Standing Up for Inherent Rights: The Role of Indigenous-Led Activism in Protecting Sacred Waters and Ways of Life

Abstract

Time and time again, Indigenous people throughout the world are faced with the need to reassert their way of life, and to "buck" political and social systems that continually marginalize their treaty rights. In this article, I explore the role of Indigenous activism at different scalespersonal, tribal, and collective-to intervene in key moments to uphold treaty rights and protect Indigenous ways of life. In defending treaty rights, Indigenous peoples have become leaders in the social and environmental justice movement, particularly in relation to climate justice and fishing rights. The article recounts three ethnographies that illustrate how access to rights is wrapped up in geopolitics and the political economy. Highlighting these acts of resilience and leadership in the face of crisis is the central work of this article. The article concludes with a call to fundamentally rethink governance mechanisms and structures, to protect ecological and human health. ARTICLE HISTORY

Importance of Indigenous Peoples’ lands for the conservation of Intact Forest Landscapes

“…). Moreover, Indigenous governance and land management regimes have also been successful at achieving sustainable human–landscape interrelationships in numerous geographical locations and circumstances (Brondizio and Le Tourneau ; Norman ).…”

“…Formal recognition of Indigenous Peoples' rights over their forest lands can also slow deforestation (Ricketts et al 2010;Ceddia et al 2015). Moreover, Indigenous governance and land management regimes have also been successful at achieving sustainable human-landscape interrelationships in numerous geographical locations and circumstances (Brondizio and Le Tourneau 2016;Norman 2017).…”

Advancing methods for research on household water insecurity: Studying entitlements and capabilities, socio-cultural dynamics, and political processes, institutions and governance

“…Recent HWI research suggests that conventional approaches are inadequate to capture core dimensions of the experience of water insecurity (Linton and Budds 2014, Yates et al 2017, Norman 2017). These findings warrant expanding the conceptualization of household water insecurity to include three relational dimensions in addition to traditional measures: entitlements and human capabilities, socio-cultural dynamics, and political institutions and processes that produce water-related inequities (Jepson et al 2017b).…”

“…These symbolic meanings may influence water source choices, and how households evaluate the quality of natural drinking water sources (e.g., Eichelberger 2017). In addition, peoples’ material needs may be addressed by, or inflected through, non-material processes or phenomena such as the use of water for symbolic purposes (Staddon and Everard 2017, Norman 2017). One example is the conspicuous consumption of water for landscaping, in which households dedicate enormous water expenditures toward supporting ornamental greenery as a marker of class and status (Larson et al 2009, 2016, Feldman 2017).…”

Valuing fresh waters

“…There are myriad cultural‐religious ontologies and values that deserve to be seen, enfolded, and centralized in discourses about fresh waters' values. And if Groenfeldt is right that “water governance is all about values,” then those cultural‐religious ontologies and values that have been long occluded also have implications for governance (Groenfeldt, ; see also Norman, ; Oestigaard, ; Strang, ; Sullivan, ; Wateau, ; Wolf, ; Yates, Harris, & Wilson, ).…”