Indigenous Land Research Articles

EVALUATION OF DEFORESTATION IN THE MUNICIPALITY OF BRASIL NOVO IN THE STATE OF PARÁ - BRAZIL, USING MACHINE LEARNING TECHNIQUES

The agricultural frontier of the Brazilian Amazon, is undergoing significant changes in its land cover, primarily driven by the expansion of cattle ranching and cocoa cultivation. Through the analysis of Landsat 8 satellite images and the WorldCover 10m 2020 product, combined with climatic and socioeconomic data, this study investigated land use dynamics between 2015 and 2023, on the municipality of Brasil Novo. The results revealed a substantial reduction in forest cover, with the expansion of pasturelands as the main driver of deforestation. The temporal analysis of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) indicated interannual variations in vegetation cover, associated with extreme weather events and anthropogenic pressure. Although the municipality still maintains 43.8% of forest cover, with the Arara Indigenous Land being a notable example, the pressure on natural resources demands the implementation of public policies and sustainable management practices to mitigate environmental impacts and ensure the conservation of Amazonian biodiversity. Keywords: Amazon, NDVI, remote sensing, climate change, livestock, land use.

Indigenous justice frameworks for relational ethics in land-based design

ABSTRACT In the face of systematic expropriation, massive biodiversity loss, and the ongoing climate crisis, Indigenous peoples, knowledge, and labor have protected over 80% of the global biodiversity. This is remarkable given that Indigenous management or tenure remains over 20–25% of the planet’s terrestrial surface. Indigenous people’s capacity to protect biodiversity within their territories cannot be separated from the ethical frameworks that shape their relationships with land. These frameworks have been articulated by a diverse array of Indigenous scholars across the globe, and while they cannot be generalized, many share principles that go beyond dominant Western Scientific approaches that normalize utilitarian or idealized (e.g. ideals of wilderness) ethical systems. We argue that dominant policy and research discourses around land-based practices such as nature-based solutions and green infrastructure, will not be effective ‘solutions’ to ongoing crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. Instead, we must go beyond paradigms of improvement and anthropocentric utility and ground land-based practices in the paradigm of relational ethics. Through this perspective paper, we argue that rather than seeking solutions through redesigning ecosystems for utilitarian reasons, all interventions on Indigenous ancestral lands (recognized by settler states or not) should first center relational ethical approaches for land-based design practices and ground efforts in Indigenous justice. Our proposed ‘Indigenous Justice Frameworks for Relational Ethics in Land-based Design’ is based on the inseparability of bodies, lands, and knowledges, and is guided by the following elements: (1) generative refusal, (2) centering healing, reparation, and right relations, and (3) restoring and evolving Indigenous governance.

Shifting the gaze on welfare-state sustainability in Norway: a proposal for a relational global view

Norway is an excellent case for studying the ambiguities and competing interests attached to climate change and global sustainability. The country is at the forefront in the use of “clean energy,” yet has long been one of the world’s largest oil exporters and its dominant ideas have been challenged given the climate-change crisis. The article offers a preliminary review of the historical and current connections that exist between the development of national welfare states in Europe (and Norway in particular) and the long-standing practice of extractivist efforts that have harmed nature in indigenous lands within Norwegian borders and colonized, or previously colonized lands, outside Europe). As a comparative exercise, this article mobilizes the idea of social imaginaries to conceptualize and explore how the Norwegian welfare state has, in the social policy literature and in public discourse, been linked to the notion of sustainability, given the context of rapid climate change. By drawing on three illustrative cases, the article demonstrates how such imaginaries are present in current discussions. It suggests that unpacking such imaginaries within a historical and relational global view may contribute to understanding the role of nationalism and colonialism in Norway’s sustainability narratives, to potentially trigger change in the way we conceptualize welfare-state sustainability.

Bifurcated Bolivia: Indigenous Governance and Land Struggles in the Eastern Lowlands

This paper analyzes Indigenous politics in Bolivia, the 2019 coup against President Evo Morales, and the return of the Movimiento al Socialismo (Movement for Socialism, MAS) with the inauguration of Luis Arce in 2020. Drawing on interviews with Indigenous community members in the lowlands of the Bolivian Amazon, this piece theoretically situates Indigenous autonomy struggles within world systems theory and insights from Max Weber’s ‘iron cage’ of institutional isomorphism to argue that political tensions in Bolivian Indigenous communities can be understood within a context of (1) increasingly strained relations between the MAS and civil society organizations; (2) Indigenous-NGO coalition efforts to protect Tierras Comunitarias de Orígen (Native Community Lands) and; (3) the development of competing parallel leadership organizations within Native communities that threaten democratic processes and cohesive responses to extractivism.

Conservation gaps for Brazilian bats, limited protection across conservation units and the importance of the indigenous lands.

In Brazil, there is 13% of the world's bat diversity, is the second most diverse group of mammals, playing a crucial role in providing ecosystem services that benefit humans. However, anthropogenic disturbances exacerbate processes of species extinction, shifts in geographic distributions, and phenological changes, despite efforts to safeguard biodiversity through the creation of Conservation Units and Indigenous Lands. Moreover, gaps in taxonomic knowledge and challenges related to species distribution hinder the effective implementation of conservation strategies in protected areas. This study assesses the contribution of Brazilian Conservation Units (both Full Protection and Sustainable Use) and Indigenous Lands to the conservation of bat species and their ecosystem services. It also presents maps illustrating species richness by trophic guilds and threat classification according to IUCN, including species listed as Data Deficient. The findings reveal low percentages of potential bat distribution areas within these protected regions, especially for insectivorous, nectarivorous, and frugivorous bats in the Cerrado biome, which are classified as Near Threatened. Additionally, the highest bat species richness was observed in the Amazon and Atlantic Forest biomes.

‘Let's Go to the Land Instead’: Indigenous Perspectives on Biodiversity and the Possibilities of Regenerative Capital

AbstractThe land has been a source of capital accumulation since colonization through extractive activities like mining and industrial agriculture. Indigenous peoples have profoundly different relationships with the land, which are more relational than extractive. However, their knowledge has been subjugated by and systematically excluded from Western conservation policies, which are based on colonial modes of control. We begin to address this issue by elaborating on a community‐based participatory project, namely a Conservation Impact Bond (CIB), developed in Canada with Deshkan Ziibiing. This CIB was unique since it combined Indigenous and Western knowledges and aimed at restoring ecosystems by building relationships of kinship between peoples and the land. Based on our findings, we propose a Two‐Eyed Seeing relationship‐building process model – a multi‐stakeholder initiative (MSI) incorporating Indigenous and Western knowledges. We discuss the implications of our findings for mobilizing capital to serve collective rather than private interests while promoting Indigenous resurgence and land regeneration. We suggest shifting from extractive to regenerative capital is necessary to address the climate and biodiversity loss crises. This transformation could be achieved by embracing a relational ontology through Two‐Eyed Seeing.

Race, sovereignty, and White settler colonial studies: placing settlers at the Cultural Interface

ABSTRACT White settler colonial studies has been widely criticised for representing settler colonialism as an impenetrable and inevitable structure. This article therefore turns to explore how race preconditions and limits the construction of settler subjects. We draw on Torres Strait Islander theorist Martin Nakata’s Cultural Interface theory to unsettle ‘common-sense’ theories of race, and reconceive of the place where European and Indigenous cultures meet as sovereign Indigenous land. We extend Cultural Interface theory to locate White settler standpoints within the intertwined histories of racial capitalism and European and US imperialism. We argue that these histories orient settlers towards White possessive sovereignty. This article then deploys this framework to provide a deeper understanding of the disciplinary limits of White settler colonial studies through two case studies. First, we analyse Liberia’s construction as a settler colonial nation to denaturalise and historicise White settler standpoints. Second, we analyse the White settler standpoint institutionalised in White settler colonial studies’ descriptions of the settler/Indigenous binary, the logic of elimination, and settler sovereignty. In both cases, White settler standpoints are shaped and limited by the racialised logics of White possessive sovereignty. We nevertheless conclude that settlers may reorient themselves towards Indigenous sovereignty.

ПРОМЫСЛЫ У КАЗАХОВ СЕМИРЕЧЕНСКОЙ ОБЛАСТИ В КОНЦЕ XIX-НАЧАЛЕ XX ВВ.

The article examines various types of crafts practiced by the nomadic Kazakhs of the Semirechye region at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. The analysis is based on data from the statistical cadastral historical source "Materials on the Survey of Indigenous and Russian Settler Economy and Land Use..." (hereinafter referred to as MKZ). The author discusses agricultural, trade, handicraft, free, cottage, and other types of crafts in the districts of Jarkent, Lepsy, Verny, and Kopal. It is shown that between 3% to 15% of the nomadic population engaged in these crafts in the districts. Using statistics, it is demonstrated that a small number of adolescents and women participated in these crafts, with the number of adolescents significantly exceeding that of women. The study explains why and for what purpose the income from crafts is presented not only in rubles but also in livestock (sheep). Calculations of income from crafts per family and per member in the districts show that agricultural crafts (herders, laborers, unskilled workers, horsemen, plowmen, harvesters, mowers, drivers, etc.) were the main source of income, thus the author directly proves the livestock-oriented nature of the livelihoods of the region's inhabitants.

Making All Deserts Bloom: The Racist Space/Time of UAE-Israel Collaboration

ABSTRACT Since the normalisation of political relations between the United Arab Emirates and Israel, the so-called ‘desert tech’ industry has emerged as a key area of economic collaboration. Desert tech combines technological innovation with speculation and entrepreneurialism, claiming to offer lucrative yet sustainable solutions to the specific dangers of climate change in arid environments. By weaving together their respective climate and security expertise and technologies, political visions, and investment capital, Israel and the UAE promise to save arid states the world over from ecological catastrophe – making themselves and their political and territorial projects indispensable in the process. In this paper, we unravel their promethean vision of making ‘all deserts bloom’. We first situate this vision in the desert’s tangible histories of colonial environmentalism, retracing the inextricable relationship of climate science to the violent expropriation, securitisation and transformation of Indigenous life and land by white, European settlers. We then follow contemporary UAE-Israel desert-tech collaboration across the geographically expansive and historically layered sites and forms of violence that facilitate, circulate, and secure this industry’s vision of the future. In so doing, we argue that normalisation is underwritten by a racialised temporality – one that constructs desert landscapes as eternally on the threshold of climate catastrophe, erasing the deep, historical relationships of Palestinians, Bedouin and other racialised subjects to arid environments.

Agricultural terraces in Puebla, Mexico: An ethnopedological approach

Terrace systems have been instrumental in the evolution of agriculture across various cultural contexts. This technology offers several benefits, including soil and water conservation, improved soil fertility, enhanced agricultural management, and increased crop yields. Several studies have been conducted on agricultural terraces in Mesoamerica. Nevertheless, there has been a lack of research on anthropogenic soils and ethnopedological studies in Mexico. This study aimed to ascertain the local soil knowledge and describe the ancestral terrace systems within a popoloca community in southern Puebla, Mexico. An ethnopedological survey was conducted on a 10,366 ha area to determine the land types and terrace systems present. Surface terraced soil samples were collected, and nine soil profiles within runoff terraces were described. The objectives were as follows: 1) to characterize and describe terrace systems in Santiago Acatepec, 2) to understand the indigenous land classification system and 3) to study the relation and impact of terraces systems on soil formation and WRB classification. The results indicate two types of terraces (hillside and runoff terraces), covering 2578 ha of land. Farmers recognize eight distinct land classes, with unique characteristics and agricultural uses. The land classes encompass both anthropogenic and natural soils. These land classes are classified as Terric Anthrosols, Eutric Regosols, Eutric Leptosols, and Pellic Vertisols. These results show farmers' detailed knowledge about their soils and the advantages and limitations of terraces. The modern and ancient terraces were classified according to seven diverse types of embankments or walls. The traditional embankment, designated as “cuaxustles,” is associated with runoff terraces and is known to have a lifespan exceeding one hundred years. Following the construction of a terrace, the land in question can be cultivated for agricultural purposes after a period of two years. The traditional knowledge of the soil has enabled the farmers of Acatepec to establish new agricultural areas, select crops that are well-suited to the soil conditions and climate of the region, and implement long-term modifications to the landscape. The findings indicate that it is feasible to implement environmental modifications that prioritize soil conservation and enhancement on a significant scale while also considering economic factors and the time frame involved.

The initial spread of peaches across eastern North America was structured by Indigenous communities and ecologies

We conduct a synthetic archaeological and ethnohistoric dating program to assess the timing and tempo of the spread of peaches, the first Eurasian domesticate to be adopted across Indigenous eastern North America, into the interior American Southeast by Indigenous communities who quickly “Indigenized” the fruit. In doing so, we present what may be the earliest absolute dates for archaeological contexts containing preserved peach pits in what is today the United States in the early to mid-16th century. Along with our broader chronological modeling, these early dates suggest that peaches were likely in the interior prior to permanent Spanish settlement in the American Southeast and that peaches spread independently of interactions with Spanish colonizers. We further argue that that eventual spread of peaches was structured exclusively by Indigenous communities and the ecologies produced through long-term Indigenous land management and land use practices, highlighting and centering the agency of Indigenous societies in the socioecological process of colonization.

A scar on the territory: neoliberal multiculturalism and the Temuco bypass

ABSTRACT This article analyzes the racialized subjectivities created by the Temuco bypass. This infrastructure project saw the rerouting of Route 5 (the Chilean section of the Pan-American Highway) through protected indigenous Mapuche lands in the 1990s and early 2000s. The government promoted this project as an emblematic example of success in multicultural negotiation; however, Mapuche leaders and protests along Route 5 represented it as one more case in a long history of state policies reducing indigenous protected lands. Exploring documents published by the Ministry of Public Works, state laws and decrees, written press, conclusions of Mapuche congresses, the documentary film Bypass Temuco: Ta iñ newentumun by Esteban Villarroel, and material traces along Route 5, the article argues that the Temuco bypass provides an example of neoliberal multicultural policy that creates a racialized boundary between a sanctioned indigeneity and its excluded Other. The state uses these subjectivities as a governmentality strategy where multiculturalism integrates indigenous populations (only) as cultural differences susceptible to being commodified, while actively marginalizing non-conforming groups. Roadblocks in the area, conversely, challenge this boundary, revealing the failures of this integrationist narrative and exposing Route 5’s disconnects in material, cultural, and political terms.

On the anniversary of the Maui fires, a call for Indigenous land care to mitigate future disasters

On the anniversary of the Maui fires, a call for Indigenous land care to mitigate future disasters

Continuity or Disruption? Rethinking Engagement in Multi-Stakeholder Forums Through the Lens of Boundary Objects

Multi-stakeholder forums (MSFs) are crucial for managing complex decision-making; yet ways for evaluating engagement, especially for Indigenous peoples, remain ambiguous. This study examines the Honduran Mosquitia, where conflict over the illegal occupation of Indigenous lands led to the creation and eventual dissolution of an MSF. It questions whether the continuity of formal dialogue structures signifies genuine engagement or if disruption might better indicate it. The study applies the lens of boundary objects—concepts or devices that enable collaboration among actors with differing agendas—to assess engagement. In Mosquitia, territorial governance served as a boundary object, fostering the establishment of an MSF. Government, donor, and Indigenous stakeholders had their distinct interests in supporting territorial governance. Indigenous stakeholders exited the MSF when their aims for securing land tenure were unmet, turning to civil disobedience to assert territorial governance. The MSF’s dissolution prevented the co-optation of territorial governance by government and donors, remaining a contentious term that more accurately reflected the tensions among stakeholders. This case shows how engagement might paradoxically be reflected in the MSF’s disruption.

Our Data, Our Truths, Our Voice: Reclaiming First Nations Data Sovereignty in Manitoba

BackgroundIndigenous data sovereignty applies to the collection, ownership, and application of data about Indigenous peoples, lands, and resources. ObjectivesTo support and expand Manitoba First Nations (FNs) data sovereignty by strengthening capacity and policies related to the ownership, repatriation, and governance of FNs health data. ApproachIn March of 2022, the Chiefs of the 63 First Nations in Manitoba adopted a resolution to mandate FNHSSM to implement the First Nations Data Governance Strategy. FNHSSM Data Sovereignty Team has conducted extensive engagement with FNs (including youth, Knowledge Keepers, urban members, 2SLGBTQIA+ members, health directors, and more) to identify current priorities for data collection, research, policy, and training. Basic analysis was done to determine the frequency with which each theme and sub-theme were discussed. ResultsBased on the engagement sessions themes that refer to traditional FNs cultural practices and knowledge represented a major priority for all groups, including the integration of strength-based indicators of wellbeing. Overall, FNs have reinforced the urgent need to exert ownership over community health data under the principles of data sovereignty. The health directors top three themes include: (1) data repatriation, (2) governance, ethics, and privacy and, (3) mental health, substance use, violence and poverty. ConclusionsThrough engagement, we have identified data needs (including access, training, policies), data topics (health priorities, traditional practices), and data uses (advocacy, repatriation, research) that are unique to FNs in Manitoba. Our team is working in collaboration with FNs to gain greater control over their data, enhance their data analysis capabilities, and ensure the protection of privacy and culture. ImplicationsOperationalizing data sovereignty will support evidence-based decision making, research capacity, governance, and ultimately, self-determination.

Evolving nature-based solutions for Australia’s Indigenous estate in 2024 – opportunities and challenges

Globally, there is growing interest and potential for investment in Nature-based Solutions (NbS) to protect, manage or restore ecosystems through incentive schemes including Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES), Nature Repair, Carbon Markets, Common Asset Trusts. Collectively, these NbS markets establish interchangeable mechanisms to help address biodiversity and climate crises, as well as socio-economic issues concerning many Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs). IPLCs manage and/or own almost 32% of the world’s land area through customary and community-based tenure arrangements. Since 2000 several PES schemes have been implemented in Australia. These schemes have been overwhelmingly implemented as public-good expenditure, with governments providing ~90% of total funding. Indigenous people have either the legal right to run or veto a carbon market or nature repair project over 57% of the Australian land mass, increasing to 63% in savanna and 85% in desert regions. Here we critically assess opportunities and challenges for Australia’s Indigenous estate associated with existing and emerging NbS market approaches, especially the Commonwealth’s current Savanna Fire Management (SFM) and Human Induced Regeneration methods, evolving Integrated Farm & Land Management (IFLM) and Blue Carbon methods, and proposed Nature Repair (NR) market. To date, Indigenous NbS interests have focused especially on SFM across northern Australia, with prospective opportunities especially for IFLM and NR markets. Most available schemes focus on remediation of degraded lands and seas, ignoring cost-effective investment opportunities to maintain habitats and ecosystems in less-degraded condition. Government-supported Common Asset Trusts can provide effective models for governance of stewardship schemes relevant to on-going care for relatively intact ecosystems. In Discussion we summarise key methodological, institutional, and policy opportunities and challenges for constructive Indigenous engagement with developing NbS markets. Our purpose is to provide an Indigenous land and sea management context to inform development of rapidly evolving NbS markets in Australia.

‘Stable and Four-Square:’ A Colonial History of Property-Owning Democracy

ABSTRACT This paper explores the colonial history of the theory of ‘property-owning democracy.’ Focusing on R.R. Torrens’ title registration system, the paper links property-owning democracy to nineteenth-century debates on land rights and title registration. Instituted in South Australia in 1858, Torrens’ system linked the simplification of transactions in land to visions of a property-owning society. Seeking to replace complex land laws, Torrens’ system’s emphasis on speeding up land transactions appealed both to settler society and metropole. This transformation facilitated the dispossession of Indigenous lands and intertwined property law with colonial narratives of progress, liberty, and democracy. Ultimately, Torrens’ vision identified democracy with a new property regime securing the future of property title and political rights. Through a common engagement with nineteenth-century Britain’s ‘land question,’ Torrens’ project in South Australia is linked to the development of the twentieth-century political concept of property-owning democracy. The paper makes the case that exploring land registration debates reveals the importance of secure property rights and human capital in the history of ideas of property-owning democracy. Legal and bureaucratic innovations like the property register were considered to free individuals to invest in their own economic development and create the economic conditions for democracy.

Leaps in the dark

This study investigates how the desire to ascertain a sense of place for Black, Caribbean diasporic subjects living on Indigenous lands can be pursued through respectful engagement with Indigenous literary art. Although returning to our own ancestral homes may not be possible, I argue, as a diasporic person myself, that it is possible for diasporic subjects to find meaning and belonging on the Indigenous lands of Aotearoa, New Zealand and what is now known as Canada through analysis of works like the bone people by Māori author Keri Hulme and Monkey Beach by Haisla author Eden Robinson. Drawing upon each text’s use of narrative, incorporation of Indigenous language, and depiction of tradition, I develop frameworks towards finding belonging whilst respecting Māori and Haisla lifeways. Both personal experience and textual analysis colour this research, which was spurred by a longing for place as a subject of the Black, Caribbean diaspora. This paper argues that humble engagement with Māori and Haisla knowledges, as elicited by Hulme and Robinson’s novels, can contribute to a greater sense of belonging for such diasporic subjects to decolonizing ends. The paper focuses on place as a fluid concept, the importance of humility when engaging with Indigenous knowledge and practices, and the acceptance of Indigenous education without expectation of mastery. Belonging is not a rigid concept, and this paper is not a guidebook, but a launching pad towards a lifetime of learning, unlearning, change and acceptance.

Rethinking Asian Settler Colonialism: A Historical Perspective of Hawai'i Asians on Indigenous Lands

Abstract: "Asian settler colonialism" calls attention to the simultaneous denial of Kanaka 'Ōiwi dispossession and the celebration of descendants of Asian immigrants as industrious members of Hawai'i's multicultural middle class. While we acknowledge the importance of confronting settler colonialism, we argue that Asian settler colonialism reinscribes an inaccurate understanding of Hawai'i Asians today and over time. Tracing Hawai'i history from the Kingdom era to the present, we show that Hawai'i Asians are not inherently settlers by virtue of being non-natives living and working on Indigenous land; rather, many Hawai'i Asians hold a generational responsibility and political affinity within the nation of Hawai'i. Further, as Hawai'i's hierarchies have evolved amid economic restructuring, the privilege and power held by some Asians have been incorrectly attributed to the native-settler binary of settler colonialism while overlooking the interplay of race, class, global economic shifts, and political dynamics reinforced by military action.

Protecting Amazon's Indigenous lands: a multidisciplinary approach

Protecting Amazon's Indigenous lands: a multidisciplinary approach