ABSTRACT
This chapter documents a history of Indigenous activism in international fora from the 1970s until 2016. It constitutes an alternative reading from that made by states, policymakers and NGOs, and centres an Indigenous perspective. This chapter documents and critiques the history of the Working Group on Indigenous Peoples (WGIP), the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and a number of significant studies which developed from the WGIP, the UN Treaty Study and the UN Study on Free, Prior and Informed Consent. It documents and critiques the events leading up to the ‘World Conference on Indigenous Peoples’, and discusses and critically evaluates its aftermath.
This chapter is a culmination of four decades of activism which has tracked the UN in search of a peaceful way to bring an end to the unfinished business of colonialism and its ongoing crimes of genocide. It aims to provide a track for future generations of Indigenous Peoples, a critical record and documentation of our ancient existence as nations and our ongoing and future presence as nations.
