INDI

• Indigenous Peoples' Rights Act of 1997 (RA 8371)


  An act to recognize, protect and promote the rights of indigenous cultural communities/indigenous peoples, creating a national commission on indigenous peoples, establishing implementing mechanisms, appropriating funds therefor, and for other purposes
• Signed and enacted into law by then former President Fidel V. Ramos


  October 29, 1997
• 4 Bundles of Rights under IPRA


  • Right to Ancestral Domains (Chapter III)
  • Right to Self-Governance and Empowerment (Chapter IV)
  • Social Justice and Human Rights (Chapter V)
  • Cultural Integrity (Chapter VI)
• "Land Grab". Federico Boyd Sulapas Dominguez
• Is it honoring Whang-od's image?


  Or exploiting her legacy?
• In its costume-driven appearance, the gown stands out for its cultural significance but using cultural symbols for strategic advantage (i.e. pageant) is moving away from GENUINE CULTURAL REPRESENTATION
• Ancestral Domains


  Lands, Territories and Resources
• Self-determination


  Self-governance and Empowerment
• Right to Ancestral Domains


  • Ancestral Domains include such concepts of territories which cover not only the physical environment but the total environment including the spiritual and cultural bonds to the areas which the ICCs/IPs possess, occupy and use and to which they have claims of ownership
  • Ancestral Domains covers: ancestral lands, forests, pasture, residential, agricultural, and other lands individually owned whether alienable and disposable or otherwise, hunting grounds, burial grounds, worship areas, bodies of water, mineral and other natural resources, and lands which may no longer be exclusively occupied by ICCs/IPs but from which they traditionally had access to for their subsistence and traditional activities, particularly the home ranges of ICCs/IPs who are still nomadic and/or shifting cultivators
• Ancestral Lands


  Land occupied, possessed and utilized by individuals, families and clans who are members of the ICCs/IPs since time immemorial, by themselves or through their predecessors-in-interest, under claims of individual or traditional group ownership, continuously, to the present except when interrupted by war, force majeure or displacement by force, deceit, stealth, or as a consequence of government projects and other voluntary dealings entered into by government and private individuals/corporations, including, but not limited to, residential lots, rice terraces or paddies, private forests, swidden farms and tree lots
• Rights under Ancestral Domains

  • Right of Ownership
  • Right to develop lands and natural resources
  • Right to stay in the territories
  • Right in case of displacement
  • Right to regulate entry of migrants
  • Right to safe clean air and water
  • Right to claim parts of reservations
  • Right to resolve conflicts
  • Right to ancestral lands
  • Right to transfer land/property
  • Right to redemption
• Rights ---à Responsibilities
• Self-Determination: Self-Governance and Empowerment


  • Rights to Self-governance and self-determination—FPIC (Free, Prior Informed Consent)
  • Support for autonomous regions
  • Right to use own commonly accepted justice systems, peacebuilding processes, conflict resolution institutions
  • Right to participate in decision-making (i.e. mandatory representation in local legislative councils)
  • Right to determine and decide priorities for development
  • Right to constitute tribal barangays in accordance with Local Government Councils
  • Recognition of the role of people's organizations
• Social Justice and Human Rights

  • Right to equal protection and non-discrimination
  • Rights during armed conflict
  • Freedom from discrimination and right to equal protection
  • Right to employment
  • Right to basic social services
  • Right of indigenous women
  • Rights of Indigenous children and youth
• Cultural Integrity


  • Right to preserve and protect their culture, traditions and institutions
  • Equal access to various cultural opportunities
  • Recognition of cultural diversity
  • Right to the restitution of cultural, intellectual, religious and spiritual property taken without their FPIC or in violation of their laws, traditions and customs
  • Right to religious, cultural sites and ceremonies
  • Right to IKSP and to develop own science and technologies
  • Access to biological and genetic resource with NCIP
  • Right to a sustainable agro-technological development
  • Right to receive funds earmarked or allocated for management and preservation of historical sites and artifacts
• National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP)

  • Primary government agency to carry out policies set forth in RA 8371
  • Responsible for the formulation and implementation of policies, plans and programs to promote and protect the rights and well-being of ICCs and the recognition of their ancestral domains as well as their rights
  • Exercises ADMINISTRATIVE, QUASI_LEGISLATIVE and QUASI-JUDICIAL functions/powers
  • Decisions of NCIP are appealable at the Court of Appeals
• Terms for Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Practices (IKSP)


  • traditional ecological knowledge (TEK)
  • indigenous knowledge (IK)
  • local knowledge
  • rural peoples'/farmers' knowledge
  • ethnobiology/ethnobotany/ethnozoology
  • ethnoscience
  • folk science
  • indigenous science
• The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) uses the term "indigenous and local knowledge"
• There is no single term or definition to the knowledge of Indigenous Peoples/Indigenous Cultural Communities (IPs/ICCs)
• Traditional knowledge (as used by the United Nations Convention of Biological Diversity)


  The knowledge, innovations and practices of local and indigenous communities around the world, transmitted orally from generation to generation and collectively owned, taking the form of stories, songs, folklore, proverbs, cultural values, beliefs, rituals, community laws, local language, and agricultural practices, including the development of plant species and animal breeds
• Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Practices (IKSP) are systems, institutions, mechanisms, and technologies comprising a unique body of knowledge evolved through time that embody patterns of relationships between and among peoples and between peoples, their lands and resource environment, including such spheres of relationships which may include social, political, cultural, economic, religious spheres, and which are the direct outcome of the indigenous peoples, responses to certain needs consisting of adaptive mechanisms which have allowed indigenous peoples to survive and thrive within their given socio-cultural and biophysical conditions
• Indigenous Knowledge


  Skills, beliefs, knowledge, and philosophies developed by societies with long histories of interaction with their natural environments
• Worldview


  A set of beliefs and values that are honored and withheld by people, including how the person or group interacts with the world around them, including land, animals, and people
• Seven principles of Indigenous worldviews

  • Knowledge is holistic, cyclic, and dependent upon relationships and connections of living and non-living beings
  • There are many truths, and these truths are dependent on an individual's lived experiences
  • Everything has life
  • All things are equal
  • The land is sacred
  • The relationship between people and the spiritual world is important
  • Human beings are least important in the world
• Among Indigenous Peoples, respect, reciprocity, and responsibility with nature and spirituality is a common thread
• Indigenous Knowledge is also by nature environmental knowledge, tied to the environment which developed out of survival in and connection to a given place for countless generations