ABSTRACT
As chronicled in the preceding chapters, indigenous peoples find themselves in an asymmetrical struggle with the state over property rights. In both historical and contemporary terms, this struggle has been characterized by comparatively weak capacity on the part of the indigenous peoples when compared to the full spectrum of state powers and resources. Contributors to this volume have all underscored the myriad of ways in which these asymmetrical conflicts have played out. In most cases the story is one in which indigenous peoples have been unable to adequately protect their rights or promote their interests due to the actions of the state. But in a few encouraging instances – Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States, for example – indigenous peoples have been able to eke out substantial protections of rights and interests, but only with considerable effort and cost, sometimes after decades of protracted, and very often expensive, negotiations. These are more often than not exceptions in the global historical exper-
ience of indigenous peoples, for whom the arrival of the state has been nothing short of an existential challenge. In virtually every instance, indigenous peoples find themselves the victims of violence – physical, structural and cultural – as they pursue their interests and struggle to have their rights recognized. Indigenous peoples and the state have often clashed violently over property rights. The violence of this clash is sometimes physical, often structural, and almost always cultural. Throughout this volume, our authors have highlighted the numerous ways in which that clash takes place. Physical, structural and cultural forms of violence have all been used by the state to erode the capacity of indigenous peoples to defend themselves over time. Physical violence has featured as a common experience amongst indigen-
ous peoples since at least as far back as 1492.1 Direct military attacks on indigenous communities, resulting in the loss of land, features in the history of the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, but are mostly features from the 17th through 19th century, and less characteristic of contemporary relations between indigenous peoples and these formerly British colonies which in the 20th and 21st centuries have embraced a decidedly nonviolent path toward restoring native rights, and reversing earlier state policies of assimilation, land conquest and cultural oppression.
