From the Karen hill tribes in Thailand to the Maasai in Kenya and Tanzania, there are over 5,000 Indigenous groups all over the world, entirely distinct from one another and comprising 6.2% of the global population. Often marginalized from broader society, they face challenges around land rights and access to legal paperwork that would grant them an education or health care while climate change is ravaging the land their lives are so deeply connected with, jeopardizing their resources and homes.
This means that Indigenous groups are often a target demographic of development assistance, but given the historical subjugation of and disregard for Indigenous peoples, the way in which the development community interacts with them must be nuanced, said experts.
“What we need from NGOs, philanthropic and donor actors is for everybody to remember and recognize all the historical depths of the colonial world because we live in a neocolonial world and, with Indigenous people, all these historical depths still are alive,” said Angela Martínez, director of the Amazon Defenders Fund. She added that today, as in decades prior, people still seek to exploit the bodies, knowledge, and territories of Indigenous peoples.