Indigenous geographies II

Abstract

Required to negotiate a transcultural present in which their rights and opportunities are circumscribed by the pleadings of multicultural others, Indigenous peoples have attracted attention for their approaches to alliance-building, responsible co-existence and self-determined care. In this second report on Indigenous geographies1, we associate those projects with the geographies of hope but, recognizing that a futuristic gaze on allegedly progressive cases can lapse into naivety, we call for further postcolonial critique of the influences on those cases. We distinguish retrospective and prospective applications of postcolonial theory, suggesting that while geographers initially disregarded the latter they now exaggerate that outlook in hopeful advocacy for Indigenous alternatives. Nonetheless, we conclude with examples of reconciliation and Indigenous service provision which attest to the social significance and aspirational character of Indigenous responses, both from the margins and in the focus of everyday politics.

Pueblos indígenas, recursos y gobernanza. Un análisis de la consulta indígena como parte de la Evaluación de Impacto Ambiental del proyecto hidroeléctrico Añihuerraqui, Región de la Araucanía, Chile

“…El análisis del proceso de la consulta indígena, mediante la revisión cualitativa de documentos emitidos en el marco de la evaluación del proyecto hidroeléctrico Añihuerraquí, demuestra que el mecanismo de gobernanza no considera la heterogeneidad que caracteriza a los pueblos indígenas, lo que ha sido un punto de crítica en los últimos años (Coombes et al, 2013;Von der Porten et al, 2015). En el caso del proyecto analizado, esto provoca que los que están a favor de la propuesta y que son identificados como potenciales contrapartes en el proceso de negociación, sí son empoderados mediante la consulta indígena.…”

Atayal’s identification of sustainability: traditional ecological knowledge and indigenous science of a hunting culture

“…Referring to previous work experiences in biological diversity and promoting and managing wildlife conservation, allowing residents to participate in developing management strategies can contribute to original life experiences and yield strategies for the region. This approach allows local residents to collaborate, and contributes to implement natural conservation objectives, particularly in reducing the government administrative burden through Indigenous self-administration and alternative models for economic and social life (Coombes et al 2013;Lin 2011;Lin et al 2007). If ownership and management rights of forest resources are developed by local communities, biodiversity conservation should be the primary land-use objective (Wilkie and Carpenter 1999).…”

Here, there, everywhere

“…Neither is there much discussion of the interfaces between economic, environmental and cultural geographies in areas as diverse as climate change and adaptation, or of the changing institutional interfaces between human and non-human domains as they are mediated by governments, corporations and civil society. In my own fields of practice, for example, there is emerging work in Indigenous geographies that would suggest that Aotearoa's Treaty of Waitangi and Australia's Native title regime has an economic geography that warrants consideration both within and beyond Antipodean reflections (Coombes et al, 2012a(Coombes et al, , 2012b. Such issues continue to enliven Australasian economic (and cultural and environmental and other adjectival geographies) and provide a foundation for a distinctive Antipodean contribution to wider debates.…”