Indigenous Peoples Issues - Mining and the Environment: From Ore to Metal - page 652

of the American continents, the Dayaks who inhabit much of the island of Borneo, and
the Australian Aborigines. This use of 'indigenous' is quite similar to that of the related
term 'aboriginal'. The term Aborigines can be used for all original people of Australia.
Aborigines in different parts of Australia have individual tribal and area names. The term
Koori is such a name and is not applicable to all Australian Aborigines. Elsewhere, other
terms have come to designate similar populations, such as 'ethnic minorities', 'tribals',
'minority nationalities', and even the semi-racist term, 'natives'.
This confusing welter of terms has also muddled the dei nition of 'indigenous'. The
term is clearest when applied to the Americas, differentiating the original inhabitants from
those populations that came in with the European conquests of the 1500s and later. When
the term is applied elsewhere, interpretations and adjustments are made to the term, and
the term's initial clarity is often lost. No wonder political arguments often rage as to who
should and who should not be considered 'indigenous'.
Nevertheless, over the last decade or so, a broad consensus has begun to emerge as to
the broad criteria a group must have to be dubbed 'indigenous'. Beginning with the World
Bank (Operational Policy 4.10), and then picked up by the other international i nancial
and policy institutions, the following criteria are now recognized widely as indicative of
indigenous status:
(a) self-identii cation as members of a distinct indigenous cultural group and recognition
of this identity by others;
(b) collective attachment to geographically distinct habitats or ancestral territories in an
area and to the natural resources in these habitats and territories;
(c) customary cultural, economic, social, or political institutions that are separate from
those of the dominant society and culture;
(d) a distinct language or dialect, often different from the ofi cial language or dialect of
the country or region.

No wonder political arguments
often rage as to who should and
who should not be considered
'indigenous'.

Indigenous Peoples everywhere thus claim to be, and hope to be acknowledged as, the
original inhabitants and customary owners of an area. Lands associated with particu-
lar groups may be termed ancestral lands. The UN recognizes over 250 million people as
indigenous, with the bulk of them residing - as does 2/3 of humanity - in Asia.

16.2 REASON FOR CONCERN

Once completely isolated,
vulnerable, and ignored,
Indigenous Peoples have
organized themselves globally
and attained a presence
internationally which was
unimaginable just a decade or
two ago.

Why should the mining industry be concerned about the Indigenous Peoples with whom it
interacts? There are strong legal, moral, and pragmatic reasons for such engagement, not
the least of which is the rising inl uence and presence of Indigenous Peoples on the world
stage. Once completely isolated, vulnerable, and ignored, Indigenous Peoples have organized
themselves globally and attained a presence internationally which was unimaginable just a
decade or two ago. The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, established
in 2002, is one potent symbol of that new status as was the passage by the UN's General
Assembly in 2007 of the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Legal recognition
and protection of these rights, however, differs markedly from country to country.
But these are all very recent developments. Until quite recently, the western model of
progress prevailed. According to this model, anything that provides i nancial wealth is
good for all concerned. It is now recognized that this does not apply universally and it
certainly does not necessarily apply to Indigenous Peoples. Another prevailing view is that
democracy is or should be the basis for political systems and that the countries of the west-
ern world best exemplify democratic values. This ignores the fact that each indigenous