Wilma Mankiller: Challenges Facing Indigenous People
On October 2, 2008, Former Chief of the Cherokee Nation and Indigenous rights activist, Wilma Mankiller, was in Phoenix, AZ, to give a presentation on the "Challenges Facing 21st Century Indigenous People."
A part of the Simon Ortiz and Labriola Center Lecture series on Indigenous Land, Culture, and Community, Mankiller, talked about the diversity and uniqueness of the world's indigenous population, as well as the common, shared sense of duty to conserve and protect the natural world.
It's a duty that we all share, not just indigenous people, states Mankiller. It's just that many people have forgotten that duty because their culture holds no memory of their origins or of their place in the natural world.
Discussing several other issues, Mankiller also talked briefly about the common struggle of indigenous people. This shared experience, while indicating a point of unity, also shows a need for something 'more' than confrontation and a verbal demand that governments and corporations respect indigenous rights.
Mankiller points to that void of knowledge, and the need to show the world who we really are. Today, as i the distant past, indigenous people are often identified with "...nonsensical stereotypes [that] either vilify indigenous people as troubled descendants of savage[s]... or romanticize them as innocent children of nature - spiritual, but incapable of higher thought," said Mankiller. Shifting this opinion to reflect our true identity -- that we are not more or less, but different -- will go further toward bringing the changes we need.
Another challenge Mankiller discusses, perhaps the greatest of all, is our need "to develop practical models to capture, maintain, and pass on traditional knowledge systems and values to future generations."
If we cannot do this, then we too will one day forget.
Mankiller's presentation, follows some opening remarks by Frank Goodyear and Wayne Mitchell, and an introduction by Dr. Simon Ortiz.
Challenges Facing 21st Century Indigenous People
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It was good but you did not tell any of the challenges facing the indigenous people. The main pointo, for me was to find out the challenges and it talks about the challenges but, doesn’t give any examples.
First, I would just like to send my condolences to Wilma Mankiller’s family. The former Chief passed into the Spirit world a couple days ago.
Amey, truth be told, there are so many challenges that it’s difficult to know where to begin. The main challenge, though, has to do with land rights, health, culture and sovereignty. In every struggle I see happening in the world, these are always the main issues: Whether it’s some company that’s dumping uranium waste into a local river, or a community that’s suffering high suicide rates because youth have become so alienated and disconnected from their culture, because of what was done to their parents and grandparents (ie, because of genocidal policies that ripped apart family life, replaced governments, destroyed economies, broke community structures, disempowered men and women and morally criminalized traditional life )
If you’re looking for examples, you might want to spend some time looking through this website. These days, the main focus here is on crisis situations like blockades and the human rights abuses of corporations, but it’s a good starting point.
About the main challenges that Wilma talked about, one example is the Sarayaku in Ecuador, who hold public forums to teach Ecuador citizens about their cultures. Indigenous People in Mexico and Asia (like the Ainu) do this sort of thing quite often too, by organizing public events to celebrate and demonstrate how they live to the general population.
Cultural mapping is another thing that’s catching on. I just posted a video about this a couple weeks ago.
A few efforts have also emerged in Canada to reclaim traditional foods (and preserve seeds). There’s a massive effort for this in India and Africa as well.
Language revitalization (survival) is another big challenge, but I can’t actually think of any good examples at the moment.
All in all, most of these efforts are only just starting to emerge. It’s like were building ourselves from the ground up. And there really is a desperate need for more efforts, and I believe they will come, but for now, situations like health and land theft are distracting us away from them. For example, instead of renewing their culture and language, a Band Council has to spend all its time and money protecting their water supply and their sacred sites, trap lines, forests, burial grounds, etc. And when one situation gets resolved, two more get piled on by the government. It’s the same thing over and over again.
Of course, there’s no reason why a few people can’t just start an effort on their own, and in many cases that’s exactly what happens anyways; but, people are pretty disenfranchised.
I hope this helps, Amey.