Invisible
People Ask to be Seen
By Ukpong E. Ukpong
INVISIBLE PEOPLE across the
Commonwealth are asking to be seen and recognized. And
there are around 150 million of them.
The official word for the invisible
is “indigenous”. That refers broadly to
the original people of a land, often with language and
customs of their own, and usually lacking political
power.
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Indigenous people means people like the Aboriginals
in Australia, the Maori in New Zealand, the Adivasis of India,
the Jumma of Bangladesh, the Wanniyala-Aetto of Sri Lanka,
the Basarwa in Botswana.
At least 20 of the 54 Commonwealth countries have a significant
population. The Commonwealth has about a third of the world’s
indigenous population.
Members of indigenous groups “want the communiqué
from the Commonwealth heads of government to include a reference
to indigenous people as peoples,” says Les Malezer from
the Commonwealth Association of Indigenous Peoples based in
Australia.
The association wants the CHOGM communiqué to “acknowledge
that many indigenous peoples in the Commonwealth continue
to be significantly disadvantaged in comparison to other groups
in society, and that special measures should be encouraged
to overcome the continuing effects of colonialism or racism,
with the full participation and consent of the indigenous
peoples concerned.”
Malezer, who is a member of the Gubbi Gubbi people in Queensland
north of Brisbane says this recognition must take their unique
character into account, so that they are not classified only
on economic, gender or other grounds.
“The Commonwealth last mentioned indigenous peoples
in a communiqué in Lusaka (Zambia) in 1979,”
Malezer says. “We are here lobbying different groups
for support for a mention in the communique at the People’s
Forum. We are lobbying for all such groups because these issues
are common across the Commonwealth.”
The group has found no access to governments at CHOGM. “But
we have been lobbying governments for the past six months,”
Malezer says.
That mention in the communiqué matters because people
can then hold the governments to a commitment they make. And
that could start off a new campaign to secure rights for indigenous
people, says Malezer.
“Countries can then be reported on for what they have
done,” Malezer says. “We can keep a report card
on companies.” That explains the reluctance of many
governments to include those demands in any commitment they
make through CHOGM.
Moves to include such references have been blocked by the
developed countries in the Commonwealth. That has kept the
indigenous invisible for purposes of firm action, Malezer
says, “and we don’t want to be invisible any more.”
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