Indigenous Movements Research Articles

Social Movements and Policy Entrenchment

A vast scholarship shows that social movements can play pivotal roles in bringing about policies that benefit marginalized groups. However, the role of social movements in entrenching those policies—ensuring they take root—remains insufficiently studied. We set a research agenda for the study of how social movements shape policy entrenchment by calling attention to three commonly used strategies—occupying state bureaucracies, engaging in pressure and persuasion tactics, and building alliances with political parties—and analyzing the relationships among them. We illustrate these strategies through short case studies of social movements that achieved significant change benefitting marginalized groups in Latin America: the health movement in Brazil, the unemployed workers’ movements in Argentina, and peasant and indigenous movements in Bolivia.

Indigenous Movements in Ecuador

Indigenous Movements in Ecuador

Indigenous Natures and the Anthropocene: Racial Capitalism, Violent Materialities, and the Colonial Politics of Representation

AbstractIndigenous Peoples are gaining renewed attention within both policy and academia, as examples of “resilience” and of non‐humanist, non‐modern ways of relating to nature, which might, it is hoped, provide tools to withstand the socio‐ecological crises associated with “the Anthropocene”. This paper argues that such representations obscure both their own colonial foundations and the ongoing forms of racialised dispossession and ecocide faced by Indigenous Peoples today. Instead, we conceptualise indigeneity and nature as deeply entangled categories that are co‐produced with capitalist modernity. Engaging anti‐colonial and Marxist scholarship, and drawing on our long‐term research with Indigenous movements in Bolivia and Colombia, we highlight how discursive and material assemblages of indigeneity and nature are dialectically linked to capitalist processes of dispossession and subaltern efforts to contest these. We further highlight how romanticised accounts of non‐modern nature‐cultures are unsettled by the violent world‐making of colonial capitalism and the unequal burdens placed on Indigenous territories and bodies. We use an ethnographic vignette from the Bolivian Chaco to illustrate the messy everyday ways in which real Indigenous people navigate, contest, endure, and make do amidst the contradictory processes of racialisation, dispossession, and conditional recognition that characterise their positioning within colonial capitalism. In doing so, we show how thinking from the sacrifice zones of extractive capitalism unsettles contemporary debates on decolonising nature in the Anthropocene.

Christianity and modern Japanese society: An historical overview

AbstractThis review article provides an overview of studies on Christianity in modern Japan, with a specific focus on works that address its social and political impact from a historical perspective. It first seeks to orient readers in the historical context within which the religion was transmitted to Japan, before delving into the notable works in the field. The scholarship indicates an evolution from an initial focus on missionary evangelism and narrowly defined church history to a more expansive outlook that encompasses the rich and complex lives of Japanese Christian leaders and their broader societal impact beyond church walls. Topics covered include Protestant missions, indigenous movements, women's education, social reform, and biographical studies. As a reflection of the author's area of interest, special attention will be paid to the case of the Christian social reformer Kagawa Toyohiko. The review will be limited to English‐language scholarship, although brief references will be made to Japanese‐language scholarship where appropriate.

The Vision and Impact of Redeemed Christian Church of God and Cherubim and Seraphim Movement

The paper is a comparative study of Redeemed Christian Church of God and Cherubim and Seraphim Movement as African indigenous movements. The work adopts a qualitative research design and relied on secondary method using comparative approach. It was found in the study that these indigenous Christian movements have their vision shaped by their founders. However, there are certain features that are common among them as well as notable differences. Both practiced Pentecostal theology and the place of Scriptures is central to both of them. While the Redeemed Christian Church of God is said to have more social, political and economic impact on the people and the society Cherubim and Seraphim Movement gives more attention to the issue of spiritual liberation and deliverance from the forces of darkness. The Redeem Christian Church of God follows more strictly, the teaching of the Bible while Cherubim and Seraphim Society is syncretic. The paper recommends that there is a need for a comparative study of the teachings and practices of these indigenous movements. And there is a need for these movements to develop a clear theology and doctrines that define them.

‘Sometimes they achieve a good life, sometimes they come back in a coffin’ – exploring social worlds of mobility at the communities of origin in Chiapas, Mexico

ABSTRACT Based on ethnographical and collaborative research conducted in the South Mexican region of The Lacandon Jungle, my paper explores how Indigenous peasant communities deal with the effects that various forms of mobility have on their social worlds. Combining decolonial work on Indigenous communality and transnational perspectives with a situational analysis approach, my research specifically focuses on collective processes of meaning-making in light of the increasing mobility among these communities’ members. By analyzing how the people who stay collectively organize the community’s social world, I position myself against approaches that reduce Indigenous movements to cultural policies, since such approaches overlook the relevance of anti-colonial resistance. My research shows that within the ‘Indigenous communal governance systems’, the departure of individual members plays a formative role for the entire community, shaping the resulting social relations and political practices. To ensure collective access to territory as a means of communal self-determination, a ‘transnational continuum of communality’ emerges between the communities of origin and their absent members.

Indigenous Internationalism and the Art of Recognition: A Soviet Trace on a Global Stage

ABSTRACT This article explores the contributions of Soviet writers to global discourses of Indigenous rights. The author focuses on the work of three writers, Yeremei Aipin (Khanty, b. 1948), Vladimir Sangi (Nivkh, b. 1935), and Yury Vella (Nenets, 1948–2013), as they entered into transnational Indigenous movements and navigated a rapidly changing political landscape in the final years of the Soviet Union. The author argues that they engaged in a complex “art of recognition,” working across genres and modalities in order to reckon with legacies of colonialism and usher in new visions of identity and political sovereignty. This approach highlights the Soviet Union as a locus for international congresses and solidarity movements, such as the Nevada-Semipalatinsk Antinuclear Movement, the Global Forum of Spiritual and Parliamentary Leaders, and the 1990 Sacred Run for Land and Life, led by American Indian Movement cofounder Dennis Banks. Ultimately, an Indigenous-centered approach to the end of the Cold War provides a counterbalance to prevailing narratives of this era, which cast the ascendance of a Western-dominated capitalist world order as an inevitable conclusion.

Cozinhas comunitárias como patrimônio do protesto social: experiências do levante indígena e popular no Equador, 2022

This article narrates the resurgence of community kitchens in Ecuador during the 2022 national uprising when, once again, the Indigenous movement and citizens mobilized to demand the fulfillment of their requests, including that of a post-extractivist Ecuador. In this context, the community kitchens activated in the capital city Quito were a vital space for sustaining social protest and promoting encounter, creativity, and solidarity. Historically, culinary heritage has been instrumentalized by hegemonic groups to reinforce their power and domination over the rest of the population; however, as a volunteer in several kitchens during the days of the protest, I show how community kitchens are counter-hegemonic traditions and weave emancipatory meanings.

Indigenous Movements in the Andes in the Twenty-First Century

This essay reviews the following works: Indianidad evanescente en los Andes de Ecuador. By Víctor Bretón Solo de Zaldívar. Quito: FLACSO Ecuador; Ediciones Universitat de Lleida, 2022. Pp. xxxix + 372. €22.00 paperback, free downloadable e-book. ISBN: 9789978676301. Indigene Autonomie in Lateinamerika: Zwischen Selbstbestimmung und staatlicher Kontrolle. By Michael Fackler. Bielefeld, Germany: Transcript, 2021. Pp. 322. €60.00 hardcover, €60.00 e-book. ISBN: 9783837657982. Indigene Resistencia: Der Widerstand der bolivianischen TIPNIS-Bewegung. By Maximilian Held. Bielefeld, Germany: Transcript, 2022. Pp. 276. €45.00 hardcover, free downloadable e-book. ISBN: 9783837663686. La revolución del arcoiris y su escala de grises: Movimiento indígena del Ecuador. By Stalin Herrera Revelo. Buenos Aires: CLACSO, 2022. Pp. 135. Free downloadable e-book. ISBN: 9789878133799. Indigenous Civil Society in Latin America: Collective Action in the Digital Age. By Pascal Lupien. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2023. Pp. vii + 284. $29.95 paperback, $99.00 hardcover, $22.99 e-book. ISBN: 9781469672625. ¡Así encendimos la mecha! Treinta años del levantamiento indígena en Ecuador: Una historia permanente. Edited by Floresmilo Simbaña, Adriana Victoria Rodríguez Caguana, and Mateo Martínez Abarca. Quito: Ediciones Abya Yala, 2020. Pp. 220. $15.00 paperback, free downloadable e-book. ISBN: 9789942884107.

#Resistencia: Indigenous Movements, Social Media, and Mobilization in Latin America

Abstract Indigenous peoples in Latin America have produced some of the region’s strongest and most enduring social movements, drawing on a diverse repertoire of contention to pursue their goals. In the twenty-first century, social media have transformed the landscape of collective action, compelling Indigenous movements to navigate the evolving dynamics of digital platforms. There is an ongoing debate in the literature regarding the role of social media in mobilization. But we know relatively little about how social media fit into the tactical repertoires of Indigenous actors and what tasks these platforms are used for. This article addresses this gap through an examination of how Indigenous actors use social media during protest events. We conducted a comparative analysis of social media content produced by Indigenous social movement organizations during major protest events in three countries from 2018 to 2019. We find that the most common functions include activating supporters and exposing state violence. These functions support several of the organizations’ core mobilization tasks by providing actors with tools to complement collection action.

Lumbisí and the suburban (re)colonisation of Quito’s valleys: de-facto housing policies and indigenous dwelling struggles in plurinational Ecuador

Building upon ongoing engagement with leaders, advocates, and inhabitants of Lumbisí and other communal territories in Quito’s Metropolitan District, this contribution exposes the city’s suburbanisation as state-sponsored (re)colonisation. Through qualitative socio-spatial analysis, we unpack the relation between Quito’s de-facto housing policy and Lumbisí’s dwelling struggles with three main aims: (1) to unravel the involvement of housing and land policies in the predatory transformation of Quito’s north-eastern valleys; (2) to illustrate their impact on Indigenous dispossession, elimination, and assimilation; and (3) to uncover how dwelling forms elicit and articulate dissent. Setting the grammars of dissent mobilised by local, regional, and national constituencies of Ecuador’s Indigenous Movement in dialogue with settler colonial theory, we reposition ongoing struggles within enduring colonial trajectories. Our case study of Lumbisí complexifies existing frameworks of gentrification, neoliberal urbanisation and capital accumulation. It foregrounds how Quito’s de-facto housing policy systematically relies on communal territories to externalise demands for land and labour, instrumentalising them as ‘informal’ settlements or ‘vacant’ land to extract ‘affordable’ housing and ‘natural’ assets. The (re)colonisation of Quito’s north-eastern valleys thus unfolds as the ongoing physical and ontological occupation of Indigenous territories. Within this context, comunas simultaneously absorb transformations and articulate dissent.

Statebuilding and indigenous rights implementation: Political incentives, social movement pressure, and autonomy policy in Central America

What explains when states strengthen, maintain, or erode political-territorial Indigenous autonomy regimes? Indigenous activists around the world have fought for the right to govern their own lands and communities and have sometimes won major legal concessions from national governments. Yet initial breakthroughs often give way to lackluster state implementation or even erosion of Indigenous autonomy rights. We examine how statebuilding incentives structure governments’ implementation of autonomy, drawing on cases in Central America. Under some circumstances government officials may perceive Indigenous autonomy regimes as the best option to promote state influence over otherwise difficult-to-reach territories and populations. Autonomy regimes may improve governability, for example, in regions where criminal organizations or other armed actors operate. Autonomy regimes may also lead Indigenous peoples to increasingly identify themselves with the national state. Finally, autonomy regimes may further integrate Indigenous communities into markets by creating property relations and consultation mechanisms that defuse Indigenous opposition to extractive projects. When these statebuilding incentives to advance governability, identification, and extraction are absent, however, government officials are more likely to erode autonomy regimes. Through comparisons of the trajectories of Indigenous autonomy regimes in Honduras, Panama, and Nicaragua, we show how these statebuilding concerns shaped state policies towards Indigenous autonomy across governments’ ideologies and regime types. Our findings highlight the importance of examining social movements’ practical consequences, and how aligning movement demands with statebuilding interests may shape whether gains can be defended and sustained, an especially pressing concern for Indigenous movements facing extractive projects, land invasions, and climate change.

The well-living paradigm: reimagining quality of life in our turbulent world

This article introduces the concept of ‘well-living’ as a transformative framework for reimagining quality of life in the face of current global socio-ecological challenges. Through a reflexive theoretical meta-analysis, it critically examines mainstream and reformist well-being discourses while drawing inspiration from transformative perspectives found in recent post-capitalist and indigenous movements. ‘Well-living’ is portrayed as both a civilizational endeavor and a multifaceted imperative, encompassing dimensions of creativity, liveability, conviviality, and alterity across various scales from individual to international contexts. Central to the ‘well-living’ paradigm are nine key qualities, including harmonious coexistence, aspirational foresight and purposefulness, solidarity, autonomy, authenticity, and integrity, thereby promoting an integrated approach to living in balance with oneself, others, and the natural world. Embracing ‘well-living’ as a goal and process can empower individuals and communities to challenge prevailing global capitalist paradigms, re-establish connections with the interconnected web of life, and strive for a more just, regenerative, and diverse world, accommodating multiple perspectives. Lastly, employing a 'commonist' perspective, the article outlines essential institutional and legislative-policy changes required to actualize the vision of 'well-living.'

Indigenous Methodologies of Care and Movement

In this essay, I examine how research methodologies can draw from Indigenous peoples’ care work and mobilities to contribute towards Indigenous futurities. I draw on stories of my own research trajectory, that has been shaped by the support of Mushkegowuk women, and bring them into dialogue with Indigenous feminist theorizations of futurities, relationalities, care ethics and movement. I examine how methodologies of care can act as extensions of relations of care, and in the process, activate the complexities and expansiveness of Indigenous community, or what I call Indigenous relational geographies, through movement across lands and waters. I reflect on how Indigenous movement is learned and embodied through relations with the non-human world by grounding my discussion in the significance of water relations in the muskegs in so-called northern Ontario Canada and how they have helped me understand Mushkegowuk kinship relations as rippling out in and beyond that region. Overall, I am interested in how mobile relations of care evoke full and fluid conceptions of Indigenous kinship that exceed colonial spatialities, and end by considering how these relationships are crucial in shaping the visions and material relations of Indigenous and anti-colonial futurities moving forward.   

Unreconciled: Indigenous Presents/Presence & Settler Memory

Abstract This essay explores race, racism, history, and popular memory from the vantage point of the Indigenous world, and, specifically, Native peoples colonized within the present-day United States. Over the course of the past decade, Indigenous movements for land and life have shed light on the incomplete nature of conquest in Native North America and the instability of settler colonialism. “Unreconciled” explores the ongoing tension between Indigenous presence and the settler colonial “logic of elimination” in the context of land acknowledgments, commemoration, popular culture, and federal policy. We show that, despite changes with regard to the ways in which non-Indigenous people in settler states collectively remember or imagine community, elements of settler memory continue to reside within and limit public conversations on race, remembrance, reconciliation, and reparation. (DMC and MLC)

Comparative Analysis of the Journalistic Agenda between Corporate and Community Media in Ecuador National Strike 2022

This article presents a comparative analysis of the journalistic coverage of the Ecuador social mobilizations of June 2022. It takes as case studies the corporate media Ecuavisa, with 215 news of the stellar newscast Televistazo, and the community media Televisión del Movimiento Indígena de Cotopaxi (TV MICC), with 437 publications on its Facebook page. Based on the Critical Discourse Analysis, we investigate the media disputes of meaning and power in the journalistic agenda and framing, from which the legitimization and delegitimization of the protest were configured. Among the main results, Ecuavisa focused its news agenda on the defense of governmental actions and the support to the productive business sector, generating a frame of support for the actions of the public forces in defense of democracy, while TV MICC, in a practice of communicational sovereignty, generated journalistic coverage vindicating the political agenda of the mobilization led by the Indigenous Movement. Additionally, it made visible the multiple violations of human and cultural rights carried out by the public force within the framework of a racist culture.

The Apaguen los Mecheros campaign: Supporting climate justice in the Amazonian cities of Ecuador by estimating the health risks of gas flaring

On 26 January 2021, the Court of Nueva Loja banned oil-related gas flaring (GF) activities in the Ecuadorian Amazon Region (EAR), establishing a term of 18 months for GF sites ‘near populated centres’ and until 2030 for those remaining. However, it is still unclear how the ruling will be applied.The present study investigates the impact of GF sites on Amazonian settlements to support the application of the ban. This research is part of the Extreme Citizen Science process carried out by the Apaguen los Mecheros campaign—one of the main claimants in the trial.To estimate the impacts on populated centres and four Amazonian cities, literature data on GF impacts were used to create three risk scenarios: very high-risk scenarios (VHR) within 0.65 km, high-risk scenarios (HR) within 2.25 km and moderate-risk scenarios (MR) within 5 km.The results highlighted that 294 of 295 GF sites affect at least one populated centre in the MR and should thus be shut off. Additionally, 92 populated centres are affected in the VHR, 318 populated centres are affected in the HR and 711 populated centres are affected in the MR, while 180 populated centres are affected simultaneously by 6–18 GF sites in the MR. The results also show that 99,918 people in Amazonian cities may be currently affected by the MR, and more than 12,000 are affected in VHR areas.By applying different metrics found in literature, the research provides the first assessment of the risk posed to the health of local communities for GF in the EAR. The results are being used from members of campaign in the trial, showing how participatory processes can support the grassroots and indigenous movements taking action to shape just futures.

Valuation struggles in the Ecuadorian Amazon: Beyond indigenous people's responses to oil extraction

Conflicts resulting from oil extractivism can be seen as ecological and cultural distribution conflicts, and have involved Latin American indigenous movements attached to their land and environments as providers of livelihood and cultural identity. In Ecuador, some have argued that this has become a 'standard narrative', essentializing the struggles of indigenous people. And the various agreements found historically between indigenous people and large companies operating in their territories seem to legitimize such criticism. But how to understand the choices of indigenous groups, with incommensurable needs, values, and claims, in the presence of extractive projects involving incommensurable local outcomes? Through an analysis of the different claims of indigenous people who voted in favor of oil extraction projects in their territories in the ITT fields of the Ecuadorian Amazon, I show how oil extraction coupled with 'social compensation' might create non-conflictive, but problematic situations, rather than conflicts. Indeed, the perception of an incommensurable loss, related to ecological and cultural difference, does not necessarily translate into opposition to mining or drilling. This is especially important in countries where the right to prior consultation could legitimize the expansion of oil activities in indigenous territories.

Organizing for Non-capitalist Decolonial Autonomy: An Analysis of a Leaderless Indigenous Movement

Organizing for Non-capitalist Decolonial Autonomy: An Analysis of a Leaderless Indigenous Movement

A fighting time and a dreaming time: Struggle for right to remain in LA

In this conversation, Martha Escudero from the Reclaim our Homes is in dialogue with Ana Vilenica, sharing her experience of living in extreme housing precarity and her knowledge of tactics for occupying homes in LA, organizing against evictions and creating a community land trust. We also discussed the importance of learning from Indigenous movements across borders, and how they can inspire us to build different ways of organizing in our local communities.