You Can Sit with Us, but under Our Terms

The Recognition of Indigenous Self-Determination by Nation-States throughout the Abya Yala

Bibliographic Data

ID4500939
AuthorsFernando David Márquez Duarte (0000-0001-5653-5002, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume51
Issue4
Pages43-61
Publication date2024-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLatin American Perspectives (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0094-582X • E-ISSN: 1552-678X
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0094582x241294082
OpenAlexW4404283263
LanguageEN
References cited19

In this paper I discuss Indigenous self-determination in our continent (the Abya Yala and Turtle Island) and how most nation-states address this issue from a standpoint of "you can sit with us, but under our terms." This position preaches the inclusion of Indigenous peoples in society, but only under the western liberal standard of assimilation, characteristic of neoliberal and neocolonial capitalism. I argue that Indigenous self-determination, based in Indigenous, decolonial and Marxist thought, includes two elements: the right to effectively exercise autonomy in their communities, and the right to participate in decision-making in the nation-state. I then demonstrate that less than a third of the countries in the continent formally recognize Indigenous self-determination in their Constitutions, and that most nation-states with formal recognition only include one of the two elements of Indigenous self-determination, with almost no existing mechanisms in place allowing Indigenous groups to effectively exercise it

Indigenous · Political science · Sociology · Gender Studies · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights · Peacebuilding and International Security · Political Conflict and Governance · Psychology

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