Indigenous Peoples

Indigenous Peoples are from all over the world and cover various and distinct cultures, languages, practices and knowledges. It is not a race nor is it a monolith. 

Colonisation has affected Indigenous Peoples in varied and unique ways, ripping many from Ancestral Lands, Peoples, and culture whilst others are currently fighting to keep their territories as colonisation continues to evolve.

There is no one way “to be” Indigenous, we are all striving in our own ways to stay connected to our Ancestors, Knowledges, and Principles all whilst experiencing continual colonisation and/or occupation. 

Finally, it must be acknowledged that Indigenous is a term that belongs to the white colonialist imagination and epistemology. 

Before colonisation we were simply People, not Indigenous. We became Indigenous as an artificial “othering” created by the European settler. 

Therefore, Indigenous is a term that some Peoples may reject or are trying to re-appropriate.