Indigenous peoples

Indigenous people means the first people who lived in any region, and not later immigrants.

Indigenous people can also be described as aborigines, native people, first people, first nations and autochthonous. The United Nations prefers the phrase Indigenous peoples to these descriptions. The other descriptions sometimes sound negative (pejorative).

Very often, indigenous people were forced into slavery or badly treated by settlers and immigrants. Indigenous people were oppressed in colonial times. Colonial settlers often robbed the indigenous treasures and lands. Indigenous people were often made slaves, or killed by colonial settlers.

Colonialism often wanted indigenous people to believe that they were lower social class than the new settlers. This is propaganda. Indigenous people can grow up believing that they are lower social class, or less important. Indigenous people sometimes have to fight for their own land, their own history, human rights and equality.

Related pages

• Human rights
• Colonialism

Other websites

Institutions

• UNEP Indigenous Knowledge Study
• Survival International
• Cultural Survival
• Rural poverty and indigenous peoples on Rural Poverty Portal, powered by IFAD
• IFAD and indigenous peoples (International Fund for Agricultural Development, IFAD)
• UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UN PFII)
• Working Group on Indigenous Populations (WGIP)
• Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)- Indigenous peoples
• UNESCO Actions in favour of Indigenous Peoples
• International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA)
• Asia Pacific Indigenous Youth Network (APIYN)
• Development Gateway Indigenous Issues Topic Page
• Human Rights Internet- Indigenous issues
• Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation
• European Network for Indigenous Australian Rights (ENIAR)
• Indigenous Peoples' Center for Documentation, Research and Information (docip)
• Diplomacy Monitor - Indigenous Peoples
• IPS Inter Press Service News on indigenous peoples from around the world

Indigenous studies

• UNEP Indigenous Knowledge Study
• University of Burgundy (France) Indigenous Studies (Formation Peuples Autochtones)
• WWW Virtual Library- Indigenous studies resources
• Center for World Indigenous Studies (CWIS)
• African Pygmies studies Anthropological fieldwork about Pygmies
• A History of Aboriginal Treaties and Relations in Canada This site includes contextual materials, links to digitized primary sources and summaries of primary source documents.
• Articles on Theory of Property Rights and the Environment