karenni, the Chin, the Kachin and the Mon. However, there are more ethnic groups that are considered indigenous, for example, the Akha, the Lisu, the Lahu or the Mru, among others.

According to the event webpage:

Protecting the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Voluntary Isolation and Initial Contact

Around 200 groups of Indigenous Peoples currently live in voluntary isolation and initial contact. They reside in remote forests rich in natural resources in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Peru and Venezuela. They choose to live detached from the rest of the world and their mobility pattern allows them to engage in gathering and hunting, thereby preserving their cultures and languages. These peoples have a strict dependency on their ecological environment. Any changes to their natural habitat can harm both the survival of individual members and the group as a whole.

Despite their right to autonomy as enshrined in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Peoples in voluntary isolation and initial contact face unique challenges often overlooked by the surrounding world. Developments for agriculture, mining, tourism and natural resources in their territories is resulting in the deforestation of swathes of Indigenous Peoples’ forests, disrupting their way of life and destroying the natural environment that they have protected for generations.

For Indigenous Peoples living in voluntary isolation and initial contact, one of the most serious threats from external contact is the exposure to diseases. Due to their isolation, they do not have the immunological defenses to relatively common diseases. As such, forced contact with the outside world can lead to devastating consequences, and can destroy whole societies.

This International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples 2024 is focusing on ‘Protecting the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Voluntary Isolation and Initial Contact’. Indigenous Peoples in voluntary isolation and initial contact are the best protectors of the forest. Where their collective rights to lands and territories are protected, the forests thrive, alongside their societies. And not only is their survival crucial to the protection of our planet, but it is crucial to the protection of cultural and linguistic diversity. In today’s hyper-connected world, the existence of Indigenous Peoples in voluntary isolation and initial contact is a testament to the rich and complex tapestry of humanity, and it is a huge loss to our world if they cease to exist.

Among the speakers:

Panel Discussion:

Facing the Threats 

Eduardo Pichilingue Ramos

Director, Pachamama Foundation

Rukka Sombolinggi (Torajan),

Secretary General, AMAN

Alicia Cahuiya (Waorani), Vice President, Nacionalidad Waorani

Dialogue: Responses to Protect Rights

Manuel Carmona Yebra, Deputy Head of Global Issues and Innovation & Counsellor for Environment and Oceans, Delegation of EU to US

Francisco Cali Tzay (Maya Kaqchikel), UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Caroline Pearce, Executive Director, Survival International 

Closing Remarks Freddy Mamani Machaca (Quechua), Coordinator of Indigenous Affairs, Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization

The Pachamama Foundation website explains that the organization’s Mission is to

To empower Indigenous people of the Amazon rainforest to preserve their lands and culture and, using insights gained from that work, to educate and inspire individuals everywhere to bring forth a thriving, just and sustainable world.

Purpose

Pachamama Alliance, empowered by our partnership with Indigenous people, is dedicated to bringing forth an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling, socially just human presence on this planet.

Our unique contribution is to generate and engage people everywhere in transformational conversations and experiences consistent with this purpose. We weave together Indigenous and modern worldviews such that human beings are in touch with their dignity and are ennobled by the magnificence, mystery, and opportunity of what is possible for humanity at this time.

We are here to inspire and galvanize the human family to generate a critical mass of conscious commitment to a thriving, just and sustainable way of life on Earth. This is a commitment to transforming human systems and structures that separate us, and to transforming our relationships with ourselves, with one another, and with the natural world.

Guiding Values and Principles

The universe is friendly and the evolutionary Force that put the stars in motion is still moving through all of us and is a dynamic, self-organizing process whose grace and guidance we can trust.

Human beings are by nature collaborative and cooperative and innately desire the success of the human species and all life. When barriers to our natural expression are eliminated (i.e. resignation, myths of separation and scarcity), we cooperate for the common, long-term good.

Human beings are not separate from each other or Nature. We are totally interrelated and our actions have consequences to all. What we do to others we do to ourselves. What we do to the Earth we do to ourselves.

Indigenous people are the source of a worldview and cosmology that can provide powerful guidance and teachings for achieving our vision—a thriving, just and sustainable world. […]

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)