ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the underlying feature of the language that scholars typically use when writing about the body of ideas known as international law and the relations between 'states' and peoples termed 'Indigenous'. It focuses on some of the metaphorical patterns of domination that are typically found in scholarly writings about international law and 'Indigenous' Peoples in an effort to heighten awareness about a theme that has not been typically raised in international law scholarship. The domination which states have constructed, maintained and used against colonised peoples for centuries has resulted in the phenomenon of 'dominated peoples'. The idea of certain peoples being classified as 'Indigenous' is not part of an 'objective reality' physically existing in the world independent of the human mind. On 13 September 2007, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
