Challenges of Emergence, Recognition, and Futurity

Peoples now regarded as `Indigenous’ have existed since time immemorial but the category itself has a relatively short history. This course examines the category from a number of angles, starting with its emergence during the 1980s, when the concept of Indigeneity was first raised in the United Nations. Students will draw out the assumptions and challenges of collective, internationally-authored, `Indigenous’ socio-political identities by engaging with global discourses about and by Indigenous peoples and well as with their politico-legal contexts. Particular attention will be paid to the role of settler-colonies in the presence of formulations of Indigeneity, and the ambiguities of the concept in many Asian, East and South Asian, as well as African countries. The course will explore the complexities of and issues with the idea of Indigeneity in different parts of the globe – its acceptance, rejection, or embrace – drawing on ethnographic literature from acros the planet. The course enhances students’ understandings of the dynamics of Indigeneity at the current global conjuncture, and Indigeneity’s intersection with local histories, events, and narratives. It engages with First Nations scholarship from across the globe and considers the development of Indigenous research methodologies and approaches. The course asks how this global scholarship informs localised approaches to a range of issues, including issues of boundaries, Indigenous diasporas, Indigenous ecological knowledge and conservation, the rise of recognition of Indigenous knowledges in new domains, and Indigenous storytelling in the arts and other media. Through engaging with texts by Indigenous authors, the course then moves towards engaging with the topics of decolonisation, decolonising methodologies, and Indigenous views of the futurity of (the concept of) Indigeneity. Students will work through a number of case studies and discuss what has happened in various cases, the extent to which the category `Indigenous’ is mobilised by particular groups, consider what the future of this category of `Indigeneity’ may be, and the roles Indigeneity may play in planetary futures.