FA 21 10.4 Truth and Reconciliation (Valerie's Task)

[Kate S]

10.4 Truth and Reconciliation (Valerie's Task)

Canada has declared Sept. 30 as National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. It is meant to be a day to recognize and commemorate the legacy of the residential school system (our national shame) that impacted Indigenous communities.

Read a book by an Indigenous (to their own country/continent) author.

Please post any questions, comments or discussions about task 10.4 in this thread.

[Rosemary]

I'm not very clear about the meaning of indigenous in this political sense. It's clear in North and South America and Australia/NZ, but does it apply elsewhere? Is it a native population that is currently a disadvantaged minority group in what is historically their own country?

Would it include for example Korean people living in Korea, who have been colonised in the past but not now?

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

These are the definitions as I understand them (and wording taken gleaned from a quick internet search)

"Indigenous peoples, also referred to as first people, aboriginal people, native people, or autochthonous people, are culturally distinct ethnic groups who are native to a place which has been colonised and settled by another ethnic group. "

"Peoples are usually described as "indigenous" when they maintain traditions or other aspects of an early culture that is associated with a given region.[3] Not all Indigenous peoples share this characteristic, as many have adopted substantial elements of a colonizing culture, such as dress, religion or language. Indigenous peoples may be settled in a given region (sedentary) or exhibit a nomadic lifestyle across a large territory, but they are generally historically associated with a specific territory on which they depend. Indigenous societies are found in every inhabited climate zone and continent of the world except Antarctica."

I'm not sure this latter answers your question about Koreans, Rosemary, but I would not think the general Korean population would meet the first definition. I'm not familiar enough with Korean culture to know if there are small pockets of peoples that would meet the first quote.

[Rosemary]

That helps, thanks. Korea was colonised by Japan in the past but has been independent since 1945. It sounds like that wouldn't count, and the colonial culture should still be dominant.

I used that example rather than African countries or India because as far as I know Korea does not have different native ethnic groups which might complicate the question.

[Valerie]

Hi Rosemary: yes, it does apply elsewhere.

This article from Amnesty International has some info:
https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do...

The UN has a fact sheet on indigenous peoples:
https://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/...

There is a wikipedia list (which I am sure is not exhaustive) here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...

[Rosemary]

Thank you, Valerie! That's very helpful too.

[Rebekah]

Valerie wrote: "Hi Rosemary: yes, it does apply elsewhere.

This article from Amnesty International has some info:
https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do...

The UN has a fact sheet on indigenous p..."

There is a wikipedia list (which I am sure is not exhaustive) here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...

I do take exception to the Wikipedia article naming Jews as a group as indigenous people of Canaanites.
First of all a religion or a group united by religion isn’t necessarily a distinct cultural group. For example all Moslems are not “indigenous” to Arabia. And according to the definition given does not fit “ those ethnic groups that were indigenous to a territory prior to being incorporated into a national state, and who are politically and culturally separate from the majority ethnic identity of the state that they are a part of". While Jews may be a distinctive cultural group in any given country, the fact that large groups are spread over six of the seven continents, they couldn’t have possibly been the original people in all those places.
In the context of the country of Israel, there are two distinct dominant groups of Jews while they share a religion in a broad sense, they do differ culturally, genetically and homes of origin. These are the Ashkenazic and the Sephardic Jews,
The Sephardic Jews were those after the collapse of the Jewish autonomy in what is now Israel, who mostly stayed within the region. Their DNA is most closely linked to the Palestinians, who are predominantly practice Islam but also contain members of Christian and the Jewish Faith as well as the Druze.
Due to post WWII immigration Israel is now most populated by people of the Ashkenazic lineage whose DNA is more closely linked to Eastern Europe. They do have a small percentage of Middle Eastern genetic material but so do most people of European heritage of all faiths. When you consider since 70CE, Israel or Judaea ceased to exist and its people spread through the world, as Jews were converted to Christianity or Islam, whether forcibly or not and likewise many tribes along the Mediterranean trade routes especially Turkey, Greece and Italy converted to Judaism as well as intermarriage and assimilation in the various adopted countries, it would be difficult to claim this religious faith indigenous to any one country as is the case of most of us.
However, the Palestinian people who have included Palestinian Jews who converted to Islam and Palestinian Jews who converted to Christianity and the Arabic Bedouins, Samaritans and Syrian Druze have been living in the area of Israel since 70CE and before all share strong genetic links, then they would be the indigenous people whereas the Jews of primarily European descent are the predominant, colonizing people. Therefore it is the Palestinians of any faith who are indigenous to Israel.

The article also claims this religious group are indigenous Canaanite people yet in the Old Testament the Hebrew people conquered the land of Canaan and the native peoples there. Many of the conquerors intermarried or had concubines with Canaanite women so there would be some dna strains there but the Hebrews were not the indigenous ones.

https://theconversation.com/ashkenazi...

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/arti...

https://www.haaretz.com/science-and-h...

https://haplomaps.com/genetics-of-the...

[Rebekah]

Found these lists. Just make sure the book you pick has an indigenous author

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/9...

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/8...

[Marie]

Hello,
I've had Betty by Tiffany McDaniel on my reading list for a while, and i see the book is part of the Popsugar list above: do you validate it ?
The author is of native-american descent (her grandfather is Cherokee).

[Rebekah]

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
“ Based on the extraordinary life of National Book Award-winning author Louise Erdrich’s grandfather who worked as a night watchman and carried the fight against Native dispossession from rural North Dakota all the way to Washington, D.C.” -GR description.

https://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winner...

[Rebekah]

My DAR chapter is named for a Cherokee woman, Nancy Ward. We have some of her direct descendants as chapter members. One wrote a book about her. Woman of Many Names by Debra S. Yates

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Marie wrote: "Hello,
I've had Betty by Tiffany McDaniel on my reading list for a while, and i see the book is part of the Popsugar list above: do you validate it ?
The author i..."

Could you direct me? I don't see a Pop Sugar list.

[Marie]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Marie wrote: "Hello,
I've had Betty by Tiffany McDaniel on my reading list for a while, and i see the book is part of the Popsugar list above: do you validate it ?..."

Here it is : https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

I looked at her website and I didn't see where it says she is an indigenous person. But maybe I overlooked it. I see she has written about indigenous people.

(Anyone can add to a Goodreads list. Sometimes there are books on lists that don't really belong and don't match RwS requirements.)

[Mary]

The Siberian Dilemma by Martin Cruz Smith

He is of partly Pueblo,[1] Spanish,[2] Senecu del Sur and Yaqui ancestry.[3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_...

[Marie]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "I looked at her website and I didn't see where it says she is an indigenous person. But maybe I overlooked it. I see she has written about indigenous people.

(Anyone can add to a Goodreads list. S..."

In her website, and as well as in articles, it says that the book is inspired by her mother, who is half Cherokee (https://www.waterstones.com/blog/tiff... or https://www.latimes.com/entertainment... for instance)

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

OK, then.