Afterword: international dimensions of the citizen issue for indigenous peoples/nations

Author: Cairns A.

Source: Citizenship Studies, Volume 7, Number 4, December 2003 , pp. 497-512(16)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

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Abstract:

Citizenship is a contested site in the evolving relations between indigenous minority nations/peoples and the states in which they live. This cannot be understood without reference to global trends and the history of indigenous-state relations in the imperial era. The former wardship status of indigenous peoples in settler societies was sustained by European control of much of the globe. The demise of the latter delegitimated the colonial treatment of indigenous peoples in Canada, Australia and elsewhere. Anti-colonial Third World nationalism toppled the globe-straddling European empires, took over the colonial state, and transformed the international system. Minority indigenous nationalism in settler societies, stimulated by the example of Third World independence, and reacting against similar indignities, however lacks the possibility of escape. The state form is much less welcoming and open to minority indigenous nations than was the international community of states to their Third World predecessors. Citizenship is the focal point of the contest between indigenous nationalism and the encircling state which seeks to legitimate its rule by, among other things, some version of a common citizenship.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1362102032000135001

Publication date: 2003-12-01

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