Who are the Indigenous People today?

Picture: Thousands of people in Gaza protest their right towards attaining passports. The predicament of self-identity and it's co-relation with citizenship and attaining a passport continues ... (See: Passport for all in Gaza? http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/06/2011615112156348594.html )

Today on Twitter, people were flipping their profile pictures upside down to support those without citizenship. We live in a world today more intrinsic and complex than ever before. Our borders are tighter as border-security focuses on keeping those (without citizenship / or unwanted refugees, stateless, "other" persons) out of their lands. It was less than a century ago that borders, countries and citizenship to a bounded land was in existence. More than ever, those whom were lost in the idenity/citizenship scuffle were the indigenous peoples, comprising over 350 million individuals and 5000 ehno-linguistic groups in the world today.

Who exactly are indigenous peoples?

According to Jose A. Martinez Cobo, the Special Rapporteur appointed in 1971 by UNHCR to conduct a study of indigenous peoples, recognized their "land-rootedness" as the primary marker of indigenous identity:

Indigenous communities, peoples and nations are those which, having a historical continuity with pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories, consider themselves distinct from other sectors of the societies now prevailing in 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 systems.

Essentially, their fundamental survival as a community and as a distinctive people is inextricably tied to their right to occupy their traditional and original communities.

Furthermore, according to the UN on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities ...

Article 3:  Indigenous peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development. 

 But as noted by Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities and as discussed in, "Indigenous Peoples' Rights to Self-Determination and Territoriality" by Maivan Clech Lam:

A complex issue concerns the relationship between culture and citizenship. Since the French Revolution, modern states have tried to solidify their hold over citizens by merging the two affiliations -- one thick (culture), the other thin (citizenship). The attempt is misdirected in general, and especially unsuccessful in the case of indigenous peoples.

Millions of people today are those that have been uprooted, forcefully displaced and even ethnically cleansed. Our recognition and the awareness of such a problematic sheds light unto those that deserve their ultimate human right and human dignity through simple recognition. It may be insufficient to simply "flip" our photos on Twitter ... but when international law can't bring it back ... a collective movement and will to stand with a just act will bring through an effect ...

As a twitter follower noted:

@ThurayaDajaniСУРЭЯ

@noora888 that puzzles me, y do foreigners get to hv citizenships in our countries and some of us don't. that's so #unfair

....

She's right ... it's not fair..

Stand in solidarity and flip your picture. 

Refugees Awaiting Return .. Remembering Al-Nakba and Al-Naksa ..

UN Resolution 194:  "Refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and those wishing not to return should be compensated for their property."

In the winter of 2008, I conducted field research in the UNRWA-run Palestinian refugee camps in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan where I interviewed both 1948 and 1967 refugees. In the wake of the 64th remembrance of Al-Nakba and the 44th remembrance of Al-Naksa, I recalled an interview I had with a first-generation 1948 refugee from Lid, Palestine.  The emotional reflections of the many stories that were shared with my by refugees moved me beyond words and description. I would like to apologize, for not being able to convey the greater meaning of what Palestine and right-of-return really means for millions of Palestinians.

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Living in the Diaspora as a Palestinian, home was always found in romantic meanings of a nation, far away from anything I grew up knowing. While, foreignness left me forging my own identity, those Palestinians, who live in the refugee camps are surrounded with a different meaning of belonging, of history, and of what it means to want to return home. For millions of Palestinians living in the refugee camps, the very symbolism of the camp was the reality of their obvious difference; their predicament; their inevitable problematic: politically, socially, psychologically and even physically through the spaces that surrounded and limited their very mobility. I talk about this more in my thesis: Intergenerational Differences of Identity... 

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However, while so many stories resonate empty sheets with emotions and warm hearted realities of he-stories and her-stories, I'd like to share Ahmed's story with you ....

Ahmed Mohammed Qatawi:  78 year old 1948 first-generation refugee.  Ahmed talked about his exiled journey from the village of Lid, when he was 17 years old. After sleeping under olive-trees, and eventually reaching Ramallah, where he lived scattered for months, he ended up in Zarka, in Jordan in 1949. Ahmed spoke of the refugee camp development, as he emotionally motioned to how he built every part of his tiny home in the camp; from what was a mere tent, to zinco-based housings, until 1981 when they were finally able to construct their homes out of concrete/ bricks. He spoke to me of his family, his children, his brothers and sisters ... and that even after years of looking back, he tells me of how proud he is to what the Palestinians made out of themselves, despite their circumstances. I asked Ahmed if he would go back if he had the chance and why he continues to live in the refugee camp, despite the fact that it doesn't provide him with any services and the fact that it doesn't benefit him anymore. He replied, "So long as the Israelis occupy our land, we'll never be able to return. There is nothing for us to do, but wait, we've waited for over 63 years, and no matter how much they pay me to give up my right to return, I would never do it. These camps are a reminder, every single day, both to us and the international community that we are still here, waiting to return, we're not going anywhere." Ahmed felt that the camps, were the very perpetual representation of the Palestinians International right to return to their homes and return to their lands. More than ever, Ahmed wasn't gullible to the political dynamics that play a large role to his current protracted situation, if anything, he was persistently aware of his place and role in the camp.

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Today, as we witness thousands of Palestinians refugees marching towards the borders of Palestine, from Syria to Lebanon to Jordan, and those inside the West Bank and Gaza, I think about Ahmed, and his desire to return to a home, no longer occupied, but free again. Ahmed is only another refugee amidst so many others, with stories that carry more than these pages could ever hold.