ABSTRACT
The term indigeneity attained new political significance with the 2007 United Nations (UN) Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It aims to support the rights of indigenous peoples around the world and sets international standards for domestic political institutions. The UN, however, resists any definition of what constitutes indigenous people, deferring instead to principles of self-determination. This is demonstrated in the UN’s Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues that states “an official definition of ‘indigenous’ has not been adopted by the UN-system body” (United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues: 2015). Preference is given to a process of self-identification framed by various conditions: historical continuity with pre-colonial/settler societies; strong links to natural resources of homelands; and distinct social, economic, or political minorities with distinct language, culture and beliefs. In short: the Declaration is wedded to an ethos of self-determination that is deeply ambiguous about what the concept of indigeneity means and how it should be approached politically.
