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Mere Representation Is Not Enough
Indigenous Peoples Affirming Their Truth
16. August 2022
Transitional JusticeRadical Critical Post-KolonialismusKonfliktsensibilitätThink Peace Learning and Support Hub
Indigenous rights demonstration | Joe Brusky, flickrIndigenous peoples are among the most discriminated in the world. Transitional justice is supposed to draw a line between the past, a period of armed conflict & dictatorship, and the present. Yet, for indigenous people the line breaking with a violent past is often nowhere to be seen. Is the inclusion of indigenous perspectives in transitional justice enough? How can concepts of non-repetition be incorporated? Which steps can be taken for the future of indigenous rights and Transitional Justice?
A few years ago, while working at the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a colleague told me of her experience interviewing members of the Asháninka nation, an Indigenous people from the Amazon jungle, that had experienced heinous treatment at the hands of the terrorist “Shining Path” organization in the 1980s and 1990s. The witnesses described in detail those atrocities, including forced conscription and servitude.
"That's Not All" - The Long History of the Asháninka Nation
A truly interesting thing happened at the end of the interview, as researchers thought they had finished their work. “That´s not all” the Asháninka said, and proceeded to talk about a previous conflict: the presence of Leftist guerrillas in the 1960s, a time period that was not included in the mandate of the commission but was essential to understand the attitudes of the community toward armed groups. But when that story was told, another followed: before the guerrillas, there was a time of raids by rubber companies to enslave young people in plantations. And even that was not all, as the Asháninka stories of struggle went back to times immemorial, to the time of Spanish colonization and even before.
The truth commission, and transitional justice in general, was supposed to draw a line between the past, a period of armed conflict and dictatorship, and the present. Yet, for the Asháninka, the purported line breaking with a violent past was nowhere to be seen.
War by Other Means
Indigenous Peoples are among the most dispossessed and discriminated in the world. In the presence of armed conflict, they are extremely vulnerable as their territories are considered strategic by the opposing forces, and they are targeted for recruitment, displacement or extermination. However, there is no need of armed conflict for violence to happen, and regular transitional justice policies are not enough to reflect their experience.
Consider Canada’s history of forced assimilation of Indigenous children, taken from their families and interned in “residential schools” where they had to forgo their Indigenous names, their language, and their spirituality. Consider Guatemala, where an armed conflict led to the killing of about 200,000 persons, mostly from Maya communities. After the war ended in 1996 the same territories that were targeted for genocide became the focus of extractive industries and massive energetic projects that displaced and dispossessed the surviving communities. Indeed, for settler states, in their relation with Indigenous peoples, peace is often war by other means.
Transitional justice institutions established in settler states used to be created without an explicit mandate to look into the situation of the Indigenous peoples. The Guatemalan truth commission’s legal mandate did not have an explicit mention of the Maya communities: they were subsumed within a generic mention to “the people of Guatemala”.
Steps Beyond Mere Inclusion
The situation has changed markedly, however. The Peruvian TRC already included an explicit mandate to look into abuses against the “collective rights of Andean and Native communities”. This resulted in sections of the report focusing on the racist roots of violence. Later, the Plan on Integral Reparations in Peru would also recognize the right of communities to receive collective reparations. Colombia’s transitional justice, established as a result of the peace accord between the government and the FARC guerrilla, goes further. A section of the accord deals with the situation of “Ethnic Peoples”, including Indigenous peoples, Afro-descendant communities and Rom.
Further steps are possible, beyond mere inclusion. Indigenous peoples demand transitional justice institutions fully focused on their experience, functioning under their leadership and implementing their conceptions of justice. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples provides a useful guide for such an enterprise.
In Canada, First Nations successfully negotiated a comprehensive scheme of reparations for survivors of the Indian Residential Schools which included not only financial compensation but also a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The example of Canada has led to Indigenous truth commissions in Maine, United States; in Norway, Finland and Sweden, and in Victoria, Australia.
Inclusion of indigenous perspectives in transitional justice may not be enough for Indigenous peoples, focused on fully decolonizing the concept and adapting it to their needs. What could be the future of this emerging trend? It is tempting to imagine transitional justice institutions that recognize the long historical memory of communities as do the new Indigenous truth commissions; tribunals that could understand justice in forms different from retributive paradigms as does the Waitangi Tribunal in New Zealand; concepts of reparation that would recognize the holistic relationship between nature, human bodies and culture, as does the Special Jurisdiction in Colombia.
Most importantly: a concept of non-repetition that dismantles the ongoing structures of internal colonialism. It is fundamental, for the future of both Indigenous Rights and Transitional Justice, to pay attention to this epochal change.