There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territory, and an experience of subjugation and discrimination under a dominant cultural model.
Estimates of the population of Indigenous peoples range from 250 million to 600 million. There are some 5,000 distinct Indigenous peoples spread across every inhabited climate zone and inhabited continent of the world. Most Indigenous peoples are in a minority in the state or traditional territory they inhabit and have experienced domination by other groups, especially non-Indigenous peoples. Although many Indigenous peoples have experienced colonization by settlers from European nations, Indigenous identity is not determined by Western colonization.
The rights of Indigenous peoples are outlined in national legislation, treaties and international law. The 1989 International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples protects Indigenous peoples from discrimination and specifies their rights to development, customary laws, lands, territories and resources, employment, education and health. In 2007, the United Nations (UN) adopted a Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples including their rights to self-determination and to protect their cultures, identities, languages, ceremonies, and access to employment, health, education and natural resources.
Indigenous peoples continue to face threats to their sovereignty, economic well-being, languages, cultural heritage, and access to the resources on which their cultures depend. In the 21st century, Indigenous groups and advocates for Indigenous peoples have highlighted numerous apparent violations of the rights of Indigenous peoples.
Painting of Bimbache of El Hierro by Leonardo Torriani, 1592The San are the oldest inhabitants of Southern Africa
Indigenous communities, peoples, and nations are those which have a historical continuity with pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories, and may consider themselves distinct from other sectors of the societies now prevailing on those territories, or parts of them. They form at present non-dominant sectors of society and are determined to preserve, develop and transmit to future generations their ancestral territories, and their ethnic identity, as the basis of their continued existence as peoples, in accordance with their own cultural patterns, social institutions and legal system.
This historical continuity may consist of the continuation, for an extended period reaching into the present of one or more of the following factors:
Occupation of ancestral lands, or at least of part of them
Common ancestry with the original occupants of these lands
Culture in general, or in specific manifestations (such as religion, living under a tribal system, membership in an Indigenous community, dress, means of livelihood, lifestyle, etc.)
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)
Residence in certain parts of the country, or in certain regions of the world
Other relevant factors.
On an individual basis, an Indigenous person is one who belongs to these Indigenous populations through self-identification as Indigenous (group consciousness) and is recognized and accepted by these populations as one of its members (acceptance by the group). This preserves for these communities the sovereign right and power to decide who belongs to them, without external interference.
Hadza people, who are indigenous to the African Great LakesA Maasai traditional danceBaka pygmy dancers in the East Province of CameroonBatwaPygmy with traditional bow and arrowSomali women in traditional headressesTigrayan women in traditional attireWolayta chiefBerta people playing trumpets during a wedding ceremonyNilotic men in Kapoeta, South Sudan19th century Zulu man wearing a warrior's garbSotho women wearing the traditional Seana Marena blanketMakua mother and childDamara man wearing the ǃgūb, a traditional attire
Jews: along with Samaritans, descend from the Israelites of the southern Levant, who are believed by archaeologists and historians to have branched out of the Canaanite peoples and culture through the development of a distinct monolatrous—and later monotheistic—religion centered on El/Yahweh,one of the Ancient Canaanite deities. A Jewish diaspora existed for several centuries before the fall of the Second Temple, and their dwelling in other countries for the most part was not a result of compulsory dislocation Following the RomanSiege of Jerusalem, destruction of Herod's Temple, and failed Jewish revolts, some Jews were either expelled, taken as slaves to Rome, or massacred, while other Jews continued to live in the region over the centuries, despite the conversion of many Jews to Christianity and Islam as well as persecution by the various conquerors of the region, including the Romans, Arabs, Ottomans, and the British. Additionally, a substantial number of diaspora Jews immigrated to Palestine during the 19th and 20th centuries (mainly under the Zionist movement), as well as after the modern State of Israel was established in 1948. This was coupled with the revival of Hebrew, the only Canaanite language still spoken today. Genetic studies of Jews show that many major diaspora Jewish communities derive a substantial portion of their ancestry from ancient Israelites.
Due to changes in the demographic history of Palestine, there are competing claims that Jews and Palestinian Arabs are indigenous. The argument entered the Israeli–Palestinian conflict in the 1990s, with Jews claiming indigeneity based on historic ties to the regionPalestinians claim Indigenous status as a pre-existing population displaced by Jewish settlement, and currently constituting a minority in the State of Israel. In 2007, the Negev Bedouin were officially "recognized as an indigenous people of Israel" by the United Nations.[95] This has been criticized both by scholars associated with the Israeli state, who dispute the Bedouin's claim to indigeneity, and those who argue that recognising just one group of Palestinians as Indigenous risks undermining others' claims and "fetishising" nomadic cultures.
Ossetians (Iræттæ): Ossetia (Iryston), North Ossetia (Cægat Iryston), a Republic of Russia, and South Ossetia (Khussar Iryston), a De Jure autonomous region of Georgia (Sakartvelo), self-proclaimed sovereign country, North and South slopes of Central Caucasus Mountains.
Kalash in traditional dress, PakistanKodava men in traditional attire, IndiaAn Indigenous Assamese woman of AssamVeddha Chief Uruwarige Wannila Aththo, leader of the Indigenous people of Sri Lanka
Zomi (Zo Pau): One of the Indigenous peoples in Southeast Asia. The word Zomi is the collective name given to many tribes who traced their descent from a common ancestor. Through history they have been known under various appellation, such as Chin, Kuki and Mizo, but the expression was disliked by them, and they insist that the term was a misnomer given by others and by which they have been recorded in certain documents designate their ancient origins as a separate ethnicity.
Some sources describe the Sámi as the only recognized indigenous peoples in Europe, Other groups, particularly in Central, Western and Southern Europe, that might be considered to fit the description of indigenous peoples in the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989, such as the Sorbs, are generally categorized as national minorities instead.
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