On the Future of Indigenous Traditions - Munin

Appendixes:
International Definition of “Indigenous Peoples”
The most accepted working definition of the “indigenous peoples” by the UN Special
Rapporteur Martinez Cobo:
Indigenous communities, peoples and nations are those which, having a
historical continuity with pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies that
developed on their territories, consider themselves distinct from other of the
sectors now prevailing in those territories, or part of them. They form at
present non-dominant sector of society and are determined to preserve,
develop and transmit to further generations their ancestral territories, and their
ethnic identity, as their basis of their continued existence as peoples, in
accordance with their own cultural patterns, social institutions and legal
systems.”
This historical continuity may consist of the continuation, for an extended
period reaching into the present, of one or more of the following factors:
(a) Occupation of ancestral lands, or at least of part of them;
(b) Common ancestry with the original occupants of these lands;
(c) Culture in general or in specific manifestations (such as religion, living
under a tribal system, membership of an indigenous community, means of
livelihood, life style, etc.);
(d) Language (whether used as the only language, as mother tongue, as the
habitual means of communication at home or in the family, or as the main,
preferred, habitual, general or normal language);
(e) Residence in certain parts of the country, or in certain regions of the world;
(f) Other relevant factors. 149
Wilkinson Rule:
[“ 20. The Governor General’s agent and his assistants are authorised, as their discretion refer
suits for decision to Panchayata after the planits has been filed and defendants answer
received. Either at the sadar Station or any other part of the district where the agent’s or
assistant’s cutchery may be at the same time. The Panchayat to consist or three or four persons
to be selected by the agent or assist from amongst the persons most conversant with the matter
and the issue. The persons to compose the Panchayat should not be nominated until the
plaintiff, defendant, and witnesses had been assembled. The plaintiff and defendant shall each
be permitted to challenge any member of the Panchayat and on given sufficient reason for the
challenge or other person or persons shall be selected to supply his or their place. The plaintiff
and the defendant or their Agent shall each be called on. On the Governor General’s Agent or
his assistant determining to refer a suit to a Panchayat, and before the member of the
149 Jose Martinez Cobo, Study of the Problem of Discrimination against indigenous populations, UN
Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/1986/7/Add.4 paras.379-80.
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