What Does It Mean to Be “Indigenous”?
The Political Scene | The New Yorker
The New Yorker
4.3 • 3.9K Ratings
🗓️ 23 February 2023
⏱️ 30 minutes
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Summary
In the past fifty years, a movement has formed to unite native and aboriginal peoples around the world under one umbrella term: Indigenous. But “indigeneity” is a slippery concept. Some groups qualify because they were the first people in their nation; some qualify even though they weren’t. Some have lost sovereignty over their land; some have regained it. As tribes face a variety of political crises, does this diverse global coalition create solidarity, or does it flatten complex problems? Manvir Singh, a writer and anthropology research fellow, raises these questions in an essay in this week’s New Yorker, “It’s Time to Rethink the Idea of the ‘Indigenous.’ ” He joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss the trade-offs of embracing a complex identity label.
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| 1:11.7 | You're listening to the political scene. I'm Tyler Foggett, a senior editor at The New Yorker. |
| 1:17.3 | Identity has gone from being something personal to something that carries enormous political power. |
| 1:22.2 | But even as people organize themselves around certain labels, like people of color, the definitions |
| 1:26.9 | change, constantly shrinking |
| 1:28.5 | and expanding. In this week's issue of The New Yorker, Munver Singh writes about the shift to lump tribal |
| 1:33.9 | groups across the world under the term indigenous. Does this allow them to join forces, or does it |
| 1:39.4 | put them in a box? Singh is a writer and a research fellow in anthropology. |
| 1:45.1 | Hi, Munvir. |
| 1:46.2 | Thanks so much for coming on. |
| 1:48.0 | Yeah, thank you for having me, Tyler. |
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