Common Aborginal Experience

Indigenous peoples around the world hold certain experiences in common.

Tyson Yunkaporta's guest article Aboriginal Massacres draws attention to a very important point. Indigenous people on every continent from the Arctic Circle to the tip of South America, Asia, Africa, and Australia, share certain experiences in common. While the cultures of the colonized vary, the actions of the colonizers are amazingly similar, as are the long-term results to indigenous populations.

All over the world indigenous people suffer higher rates of poverty, crime, alcoholism, suicide, and spousal and child abuse than the cultures that dominate them, further feeding the myth of inherent superiority among the colonizers. (See Rape is a White Privilege) What is never adequately addressed is that these issues are the result of colonization, not the cause. Poverty, crime, suicide, and abuse inevitably result when cultures are denied their means of subsistance and the self determination to maintain their own social structures. Colonization can be especially hard on indigenous men, who, in many cultures, held the role of protector (though not lord and master as in many European cultures) of the women, children, and elderly and who suffer from a strong sense of failure.

No one expects, at this point, that the colonizers will all leave the "discovered" lands. However, recognizing indigenous peoples' right to self-determination as set out in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indegenous Peoples can go a long way to restoring self-respect and effective social structures. In some cases it may take generations for some indigenous nations to heal the schism in their governments and cultures caused by foreign domination, but the result will be emensely beneficial to both indigenous and non-indigenous alike.

At this point Australia, the Russian Federation, and the United States refuse to endorse the Declaration.