Sunday, September 22, 2019

Conversation Pathways with Indigeneous People in Australia and Mexico

Last night, my friend Elia came over to chat, and we discussed further starting a grandmother's council in Patzcuaro. I had such great hopes when Obrador came into office because he made so many promises to improve the lives of indigeneou people, who are usually among the poorest in Mexico. So far nothing has changed much, though. I've heard that whenever a new president comes in to power in Mexico, he rides into office on promises to indigeneous people, but never delivers. This is a long history here.

So when I saw this article, Queensland Moves Toward Treaty First Nations People, it looked like a promising development. However, upon actually reading the article, I realized that it was more of a political move to create the appearance of forming a rapprochement rather than a substantive one. However, there's always a possibility when a dialogue has started to create a new relationship, that something does actually result from doing that. 

Queensland 
https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2019/07/15/queensland-moves-toward-treaty-first-nations-people1?fbclid=IwAR1ODK7SNthkRJlR0UAPwY1MaXF-LXEVWb-Fp3pHXBKlr2AcQmlz4rea6Bw

So I was curious about what had happened along these lines with the indigeneous people in Mexico, such as treaties, etc. And I found this article from 1996. So there was a treaty in recent times, 
San Andrés Peace Accords on Indigenous Rights and Culture and their implementation.

"The Accords on Indigenous Rights and Culture lay the groundwork for significant changes in the areas of indigenous rights, political participation, and cultural autonomy. Most importantly, they recognize the existence of political subjects called pueblos indios (indigenous peoples / towns / communities) and give conceptual validation to the terms "self-determination" and "autonomy" by using them in the signed accords. 

The accords emphasize that the state takes responsibility for not only reinforcing the political representation of indigenous peoples and their participation in legislatures, but also for guaranteeing the validity of internal forms of indigenous government. They further note that the state promises to create national legislation guaranteeing indigenous communities the right to: 1) freely associate themselves with municipalities that are primarily indigenous in population; 2) to form associations between communities; and 3) to coordinate their actions as indigenous peoples."

https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/indigenous-rights-and-self-determination-mexico 1999

I wonder what has come of the commitment to carry on discussions about political reform, economic development, and land reform. It would seem that what followed was almost immediately the Mexican government reneged on the promises of this treaty, and started persecuting autonomous indigeneous peoples. 

Let's see how Obrador handles this challenge while he is in office.








No comments: