ABSTRACT Longwa Village, straddling the Indo-Myanmar border, highlights the challenges of indigenous governance under state-imposed borders. Longwa Konyak people, whose ancestral lands span both countries, practice shifting agriculture across the border, a livelihood now threatened by India’s proposed border fencing. This fence would disrupt their transnational agricultural cycles, violating their economic and social rights. Additionally, the issue of dual citizenship complicates their sovereignty and self-determination, further marginalizing their identities. This paper examines how these measures conflict with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), particularly the right to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC). Drawing on field observations and primary data, it argues that Longwa exemplifies the need to uphold indigenous rights in borderlands. The study explores how international legal frameworks like UNDRIP can challenge restrictive border policies and promote governance models that support cross-border cooperation and indigenous sovereignty.

ABSTRACT This paper critically analyses Kim Scott's Taboo in reference to the Deleuzean notion of ‘becoming minor’. The novel discusses Noongar characters dealing with historical trauma and land dispossession against the persistent impacts of forced assimilation, reflecting on their positioning as the ‘other’ in their ancestral land. Through the use of omniscient and communal storytelling, the tale subverts the settler colonial worldview and asserts Aboriginal sovereignty. This paper purports that the revival of the Noongar language together with cultural practices can be viewed as an act of deterritorialisation, reconstructing new forms and narratives to express Aboriginal knowledge, memory, and agency. The analysis of the novel as an act of ‘becoming minor’ demonstrates how Scott's novel can be read as a testament to new ways of Aboriginal sense of belonging and sovereignty within the field of Australian literature.

High-resolution species distribution and ecological niche model of European ground squirrel in its ancestral land

Nitric oxide (NO) is an important signaling molecule in flowering plant immunity. It rapidly accumulates in response to pathogen perception. In addition to it's direct response to microbes, NO controls a range of defence responses primarily through S-nitrosylation. This process is a redox-dependent modification where a NO group attaches to the thiol of a cysteine residue, creating an S-nitrosothiol (SNO). To explore the role of S-nitrosylation more broadly, we characterised the single-copy S-nitrosoglutathione reductase 1 (MpGSNOR1) gene in the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha (Marchantia), a representative of a lineage widely diverged from flowering plants. We generated loss-of-function alleles using CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing. Disrupting MpGSNOR1 resulted in pronounced morphological alterations, highlighting the role of GSNOR1 in the structural development of Marchantia. Additionally, we show that MpGSNOR1 is essential for SNO homeostasis and immune function. Our results suggest that GSNOR was part of the tool kit of the ancestral land plant and functioned in immunity and development.

ABSTRACT This ethnographic paper employs spatial and place-based approaches to explore how Muslim women teachers from a rural Punjabi community in Pakistan connected with their ancestral lands. The lived experiences of these women provide critical insights into how land operates as an active agent, shaping identities, experiences, and hierarchical structures rather than as a static context that bounds them. This paper highlights how educational scholarship focusing on globalisation and international and comparative education can benefit from engaging with spatial and place-based theories that recognise the intersectionality of temporality, culture, and space/place, rather than treating context as a static physical entity. On the one hand, this approach can provide deeper insights into how social, historical, and spatial factors shape educational sensemaking, processes, and outcomes in different contexts. On the other hand, it provides onto-epistemological framings to explore the reciprocities between human and more-than-human environments.

The Forest Rights Act (FRA) of 2006 is a turning point in the history of the Adivasis, which recognizes the rights of the Adivasis to their ancestral lands within the forest areas. The current paper considers the FRA as the legal tool used to secure land and resource rights of people residing in the forests. The act provides for establishing the legal environment that would allow for the assertion of the rights of Adivasis and their involvement in sustainable management of forest lands. In particular, the FRA includes recognition of both individual and community rights, which implies the ability of the Adivasis to reclaim their lands and gain access to forest products, including wood, firewood, and medicines. Besides, the role of FRA in creating opportunities for social empowerment cannot be overlooked since this Act helped women of Adivasi population acquire land and resources, leading to economic upliftment. Despite the success achieved thanks to the Act, some challenges need to be mentioned as well, such as delay of the process, resistance of forest departments, and contradictions with development projects.

OUR CELEBRATION OF THE 250TH ANNIVERSARY of Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence offers a chance to reflect on the importance of cultural identity, diversity, and traditions and to work toward a future that upholds these core human values. Jefferson's treatment of Native Americans shows how easily these values can be undermined, while the resilience of current Native American communities highlights the strength of the human spirit.In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson urged the colonists to break away from Great Britain. One of the charges against King George III was that he “excited domestic insurrections amongst us and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions.”1Thomas Jefferson's attitudes and actions toward Indigenous Nations and African Americans were complex. As shown above, he dismissed Indigenous Nations as a unified whole to encourage colonists to rebel against King George III. During the American Revolution, as governor of Virginia, he proposed a policy of forcibly removing tribes allied with the British. As president (1801–1809), he promoted a program of assimilation by urging tribes to adopt farming lifestyles. By 1803, frustrated by Native American resistance and slow progress in securing the nation's western boundary, he instructed William Henry Harrison, the territorial governor of Indiana, to encourage Native Americans to incur debt, settle their accounts with land cessions, and then relocate landless tribes to the recently acquired Louisiana Purchase, west of the Mississippi River. Harrison's implementation of Jefferson's strategies in the Illinois Territory shows how the author of the Declaration of Independence undermined the independence of many Indigenous Nations east of the Mississippi.2Using historical data collected by the Indian Claims Commission, created in 1946 to settle tribal claims related to treaties and to seek justice, along with archaeological studies, we can reconstruct the tribal landscape of the Illinois Country in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This landscape included several Indigenous Nations.The Kaskaskia and closely related Miami tribes lived near Le Rocher on the upper Illinois River and along Lake Peoria.34 Potawatomi groups expanded their territory from present-day Michigan and Wisconsin to include the Des Plaines and Kankakee River valleys, and the upper reaches of the Illinois River in the 1690s.5 In 1722, the Sac & Fox people moved into the Illinois Territory and established villages in the Mississippi and Rock River valleys.6 Kickapoo groups migrated to the Illinois Country from what is now Wisconsin in the mid-eighteenth century. They eventually settled in a series of villages along the tributaries of the Sangamon and Vermilion rivers.7During the last decade of the eighteenth century, Native American tribes, including representatives from Indigenous Nations in the Illinois Country and beyond, formed an unprecedented alliance to oppose American expansion. In 1794, they were defeated by troops led by Anthony Wayne, and the resulting Treaty with the Wyandot, etc., in 1795 involved the first land cessions to the United States in the Illinois Country, with several small parcels in strategic locations identified to support future settlement and transportation.8In a letter to Harrison in 1803, Jefferson explained his reasoning and strategies for establishing a western border of the new Nation and protecting the then-western frontier.In 1803, Harrison began a six-year process of treaty negotiations that transferred most of what is now Illinois from Indigenous peoples to the United States. The first two treaties were the Treaty with the Kaskaskia in 1803,10 covering about 17 million acres, and the Treaty of St. Louis in 1804,11 which involved roughly 11 million acres in Illinois. The circumstances of the treaty negotiations—such as the Kaskaskia having been significantly weakened by waves of immigrant tribes fleeing American settlement, and Sauk and Fox representatives traveling to St. Louis to plead for the release of a man they believed had been wrongly imprisoned—gave Harrison considerable leverage, as these treaties still testify to today. This process culminated in the Treaty of Chicago, 1833,12 which displaced the Chippewa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi from their ancestral lands in Illinois.Our celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence offers an opportunity to reflect on the loss of independence, cultural identity, and traditions, as well as the rise of economic struggles, health disparities, and the erosion of tribal sovereignty faced by Native Americans. At the same time, and more importantly, this anniversary also allows us to honor Indigenous Nations, who have survived and often thrived in their efforts to preserve their heritage, honor their ancestors, and secure their future. They deserve much more from all of us who gained independence at the expense of so many.

This paper has critically looked at the legal and policy framework of Indigenous peoples and ancestral land rights in Pakistan. It asserts that the Pakistan is simply providing partial and scattered security to the communities, which have their identity, culture and means of livelihood attached to the ancestral territories. Despite the significant guarantees entailed in the Constitution of Pakistan, on property and culture as well as minority protection, Indigenous peoples are not identified as a distinct legal category and are not offered a complete framework of collective rights to territory. The given paper discloses that this gap is justified with references to the fact that, still existing laws of the colonial period, namely, the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, the Forest Act, 1927, concern state power, the official registration and administrative administration of the customary possession and communal tenure. Its significance to recent judicial authorities in Balochistan, where customary tribal possession has received increased acknowledgement, and where domestic law can be therefore regarded as moving towards a more rights-sensitive direction, is also highlighted in the discussion. We use the example of the Kalash people to see how there is a disjuncture between enshrinement and lived practice of dispossession, insecurity and cultural vulnerability. The paper also makes comparisons of the Pakistani situation with other international standards, especially the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and finds that the country is not completely compliant with the current standards on the collective land righting, participation, and consent. The paper will conclude that the existing constitutional and legal framework within Pakistani territory might possess some protective factors but it is still inadequate to an extent that should acknowledge and protect the historical land rights. Significant changes would need legal acknowledgment of indigenous and other disadvantaged groups, against colonial land laws, and reformation of the colonial land rules as well as introduction of consultation as well as consent processes in land management.

ABSTRACT This paper examines news coverage of environmental legal challenges staged by Indigenous communities in Africa. We specifically focus on the Ogiek in Kenya and the Batwa in Uganda who successfully challenged oppressive government evictions in court, and the Xolobeni of South Africa who won a landmark case preventing an Australian company from building a titanium mine on its ancestral lands. We apply Ubuntu, a decolonial framework for ethical decision making, to analyze newspapers (N = 82) in Kenya (Daily Nation, The Star, The East African), Uganda (Daily Monitor, The Observer, and New Vision), and South Africa (Business Day, The Star, Sunday Times and Mail & Guardian). Findings indicate news organizations sometimes applied ethical tenets rooted in Ubuntuism by affirming Indigenous communities’ experiences of marginality and exposing violence enacted by governments and corporations. However, in some instances reportage perpetuated racist and colonialist tropes, and excluded diverse voices and perspectives of Indigenous peoples.

This paper investigates the intricate relationship between people-environment interactions and Indigenous territorial experiences. Drawing from psychological and anthropological traditions, we explore theoretical efforts that provide insights into the interplay between biophysical, social, and cosmological aspects of inhabiting an ancestral land. Additionally, we propose a social psycho-anthropological understanding of people-environment relations as a historical lived experience within specific landscapes, following key concepts such as Piaget’s schème and Toren’s autopoiesis. To illustrate our argument, we turn to the Tuxá people—an Indigenous group from Northeast Brazil who were displaced from their traditional land due to dam construction in the 1980s, but whose ancestral territory was reclaimed by them in recent decades as a political act. Co-inhabiting the land with their ancestors and more-than-human entities called encantados, contemporary Tuxá people offer a glimpse of a people-environment relation that is simultaneously environmental, social, and cosmological, inviting us to reconsider boundaries and recognize the entanglement of diverse beings within specific environments.

Illegal mining in Nigeria has metastasised from a peripheral criminal activity into a deeply entrenched political economy that fuses violence, profit, and governance failure. In the mineral-rich host regions of the North-West and parts of the North-Central, the extraction of gold, lithium, and other high-value minerals is increasingly controlled by non-state armed actors who deploy coercion, displacement, and informal rule to secure access to resource-bearing land. A striking pattern shows that expatriate financiers and middlemen embedded in illicit mining networks often operate with relative safety, while indigenous communities whose ancestral lands sit atop mineral deposits are violently rendered internally displaced on their own soil. Mineral wealth, rather than delivering development, has thus been converted into fuel for banditry, arms proliferation, and the erosion of state legitimacy. This study used political economy of conflict framework to interrogates whether regulated concessioning can realistically offer a pathway toward sustainable development in volatile, mineral-rich host regions. Study leveraged on qualitative research design. Findings from the study shows that non-state armed actors structurally govern this illicit economy, using coercion to control sites and displace communities, transforming mineral wealth into a self-financing conflict economy. The research challenges views of illegal mining as primarily livelihood-driven, highlighting instead organized elite collusion and governance capture. It assesses regulated concessioning as a potential pathway to sustainable development, concluding it is viable only if integrated with robust security and governance measures. The study recommends a deliberately provocative yet pragmatic policy alternative of structured, security-backed concessioning of mineral-rich regions under strict national conditions. These include mandatory local value addition of at least 40 percent prior to export, enforceable community benefit frameworks such that the ministry of mines should emphasise community ownership of artisanal mining as a way of reducing foot soldiers available for artisanal mining for bandits and terrorists, compulsory infrastructure development, enhanced federal security oversight, and the designation of controlled mining zones to prevent smuggling and illicit airlifting of minerals. The study contends that regulated concessioning if anchored in security, transparency, and community participation can transform Nigeria’s mineral belts from bandit-controlled extraction zones into development corridors.

This study analyzes the integration of Eco-Islamic values with the local wisdom of the Suku Anak Dalam (SAD) in Jambi to develop a culture-based conservation education model. Through a qualitative ethnographic approach involving in-depth interviews, participant observation, and document analysis, the research reveals that the ecological practices of SAD, such as hompongan (customary forest enclosures), tanah peranakan (ancestral land conservation), and the besale ritual, not only represent environmental ethics aligned with Islamic principles (kalifah, amanah, mizan, ‘adl) but also contain rich pedagogical values. This integration gives rise to an Eco-Islamic Indigenous Framework, which is operationalized into a culture-based conservation education model. This model offers a contextual learning approach to strengthen ecological literacy, cultural identity, and community resilience. The study concludes that integrating spiritual values and local wisdom into conservation education can be an effective strategy for achieving environmental and cultural sustainability simultaneously.

Growing awareness of the critical role Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs) play in biodiversity conservation has underscored the need to shift conservation practices towards empowering IPLCs, supporting their land rights, traditional practices, and facilitating their political involvement. Despite IPLCs governing over 32% of global land, historically these communities have faced systemic marginalization and violence in the name of conservation. In response, international calls to action and policies have aimed to enhance IPLC participation in environmental governance through mechanisms like co-management. Adaptive Co-management (ACM) emerges as a promising approach, combining adaptive management's flexibility with co-management's collaborative principles. This study evaluates the ACM framework within the Maijuna-Kichwa Regional Conservation Area (MKRCA) in the Peruvian Amazon, established to protect the ancestral lands and biocultural resources of the Maijuna and Kichwa communities. Using a Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR)-informed approach, we conducted interviews with 36 community members to assess their perspectives on the MKRCA's co-management. Findings reveal significant improvements in resource abundance and community safety but also highlight issues with governmental support, communication, and equitable participation. Highly engaged participants voiced the strongest criticisms, underscoring how participation level shaped perceptions of governance. Recommendations were derived from participant perspectives but synthesized by the authors rather than fully co-developed. The study emphasizes the need for continuous evaluation and enhanced stakeholder engagement to optimize ACM's effectiveness, offering culturally responsive recommendations to strengthen the MKRCA's management and achieve its conservation objectives.

Abstract to be supplied.

This article critiques traditional Western disability models, such as the medical, social and biopsychosocial models, by introducing a political model of disability based on the lived experiences of the Indigenous Tembo Mvura people in Zimbabwe. Displaced from their ancestral lands and marginalised by national and global political forces, this community faces unique disabling conditions shaped by systemic political decisions rather than individual impairments or societal barriers. Utilising an autoethnographic approach, this article highlights how land dispossession, restrictive environmental policies, and political exclusion have impoverished the Tembo Mvura people and created disabling conditions. The article argues for a shift from resilience to resistance, emphasising political agency as key to addressing these challenges. By presenting a political model of disability, this article provides a comprehensive framework for understanding disability in postcolonial contexts and advocates for the inclusion of marginalised voices in disability discourse and policy reforms.

One of the greatest concerns of San in Namibia revolves around land rights. The Nyae Nyae Conservancy in Tsumkwe District East of Otjozondjupa Region was the first communal conservancy of its kind in Namibia, established in 1998. In Nyae Nyae today, there are some 36 communities in an area just under 9 000 km² in extent. These communities largely consist of Ju/’hoansi San. Key efforts of the Nyae Nyae Conservancy have focused on wildlife conservation, community development and land management, while also working on an ancestral land claim for the Nyae Nyae area. In this article, we draw from our anthropological and legal work to lay out some of the major challenges facing the Ju/’hoansi of Nyae Nyae and elaborate on how they intersect with land matters. A major challenge to the Nyae Nyae Ju/’hoansi began in April 2009 with the incursions of Herero pastoralists who brought their cattle herds into Nyae Nyae. The Nyae Nyae Conservancy and the Ju/’hoansi Traditional Authority have sought the assistance of lawyers who have helped formulate an ancestral land claim which they aim to file with the Namibian High Court. By expanding on Ju/’hoansi customary land rights, as well as current regulatory frameworks, we put challenges like this into a broader perspective.

This study analyzes the role of Minangkabau women in decision-making communication in both domestic and public spheres, in their homeland (ranah) as well as in the diaspora (rantau). Using a qualitative case study approach, data was collected through in-depth interviews, participant observation, and analysis of customary documents. The results show that women hold significant control over household economic management, inheritance distribution, and children’s education, making them key actors in domestic decision-making. However, in public customary forums, women’s voices are still often channeled indirectly through male intermediaries, such as ninik mamak or penghulu. A different phenomenon is observed in the diaspora, where women are more active as leaders of social, cultural, and economic organizations. Empirical data reveal that 95% of Minangkabau ancestral land is inherited by women, yet almost all Kerapatan Adat Nagari forums are still led by men. Conversely, more than 60% of Minangkabau SMEs in Jakarta are run by women. By combining Agenda Setting Theory and Cultural Policy Theory, this research highlights the paradox between symbolic authority and formal power. The contribution of this research lies in a new understanding of Minangkabau gender dynamics and supports the global agenda of UN Women (2022) regarding gender-inclusive cultural governance.

Globally, there is no single universally agreed-upon definition of Indigenous Peoples, yet specific criteria are typically used to define whether someone is Indigenous or not, namely self-identification, historical continuity, linkage to ancestral land and distinctive social, cultural and economic systems. This paper argues that the current definition criteria only act as guiding principles to explain the situation of Indigenous Peoples and does not embrace all Indigenous Peoples. We use three colonial contexts, i.e., countries where colonisers left, settled permanently, and where colonisation did not occur, to explain the current Indigenous Peoples' situation. By drawing the insights from selected cases, we found that either one or two of these criteria, such as cultural and self-identification, are commonly applied to identify Indigenous Peoples. The cases also showed that recognising rights of Indigenous Peoples to land has been found to offer a positive outcome for conservation and creating socio-cultural and economic opportunities for the people (e.g., biodiversity conservation, greenhouse gas abatement). We emphasise that not only the definition, but the legal recognition of land rights and involvement of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities would be of the utmost importance to continue cultural practices attached to their ancestral lands, allowing them to be involved with natural resource management and biodiversity conservation decision-making, that eventually relates to self-determination, equity and social and economic justice.

This article examines the historical violence and territorial dispossession endured by the Pataxó people in southern Bahia, focusing on the Estado Novo period (1937–1945) and the establishment of Monte Pascoal National Park (PNMP) in 1943 under Getúlio Vargas' government. While the Vargas regime's indigenous policy was framed by nationalist and integrationist rhetoric, it ultimately marginalized the Pataxó by prioritizing national development projects over their territorial rights. The research demonstrates that the creation of PNMP, envisioned by Vargas as a symbol of "Brazilian nationhood," led to the systematic expulsion of these indigenous people from their ancestral lands under the guise of environmental preservation and commemoration of Brazil's "discovery." The study also analyzes the contradictions within the Indian Protection Service (SPI) during Estado Novo, which, despite its protective discourse, functioned as an instrument of state control and forced assimilation. Finally, it highlights the ongoing resistance of the Pataxó people against these policies, revealing the conflict between Vargas' modernization project and the rights of indigenous peoples.

The United States is often called the "land of the free" and the "land of opportunity," but its history is also rife with discrimination and injustice. This abstract explains how racism and inequality have shaped American society throughout the ages. This discrimination began with the system of slavery imposed on African Americans in the 17th century. This system not only took away their freedom but also placed them in a highly unfair situation. After slavery ended, discrimination persisted through Jim Crow laws, which allowed for racial segregation in areas such as education, transportation, and public services. Additionally, other groups such as Native Americans, Asian immigrants, and Latino communities also faced oppression. Native Americans' ancestral lands were confiscated, and they were forced to relocate to reservations. Asian immigrants experienced unfair treatment, including bans on entry and exclusion. Although the Civil Rights Movement of the mid-20th century successfully eliminated many laws that discriminated against, injustice persists. Systematic forms of racism are still evident in economic inequality, the way the law is administered, and disparities in access to education and adequate housing. Thus, American history is a story of the ongoing effort to realize the promise of justice for all its people, a process that continues to this day.