Question

answer
What is meant by indigenous people?
give an introduction of their main demands?​

Answer 1

Answer:

It is estimated that there are more than 370 million indigenous people spread across 70 countries worldwide.

Practicing unique traditions, they retain social, cultural, economic and political characteristics that are distinct

from those of the dominant societies in which they live. Spread across the world from the Arctic to the South

Pacific, they are the descendants - according to a common definition - of those who inhabited a country or a

geographical region at the time when people of different cultures or ethnic origins arrived. The new arrivals later

became dominant through conquest, occupation, settlement or other means.

Among the indigenous peoples are those of the Americas (for example, the Lakota in the USA, the Mayas in

Guatemala or the Aymaras in Bolivia), the Inuit and Aleutians of the circumpolar region, the Saami of northern

Europe, the Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders of Australia and the Maori of New Zealand. These and most

other indigenous peoples have retained distinct characteristics which are clearly different from those of other

segments of the national populations.

Understanding the term “indigenous”

Considering the diversity of indigenous peoples, an official definition of “indigenous” has not been adopted by

any UN-system body. Instead the system has developed a modern understanding of this term based on the

following:

• Self- identification as indigenous peoples at the individual level and accepted by the community as their

member.

• Historical continuity with pre-colonial and/or pre-settler societies

• Strong link to territories and surrounding natural resources

• Distinct social, economic or political systems

• Distinct language, culture and beliefs

• Form non-dominant groups of society

• Resolve to maintain and reproduce their ancestral environments and systems as distinctive peoples and

communities.