LOCAL INDIGENOUS CULTURES GO GLOBAL

The world’s indigenous peoples often interact with globalization in interesting ways. On the one hand, new global communications systems, institutions of global governance, and international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are providing indigenous peoples with extraordinary networking possibilities. Local indigenous peoples around the world are now linked in global networks that allow them to share strategies, rally international support for local causes, and create a united front to defend cultural survival. On the other hand, globalization brings the world to formerly isolated cultures. Global mass communications introduce new values, and multinational corporations’ search for new markets and new sources of gas, oil, genetic, forest, and other resources can threaten local economies and environments.

Both aspects of indigenous peoples’ interactions with globalization were evident at the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Ministerial Conference in Cancún, Mexico, in 2003. Indigenous peoples’ organizations from around the world gathered for the conference, hosted by the Mayan community in nearby Quintana Roo. Though not officially part of the conference, they came together there to strategize ways to forward their collective cause of cultural survival and self-determination, gain worldwide publicity, and protest the WTO’s vision of globalization (Figure 2.41). One outcome of this meeting was the International Cancún Declaration of Indigenous Peoples (ICDIP), a document highly critical of current trends in globalization.

According to the ICDIP, the situation of indigenous peoples globally “has turned from bad to worse” since the establishment of the WTO. Indigenous rights organizations claim that “our territories and resources, our indigenous knowledge, cultures and identities are grossly violated” by international trade and investment rules. The document urges governments worldwide to make no further agreements under the WTO and to reconsider previous agreements. The control of plant genetic resources is a particularly important concern. Many indigenous peoples argue that generations of their labor and cumulative knowledge have gone into producing the genetic resources that transnational corporations are trying to privatize for their own profit. The ICDIP asks that future international agreements ensure “that we, Indigenous Peoples, retain our rights to have control over our seeds, medicinal plants and indigenous knowledge.”

Globalization is clearly a critical issue for indigenous cultures. Some argue that globalization, because it facilitates the creation of global networks that provide strength in numbers, may ultimately improve indigenous peoples’ efforts to control their own destinies. The future of indigenous cultural survival ultimately will depend on how globalization is structured and for whose benefit.