ABSTRACT
This chapter is about the relationship between three subjects: indigenous peoples, international institutions, and the literature about them. It explores the representational practices in the literature. The chapter expresses that representations of indigenous peoples are constructed through relationships, positive and negative, to modernity. It focuses on the institutional contexts in which the issues of indigenous peoples have been talked about and acted upon. The chapter considers the resistance by indigenous peoples not only to the representational constructs, but also to the reflexivity of institutional action. It explores how the issue of participation by indigenous peoples has been taken up by international institutions. There has been a phenomenal growth in the literature on indigenous people's rights in the period after 1971. The salient characteristic of this institutional literature, from 1945 through to the present, is its pragmatism. The most important site for the application of the contemporary techniques of pragmatic engagement has been the concept of self-determination.
