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Convention No. 169: 10 years after?
Indigenous and Tribal Peoples and the ILO
This year marks the 10 th anniversary of one of the most significant attempts ever made to come to grips with the problems and prospects of the world's estimated 300 million indigenous and tribal peoples. In 1991, the ILO's Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No.169) came into force. This series of articles looks at selected groups of indigenous and tribal peoples on four continents, and considers how they have fared in the past decade
They are the peoples whose residence on the land dates back to time immemorial, or they are those whose cultures and lifestyles take them outside the mainstream of national development. From the Arctic Circle to Latin America, Africa and Asia, an estimated 300 million indigenous and tribal peoples today live in over 70 countries worldwide.
They are often among the most vulnerable and marginalized people in those countries. Economic and social exclusion have shunted them to the lowest rung of the health, work and societal ladder or exposed them to inordinate suffering in times of natural disaster and war. For them, development, when it is undertaken without consideration of their specific cultures, languages and traditions, is inappropriate to their needs and priorities, and in some cases constitutes a threat, displacing them from their traditional lands and cutting vital economic, spiritual and cultural links.
Within the United Nations system, the past two decades have seen an increasing interest in issues pertaining to indigenous and tribal peoples, as well as an increasing presence of their representatives at international fora such as the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations, a subsidiary body of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, and the Working Group on the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Within the past 12 months, one of the most significant developments has been the decision in July 2000 to establish a Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples in the United Nations system. This Forum, destined to be established as a body of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), will constitute the highest level forum specifically aimed at addressing indigenous issues that has yet existed within the United Nations system.
In addition, in April this year, a decision was made by the UN Commission on Human Rights to appoint a Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples.
Issues pertaining to indigenous and tribal peoples have also been of particular concern within the context of the preparatory activities for the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance that is due to take place in August this year. Within this context, it has been recognized that indigenous peoples constitute some of the most vulnerable groups.
ILO activities
The ILO has been dealing with questions relating to indigenous and tribal peoples since the 1920s, adopting the only two international legal instruments that specifically address them. The Indigenous and Tribal Populations Convention, 1957 (No. 107) remains in force for 19 countries. More than 10 years have now passed since its successor, the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169) was adopted.
Convention No. 169 came into force on 6 September 1991, and to date, has been ratified by 14 states. Convention No. 169 is a comprehensive instrument covering a range of issues pertaining to indigenous and tribal peoples, including land rights, access to natural resources, health, education, vocational training, conditions of employment and contacts across borders.
Of particular significance to the ILO's Decent Work agenda is Article 20 of the Convention, which contains provisions that link to other core ILO instruments such as the Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111), and ILO standards on forced labour and freedom of association, among others. This places the Convention directly within the ILO's mandate, emphasizing the fact that many ILO standards apply directly to indigenous and tribal peoples, despite the fact they may not be specifically mentioned.
Perhaps one of the most important and fundamental aspects of Convention No. 169, however, is its acknowledgement of the need to adopt special measures in order to address the cultural specificity of indigenous and tribal peoples and take account of their traditional practices and institutions, with particular reference to education, administration of justice, consultation with these peoples, and general development processes.
The transition from Convention No. 107 to Convention No. 169 marked a change in the orientation of the ILO's position as regards the protection and promotion of the rights of indigenous and tribal peoples. Convention No. 169 marks a move away from the integrationist and paternalistic approach of its predecessor, towards an acknowledgement of indigenous and tribal peoples' cultures and ways of seeing the world, and an assertion of the importance of their full participation in the decision-making processes and other factors that affect them so that they shall have the right to decide their own priorities. This necessarily involves meaningful consultations with the peoples concerned.
The general orientation of Convention No. 169 is also reflected in the general move towards participatory development, as development discourse and practice are gradually acknowledging the potential advantages of genuine participation and the benefits and insight that the knowledge and perspectives of indigenous and tribal peoples can bring to development, policy-making and other processes.
It is in this respect that the following articles are important. Although very different in content, they all seek, in some way, to articulate various aspects of indigenous and tribal peoples' perspectives, cultures, and histories, as well as documenting the ways in which they have challenged prevailing discourses through their own representations, and begun to play a more active role in the determining of their own futures.
Convention No. 169: 10 years after
The "Train from La Ciotat" arrives
at the indigenous communities
Today, many cultures have arrived at the 21st Century with languages that have not developed a tradition of using the written form. For these cultures, which have developed fundamentally verbal forms of communication, the media of radio has served to enhance and bring closer together networks of communication. In this article, journalist Luis Bredow *
examines how modern technology is helping ancient cultures communicateCOCHABAMBA, Bolivia - In the past, radio has contributed considerably to the survival and growth of ancient indigenous languages, such as the quechua or aymara. Quechua, for example is currently spoken by a growing number of people in Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador and aymara is, also, widely spoken. These languages are flourishing while others languages are being forgotten.
This explains why access to mass media communications has always been one of the most important demands of ITPs. Organized indigenous communities have understood that the survival of their culture depends upon news, commentaries and music being broadcast in their ethnic language, and consider the radio as a lifeline.
It was, therefore, hardly surprising that the advent of the home video gave rise to great enthusiasm amongst some indigenous communities. This video was seen as a new form of media capable of recording day-to-day life that had been largely forgotten and, by so doing, restoring its dignity. The video, similarly to the radio, is able to broadcast political, social and economic news and opinions to the indigenous communities. Stories that had traditionally been handed down by word of mouth, committed to memory or even new stories can now be produced on video.
Some twenty years earlier, some individuals had envisaged that with the arrival of TV stations, indigenous peoples would be able to play a greater role in contributing to the intercultural dialogue of their country. It was also hoped that the numbers of TV stations would be representative of the size of local indigenous populations. A number of these hopes have been realized. In South America, a radio station that broadcasts in the quechua language to Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador thanks to a satellite. In Northern Canada, a powerful indigenous TV station broadcasts in ethnic languages thanks to the most up-to-date state-of-the-art technology.
However, some of these expectations have not been met. National TV stations have been unable to respond to the call for programmes in ethnic languages and the number of programmes broadcast in these languages have fallen well below the expectations of the indigenous communities. While privately-owned TV stations cannot be reproached for not seeking to reach a public that has no interest in adverts, it is disappointing to observe the lack of interest from public broadcasting companies, whose role is not only informative but also social.
Indigenous video producers, nevertheless, did not lose heart but set up their own video production and distribution systems. Training institutions have also given momentum to video production by including video production in their educational programmes. A large number of video producers have obtained their qualifications from these institutions.
A number have joined forces and are trying to attract international cooperation to help them in their quest to strengthen indigenous cultures via the media of video. Two such important organizations are the Centro de Formación y Realización Cinematográfica (CEFREC) and the Coordinadora Audiovisual Indigena de Bolivia (CAIB), both of which are managed by the Bolivian video producer Iván Sanjinés.
Thanks to CEFREC's cultural animation programmes, during the past 4 years, over 60 videos have been produced by indigenous peoples from various ethnic groups in Bolivia. Similar results have been achieved by indigenous organizations in Mexico, Guatemala, EEUU, Canada, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Colombia and Brazil.
Their objective is to bridge the geographic divide via the media of video and unite the indigenous peoples of different countries who face the same problems and have the same aspirations.
Enthusiasm for the video has given rise to a growing international movement, which gathers at important venues. One such venue is the New York Indigenous Film and Video Festival, which is organized by the Smithsonian Institute and has been held annually for the past 11 years. Another such venue is the Montreal Festival, which is organised by Land in Sight and is also celebrating its eleventh anniversary. The American Indigenous Peoples Film and Video Festival is yet another important venue, which was set up some six years ago for indigenous video-producers. Videos showing fiction and documentaries, video clips and news items are shown at these festivals.
Uniting indigenous peoples of different ethnic groups has been perhaps one of the most fundamental achievements of the global indigenous video movement. In Bolivia, for example, CEFREC has brought together dozens of people from a wide range of ethnic communities, who perhaps would otherwise not have had the opportunity to meet and share their experiences and their aspirations. While the world may have become a global village, it is still much easier for a Mongolian to meet a native of Tahiti in New York than for an indigenous Sirionó to meet an Aymara even though they both live in Bolivia.
The joint production and exchange of videos sponsored by CEFREC are the focal point of encounters between indigenous peoples. In the various gatherings that take place throughout the year, video producers are invited to be the guests of the various ethnic communities to which they belong. During these gatherings, which take place within the communities, the video producers show their videos, exchange copies of videos and discuss projects for new videos.
Behind the scenes, local food is discussed, production methods are compared, local politics analysed and old friends re-unite. Naturally, video producers immediately want to capture these moments on video. As regards documentaries, individuals from other cultures prepare appropriate topics and are able to highlight aspects that may have been forgotten by members of the community. However, frequently, they seek to convey fictional images on video and enthusiasm can lead to video-producers being cast in the role of a celebrity. Very interesting results can be obtained when the actor belongs to a different ethnic group to that of the celebrity. I am a guaraní but am playing an aymara. one of the video-producers said, extremely proud to have been caste in this role and to have successfully portrayed a person from another culture.
CEFREC not only has production teams at its disposal but also video exhibition teams and has set up a National Communication and Interchange Network to show videos to the indigenous communities. Many of these videos are documentaries or educational programmes, which educate the communities about problems such as health, farming and forestry management. The growing trend amongst video-producers, however, is to produce fiction.
The showing of videos to communities that are geographically widespread is extremely problematic. CEFREC has distributed battery-driven projectors for communities that have no electricity. These events are a sensational in the communities and attract dozens of inhabitants who look on these events as festive occasions. The effects are particularly surprising when videos are shown to those who have never seen a moving image before. At such times, indigenous video-producers face the same phenomena as that of the Lumière brothers, when they presented their film "The train arriving at La Ciotat station".
One of the most debated topics in the workshops is how to put words to images. While some video producers say that one of the major problems is that indigenous audiences are unable to differentiate between fact and fiction, others say that this isn't a problem, the real problem lies in how to portray lengthy and subtle stories in a few minutes of video.
Indigenous producers, for example, are faced with the problem of finding a language that will capt the essence of a story that has been handed down by word-of-mouth, which is not an easy task. Video producers are also faced with the problem of putting time into perspective. Stories handed down by word-of-mouth only refer to an event as having occurred in a place and at an unspecified time, whereas image, by its very nature, must put time into a specific context.
These challenges have arisen because indigenous video-producers have chosen to produce videos from the myriad of indigenous stories that exist, differentiating their videos from the many anthropological videos that are produced elsewhere in the world. While anthropological videos talk about ethnic groups, the videos produced by CEFREC are videos made by indigenous producers specifically for their own communities.
The birth of a new style of language in film or video is one of the major contributions that indigenous video-producers have made to today's global culture, which once again, emphasizes the important efforts that have been undertaken to sustain this planet's cultural diversity. CEFREC and CAIB's efforts are financed by the Bilboan municipal council - the Ayuntamiento de Bilbao (Spain), the Spanish Agency for International Co-operation - la Agencia Española de Cooperacción Internacional (AECI) and the Basque non-Governmental Organization, Mugarik Gabe.
* Luis Bredow is a freelance journalist based in Cochabamba, Bolivia who has worked with indigenous peoples throughout the past decade
Convention no169: 10 years after
A pastoralist paradigm
According to Maasai legend, in times past, an elder instructed his two sons to choose two things they wished to inherit. The elder son chose a few sheep and agricultural foods : he became the father of the ilmeeki - the farmers. The second son chose only the father's fly-whisk and he went on to become the father of the Maasai - the people of the cattle.
Pastoral peoples, which include the Maasai, represent the largest remaining group of peoples still practising indigenous livelihoods in the world. They live scattered in the vast swath of land bordering the Sahara desert from the Atlantic Ocean in West Africa, all the way across to the horn of Africa through Eritrea and Somalia down to the highlands of Kenya.
Pastoralism is essentially a livestock economy on range lands. The importance of livestock however, lies not only in the provision of food, but also in its social and ritual functions. Elaborate rituals, customs and beliefs have supported communal control over access to resources. Common property regimes have enabled the maximum use of range lands. This way, the conservation of pastures and sustenance of relatively large human populations have become possible in these dry marginal areas.
Loss of land and its consequences
Increasingly, however, pastoral people find their way of life is coming under threat by loss of land. In Kenya alone, more than two-thirds of traditional land has been lost since colonialism.
"It is a question of modern land tenure favouring individual titling and ownership over communal ownership: this has facilitated alienation of Maasai land," says Johnson Ole Kaunga, a Maasai who recently joined the ILO as a Regional Project Coordinator. "In addition, industrialization and urbanization are marginalizing many communities even further."
With more and more livestock having to survive in smaller and smaller land areas, the Maasai have sought alternative income sources. Selling hides, skins and milk to the urban populations and artefacts and traditional crafts to tourists are common coping mechanisms.
"Another problem," according to Johnson Ole Kaunga, "is that the law does not recognize the spiritual and cultural significance of the land, giving priority to economic value. For instance, the Endoyo o Muruak (the Hill of Elders) in Tanzania is a very important ritual site and unifier for the entire Maasai communities in both Kenya and Tanzania. However, this important shrine has already been cultivated by other people and charcoal burning is practised using trees that are needed for various ceremonies."
Pastoralism, an environmental hazard?
For decades, pastoralism was held responsible for the decline and degradation of range-lands. An international conference on desertification held by UNESCO and UNEP in 1967 considered pastoralism to be irrational and wasteful. Grazing restrictions, the creation of bounded ranches and concentrations of populations around mechanized waterholes were the follow-up. Ironically, these measures actually encouraged over-grazing. Many donor-funded projects have since attempted to offer alternatives to pastoralism. Yet, twenty years of irrigation and fisheries projects have left people hungrier than before. The most valuable lesson for the future seems to be that the only economically viable land management approach in arid areas is traditional pastoralism.
The irony of the matter remains the unrecognized dependence of many African economies on the fruits of pastoralist labour. Kenya's economy for instance, benefits significantly from the agricultural sector with livestock alone constituting 12% of GDP. Pastoralist communities now provide the bulk of all red meat consumed in Kenya. Annually, two-hundred thousand head of cattle cross the Kenyan borders from Somalia and Ethiopia and still the market is clamouring for more.
A key role is also being played by pastoralism in helping wildlife survive and in the promotion of tourism. In some areas, a system of revenue sharing has been pioneered, creating community-controlled wildlife reserve areas. With over 800,000 visitors coming to Kenya annually, this can be a promising development.
"The challenge," says Ole Kaunga, "is for the Maasai and other traditional communities to strike a balance between their traditional lifestyles and 'modern' development."
A Snapshot of the Mara
(Living among indigenous peoples provides a perspective different from that of the international aid worker or the tourist. In this snapshot, educator and writer Gillian Piper provides a brief view of life among the Maasai, gleaned from three years of working with adults and children at a local school.)
ON THE MAASAI MARA, Kenya - From the snippets of bar conversation among some tourists, one couldn't help but have an uncomfortable feeling that the Maasai living around the national park here were viewed rather like museum pieces.
It was quite a shock to see the stark difference between the national park, a haven for tourists, and the surrounding community struggling to survive, even though ironically because of tourism they inhabit one of the financially richer regions of Kenya.
Here, it is clear that tourists are attracted to Kenya not only to experience wildlife game drives but also to see for themselves one of the worlds famous ethic tribes. Although the Maasai contribute towards attracting tourists to Kenya, the majority of communities surrounding the parks do not benefit from the industry.
This even includes employment in the lodges and camps. Tourist companies employ staff from other parts of the country where greater access to education is available. The only way in which the Maasai profit from the presence of these visiting foreigners is by selling trinkets, performing toned down versions of their famous jumping dance and creating exhibition manyattas (village compounds). The large curio shops in Nairobi and the nearest town that is over 100km away more often than not deprive the villagers of even making a little money from their handicrafts.
The community understands the need for tourism but they have also had to face the problems it brings. The irony is that before the British created the National Park the Maasai Mara and Transmara were sparsely inhabited by the Maasai. Fevers and sickness infested the area, and although the land was rich for grazing, it was known to be dangerous to human population.
The British tried to restrict habitation within a 50-kilometre boundary of the reserve, but Maasai leaders rejected this proposal. They believed that the colonialists must have had found a cure for the sickness otherwise they would not jeopardise their lives by moving there, let alone bring tourists into the area. Moving on more than 70 years since the creation of the game park, tourists and wealthier nationals understand the health hazards and have at their disposal the financial resources to provide for themselves anti-malaria drugs and medicine for a host of other illnesses. The majority of Maasai like millions of ethnic people around the world do not, and the tragedy is on a yearly basis many fall victim to these preventable diseases.
Gillian Piper
Linking employment to culture and social organization
These, and other case studies of indigenous and tribal peoples from around the world show remarkably similar experiences. Loss of control over the natural resource base leads to loss of traditional governance systems and customary laws for managing these resource bases.
It then triggers a chain of other activities affecting their lives: loss of participation in decision-making, loss of cultural heritage, and loss of traditional knowledge of the environment. Through an acknowledgment of the insight and benefits that indigenous knowledge and methodologies can bring to the effective and sustainable management of land and natural resource bases, one can begin to address some of these issues.
The recently published ILO study "Traditional Occupations of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples: Emerging trends" (ILO Geneva, 2001) concludes: "What appears most clearly when these case studies are taken together, is that cultural values, social organization and economic activity cannot be treated as separate issues…." . This offers valuable insights to future ILO activities.
- A. van der Goes, ILO