Indigenous Peoples and Self-Determination in Settler States

Abstract

Indigenous peoples, sometimes known collectively as the “fourth world”, have endured hardships during centuries of colonialism. Currently, 40% of the world’s countries contain Indigenous nations, who collectively comprise 5% of the global population. While Indigenous peoples have been systematically marginalized in settler states, they have organized collectively to promote their inherent rights, domestically, across borders, and internationally through regional organizations and the United Nations. The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007) is a testament to many decades of deliberation, negotiation, and consensus decision-making, laying out a minimum standard of Indigenous rights. This chapter focuses on western settler states: Canada, the United States, Australia, and Aotearoa New Zealand. While self-determination and independent sovereign statehood often flow together, this Westphalian option is rarely request by Indigenous peoples. Rather, the UNDRIP facilitates alternative expressions of self-determination that comprise (inter alia) forms of internal autonomy, input into decision-making within the state, the right to free prior and informed consent, treaty making and full participation in international organizations, and freer movement across state borders. The UNDRIP can play an important role in guaranteeing these and other inherent Indigenous rights, if it is recognized and implemented by settler states.