This study examines the concept of coloniality in relation to states' approach to indigenous people's rights, through the perspective of decoloniality. The two countries being compared are Bolivia and Sweden, two countries that differ in many ways. Indigenous peoples are living in the present time and have struggled since modern/Western interference in claiming their position and rights in the part of a reality of existing together. The states’ positioning towards indigenous peoples' rights is evidently contradicting depending on the context. Although international indigenous rights regimes are encouraging as well as setting new standards and norms, the challenges to fully implement them on a national level continue to exist.  Through a semi-systematic literature review, this study aims to analyze and compare how the two states (Bolivia and Sweden) position themselves towards indigenous rights. The theoretical framework for this study is based on decolonial reasoning and indigenous rights regimes, to determine what processes of coloniality are present. In Bolivia and Sweden, the context of indigenous challenges is markedly different, but this study strives to point to some similarities as also incongruencies and gaps when it comes to the state´s approach towards indigenous rights in the two countries.

Indigenous communities historically live outside of the state. Colonialism, feudalism, and globalization have pushed them to society's fringe. In many nations, indigenous communities feel they are isolated from mainland society. This study examines the exclusion process of the Garo indigenous community of Bangladesh. Garo indigenous Community lives in Madhupur Sal forest, and they often express they are socially excluded. Based on specific characteristics of social exclusion, this study examines the social exclusion process of the Garo indigenous community in Bangladesh. It finds that Garo communities are socially excluded in terms of economic, cultural, social rights, and social involvement. The empirical data shows that they feel isolated because of their religion, cultural practice, and stereotypical thinking of the mainland community.

Indigenous environmental justice and rights to land are often compromised in favour of state and corporate land control. Narratives that oppose indigenous peoples to development and conservation, and portray communities as either “backwards” or “environmentally destructive”, have been used since the colonial period to justify dispossession of indigenous lands and displacements of indigenous peoples. In parallel, an indigenous justice movementhas been growing, that has absorbed a “counter-narrative” that depicts indigenous peoples as environmental stewards, and stresses the importance of indigenous rights to land as part ofeffective climate change mitigation. This thesis investigates how narratives in the scientific literature and practice frame indigenous peoples’ rights to land in Southeast Asia. A review of 60 scientific articles was conducted and complemented with a small sample of in-depthinterviews with practitioners working with development, conservation and indigenous rights in Southeast Asia. Through the creation of a novel framework that combines environmental justice and stewardship, this study uncovers how modern narratives continue to perpetuate entrenched colonial and business-as-usual pathways. / FairFrontiers Research Project at the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Kyoto

Following cultural anthropological inquiry, this dissertation examines the adoption of shamanic healing techniques into Western medicine and the resultant hybrid modality of health care fostered by two disparate healing traditions. As the U.S. populace increasingly turns to alternative forms of healing in conjunction with, or in lieu of, conventional Western medicine, shamanic healing has been added to the list of recognized non-conventional therapies. Shamanism, once prevalent throughout most of the world in various cultural forms, is purported to be the oldest healing modality, dating back to the Upper Paleolithic in Siberia. Historical excoriation and extermination from religious and political dogma have plagued shamanic cultures for centuries while their healing practices have been rebuked by Western concepts emergent from the Scientific Revolution--whereupon the Cartesian Split and a corporeal view of the body transformed the field of medicine. In the United States, over the last decade, a new and growing subculture of health care practitioners, including "Western" educated medical practitioners, is seeking out shamanic training for personal and professional development. This study examines how the adoption of a healing paradigm borne out of indigenous cultures oriented toward communal living and local economies is adapted to a Western culture steeped in individualism, commercialization, and commodification. Through surveys, interviews, and ethnographic research, the investigator provides numerous examples and analysis of the practice of shamanic healing techniques in medical clinics, health care centers, and hospitals. In particular, this study will focus on the shamanic training of health care practitioners, their motivations, the manner in which they incorporate shamanic healing techniques into their treatment protocols, as well as patient/colleague/administrative responses and institutional barriers. A comparative analysis provides discussion on both the metamorphosis of shamanic healing traditions appropriated within a biomedical framework as well as the influence of spiritually-based healing practices upon the established medical culture in the United States today. Through the lens of highlighted individual experiences, the investigator offers insight into an emerging hybrid healing modality embedded in cultural contrasts that also serves as a catalyst for the renegotiation of the meaning of healing.

Mundialmente multiplicam-se os contextos institucionais em que representantes indígenas são instados a produzirem discursos sobre suas próprias culturas. No Brasil, em particular, emergem, de forma sui generis, os contextos formais de escolarização indígena que se estruturaram ao longo dos anos 90, e se tornaram locus produtivos de enunciados culturais. Essa tese analisa como se deu a constituição da proposta de educação diferenciada como um direito dos grupos indígenas no Brasil. Investiga como se constituiu uma política pública de educação escolar indígena e os percalços pelos quais ela vem passando na medida em que a instituição escolar dissemina-se pelas terras indígenas, Brasil afora. Tomando a formação de professores indígenas como central para a viabilização da propagada educação diferenciada, problematiza os discursos indígenas sobre cultura proferidos a partir da escola indígena. / All over the world, institutional venues giving voice to indigenous representatives have multiplied, compelling them to produce speeches on their own culture. Throughout the 90s, a distinct formal indigenous educational system has emerged, particularly in Brazil, and it serves as a productive locus to enunciate cultural statements. This thesis analyzes the proposal of distinguished education as a right of the indigenous peoples in Brazil. It investigates how a public policy specific for indigenous school education has been structured and the mishaps coming from the spread of the school institution throughout the indigenous lands in Brazil. Taking into account the coaching of indigenous teachers as central for the fulfilment of the disseminated distinguished education, it puts in question the indigenous statements on culture voiced from the indigenous school.

Roraima é um caso emblemático, assim como a Amazônia, como ilustrações das profundas mudanças das ações implementadas pelo Estado nacional brasileiro nos últimos 50 anos, com destaque para as últimas duas décadas e meia, em razão, principalmente, do aprofundamento da globalização, das ideologias e mecanismos dos regimes internacionais de meio ambiente e de direitos humanos dos povos indígenas. Derradeira fronteira econômica do Norte brasileiro, o território roraimense está institucionalmente protegido contra a sua utilização para a produção agropecuária em bases capitalistas (propriedade privada, liberdade de utilização do fator terra, orientação para o mercado). A superfície sob proteção atinge mais de 93% do território roraimense, restando em torno de 7% utilizáveis como capital natural para o desenvolvimento de atividades econômicas. Na Amazônia Legal, as áreas protegidas representam quase três quartos (3/4) da sua superfície. A construção desse território é resultado direto da decisão do Estado nacional brasileiro de assumir o papel de protagonista nas relações internacionais, explicado pela ótica da ideologia, fruto das relações Centro-Periferia. O objetivo dos países do Centro do sistema de relações internacionais é a manutenção da Estabilidade Hegemônica, tendo como instituições os regimes internacionais de meio ambiente e de direitos humanos; e como estruturas organizacionais as organizações internacionais e as organizações não governamentais. Esse objetivo se projeta sobre países detentores de capital natural ainda inexplorado, especialmente de florestas tropicais, e seu rebatimento sobre o território desses países se configura na criação de espaços protegidos. E a Amazônia é o coração – organismo vital – o lócus principal dessa Nova Ordem Internacional. Tais espaços transformam os territórios construídos em verdadeiros depósitos de capital natural, expressos em matérias-primas já conhecidas e a biodiversidade ainda em processo de descobrimento para sua possível utilização futura, sob a ótica e o interesse dos países do Centro, num cenário mundial de preocupação com os efeitos das mudanças climáticas e a escassez face o crescimento populacional planetário. Embora os territórios protegidos pareçam contrariar a lógica da expansão do capital na esfera produtiva, sua reprodução segue garantida pela ação do capital financeiro internacional, por meio da financeirização dos chamados serviços ambientais. Esses objetivos são perseguidos tendo como pano de fundo, para encobri-los, a permanente ameaça de um futuro sombrio para a humanidade devido ao aquecimento do planeta motivado pela forma com que os humanos lançam gases tóxicos na atmosfera. Embora o tema seja controverso, pois, afinal, outros cientistas atribuem o aquecimento global a fenômenos geológicos e/ou ao funcionamento do próprio sistema solar, e não às ações antrópicas, o certo é que restou dominante no conserto das relações internacionais entre os países a ideia de que é preciso fazer algo para mitigar os efeitos da intervenção humana no meio natural. Essas ideias processam interesses que geram políticas ambientais e indigenistas, cuja práxis é a criação de áreas protegidas na Amazônia Legal, que transformaram Roraima numa espécie de laboratório a céu aberto de experiências dos regimes internacionais de meio ambiente e direitos humanos dos povos indígenas, que têm por referência conceitual a ideia de desenvolvimento sustentável. / Roraima is an emblematic case, as the Amazon, as illustrations of the profound changes the actions implemented by the Brazilian national state in the last 50 years, especially the last two and a half decades, mainly due to the deepening of globalization ideologies and mechanisms international regimes environmental and human rights of indigenous peoples. Last economic frontier of northern Brazil, Roraima territory is institutionally protected its use for agricultural production on a capitalist basis (private property, free use of the land factor, market orientation). The surface under protection reaches over 93% of Roraima territory, leaving around 7% usable as natural capital for the development of economic activities. In the Amazon, protected areas account for almost half of its surface. The construction of this territory is a direct result of the decision of the Brazilian national state to assume the role of protagonist in international relations, explained from the perspective of ideology, the result of center-periphery relations. The purpose of the system of international relations of the Centre's countries is the maintenance of Hegemonic Stability, with the institutions the international regimes of the environment and human rights; and as organizational structures the international organizations and NGOs. This goal is projected on countries with untapped natural capital, especially tropical forests, and its bounce on the territory of these countries are set by the creation protected areas. And Amazon is the heart - vital body - the main locus of this New World Order. Such spaces transform the built territories into true deposits of natural capital, expressed in already known raw materials and biodiversity still in discovery process for possible future use, from the perspective and interests of the Centre's countries in a global scenario of concern with the effects of climate change and the scarcity face the planetary population growth. Although protected areas appear to contradict the logic of capital expansion in the productive sphere, reproduction follows guaranteed by the action of international financial capital through the financialization of so-called environmental services. These goals are pursued with a background that covers them the permanent threat of a bleak future for humanity due to the heating of the planet motivated by the way that human release toxic gases into the atmosphere. Although the issue is controversial because, after all, other scientists attribute global warming to geological phenomena and / or the operation of the solar system itself, and not to human actions, the correct fact is that remain dominant in the concert of international relations between countries the idea that something must be done to mitigate the effects of human intervention in the natural surroundings. These ideas process interests that generate environmental and indigenous policies, whose practice is the creation of protected areas in the Legal Amazon that have transformed Roraima in a species of laboratory under open sky to international regimes of the environment and human rights of indigenous peoples experiences, whose conceptual reference the idea of sustainable development.

Utilising a critical theoretical perspective, this work examines contemporary corporatised tourism and capitalist globalisation. This analysis suggests that marketisation limits the understanding of the purposes of tourism to its commercial and “industrial” features, thereby marginalising wider understandings of the social importance of tourism. Sklair’s conceptualisation of capitalist globalisation and its dynamics, as expressed in his “sociology of the global system” (2002), is employed to understand the corporatised tourism phenomenon. This thesis explains how a corporatised tourism sector has been created by transnational tourism and travel corporations, professionals in the travel and tourism sector, transnational practices such as the liberalisation being imposed through the General Agreement on Trade in Services negotiations and the culture-ideology of consumerism that tourists have adopted. This thesis argues that this reaps profits for industry and exclusive holidays for privileged tourists, but generates social and ecological costs which inspire vigorous challenge and resistance. This challenge is most clearly evident in the alternative tourism movement which seeks to provide the equity and environmental sustainability undermined by the dynamics of corporatised tourism. Alternative tourism niches with a capacity to foster an “eco-humanism” are examined by focusing on ecotourism, sustainable tourism, pro-poor tourism, fair trade in tourism, community-based tourism, peace through tourism, volunteer tourism and justice tourism. While each of these demonstrates certain transformative capacities, some prove to be mild reformist efforts and others promise more significant transformative capacity. In particular, the niches of volunteer tourism and justice tourism demonstrate capacities to mount a vigorous challenge to both corporatised tourism and capitalist globalisation. Since the formation of the Global Tourism Interventions Forum (GTIF) at the World Social Forum gathering in Mumbai in 2004, justice tourism has an agenda focused on overturning corporatised tourism and capitalist globalisation, and inaugurating a new alternative globalisation which is both “pro-people” and sustainable. Following the development of these original, macro-level conceptualisations of tourism and globalisation, this thesis presents a micro-level case study of an Indigenous Australian tourism enterprise which illustrates some of these dynamics in a local context. Camp Coorong Race Relations and Cultural Education Centre established and run by the Ngarrindjeri Aboriginal community of South Australia has utilised tourism to foster greater equity and sustainability by working towards reconciliation through tourism. The Ngarrindjeri have also experienced conflicts generated from the pressures of inappropriate tourism development which has necessitated an additional strategy of asserting their Indigenous rights in order to secure Ngarrindjeri lifeways. The case study analysis suggests that for alternative tourism to create the transformations that contemporary circumstances require, significant political change may be necessary. This includes fulfilment of economic, social and cultural rights to which a majority of nations have committed but have to date failed to implement. While this is a challenge for nation-states and is beyond the capacities of tourism alone, tourism nonetheless can be geared toward greater equity and sustainability if the perspective that corporatised tourism is the only option is resisted. This thesis demonstrates that another tourism is possible; one that is geared to public welfare, human fulfilment, solidarity and ecological living.

The existing rights paradigm in Aboriginal law accepts Crown sovereignty claims grounded in ethnocentric conceptions of terra nullius and discovery, and views Aboriginal rights as arising out of prior occupation. The Supreme Court of Canada has shaken this paradigm by characterizing Crown sovereignty as merely de facto until reconciled with Aboriginal sovereignty and legitimated by a treaty, by developing the duty to consult, and by characterizing reconciliation as a process that is part of a generative constitutional order. The moves the Court toward a new paradigm rooted in the principle of the equality of peoples in which treaties provide a framework for sharing sovereignty. As part of the Canadian federation, Aboriginal sovereignty can strengthen Canadas territorial integrity and contribute to Canadas economic development.<p> In the past, courts allowed the act of state doctrine to shield Crown assertions of sovereignty from scrutiny. This doctrine protects Canadas territorial integrity, but does not shield the Crowns actions from legal and constitutional scrutiny. The fundamental constitutional principle of rule of law and the de facto doctrine will protect interests that relied on assumptions of Crown sovereignty that lacked constitutional legitimacy.<p> The transformation in the fundamental principles of Aboriginal law has parallels to Thomas Kuhns description of a paradigm shift in the natural sciences. The rights paradigm is in a crisis with moral and practical dimensions. It is incommensurable with the equality paradigm, and therefore the choice of paradigms will depend on normative criteria. Fundamental principles of the Canadian constitution, international standards of human rights and the perspectives of growing numbers of practitioners in the field that are of Aboriginal ancestry are all forces that will complete the shift to the equality paradigm.<p> An equality paradigm will result in the abandonment of some Aboriginal law doctrines, and the modification of others. Aboriginal title is inconsistent with an equality paradigm because it assumes the legitimacy of the Crowns claims to sovereignty, gives the Crown a superior title, and limits Aboriginal nations to a burden of only limited and subordinate rights. The fiduciary relationship rooted in the honour of the Crown will grow into a non-hierarchical relationship with reciprocal obligations.<p> Decisions of courts can play a supporting role, but only negotiations and treaties can build a genuine partnership, effective and equitable sharing of sovereignty and ultimately reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples in Canada.

The existing rights paradigm in Aboriginal law accepts Crown sovereignty claims grounded in ethnocentric conceptions of terra nullius and discovery, and views Aboriginal rights as arising out of prior occupation. The Supreme Court of Canada has shaken this paradigm by characterizing Crown sovereignty as merely de facto until reconciled with Aboriginal sovereignty and legitimated by a treaty, by developing the duty to consult, and by characterizing reconciliation as a process that is part of a generative constitutional order. The moves the Court toward a new paradigm rooted in the principle of the equality of peoples in which treaties provide a framework for sharing sovereignty. As part of the Canadian federation, Aboriginal sovereignty can strengthen Canadas territorial integrity and contribute to Canadas economic development.<p> In the past, courts allowed the act of state doctrine to shield Crown assertions of sovereignty from scrutiny. This doctrine protects Canadas territorial integrity, but does not shield the Crowns actions from legal and constitutional scrutiny. The fundamental constitutional principle of rule of law and the de facto doctrine will protect interests that relied on assumptions of Crown sovereignty that lacked constitutional legitimacy.<p> The transformation in the fundamental principles of Aboriginal law has parallels to Thomas Kuhns description of a paradigm shift in the natural sciences. The rights paradigm is in a crisis with moral and practical dimensions. It is incommensurable with the equality paradigm, and therefore the choice of paradigms will depend on normative criteria. Fundamental principles of the Canadian constitution, international standards of human rights and the perspectives of growing numbers of practitioners in the field that are of Aboriginal ancestry are all forces that will complete the shift to the equality paradigm.<p> An equality paradigm will result in the abandonment of some Aboriginal law doctrines, and the modification of others. Aboriginal title is inconsistent with an equality paradigm because it assumes the legitimacy of the Crowns claims to sovereignty, gives the Crown a superior title, and limits Aboriginal nations to a burden of only limited and subordinate rights. The fiduciary relationship rooted in the honour of the Crown will grow into a non-hierarchical relationship with reciprocal obligations.<p> Decisions of courts can play a supporting role, but only negotiations and treaties can build a genuine partnership, effective and equitable sharing of sovereignty and ultimately reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples in Canada.

Indigenous rights are among the most rapidly progressing domains in international law. The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted more than a decade ago, and now the task consists of implementing the rights within the state structure. While the concept of self- determination constitutes the very core of indigenous rights, it also represents the most difficult challenge to establish within the existing system of sovereign states. This thesis seeks to contribute to the discussion regarding the implementation of indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination within states. By examining the public discourse surrounding the concept of self-determination in relation to the Sami people in the Swedish political system, it’s possible to obtain a deeper understanding of the dynamics in play. The thesis focuses on analyzing the core elements of self- determination and the formulation of the perceived problems surrounding the political measures of the concept. The discourse analysis, examining the period 2006-2017, concludes that the understanding of the concept of self-determination is linked to the political status of the indigenous people, the political debate within the national assembly, the perception of possible solutions and the function of indigenous institutions.