Category Archives: Tribal culture worldwide

“Tribal cultures the world over are intricately linked with the forests they live in. The story, or should wie call it the ‘history’ of modern civilization, is largely one of the taming and destroying the great forests of the world and the innumerable tribal communities that lived therein. […] Vices like alcoholism were introduced; the addiction is now used by the settlers to exploit resources from the forests.” – Pankaj Sekhsaria in Islands in Flux: The Andaman and Nicobar Story (Harper Litmus, 2017), pp. 5-7
https://worldcat.org/en/title/1122742858
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=26863

“People need language to communicate with one another and also transmit from generation to generation knowledge, ideas, beliefs and traditions, which are essential for their recognition, well-being, evolution and peaceful coexistence.” – “Summary report on the International Year of Indigenous Languages, 2019” (United Nations, 14 February 2020)
https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N20/040/59/PDF/N2004059.pdf?OpenElement
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=46777

“Don’t be afraid to evolve, don’t be afraid to stay the same – because they are both valuable, you need both those tools!” – Buffy-Sainte Marie (singer, songwriter, activist and author of three books for children) interviewed by Piya Chattopadhyay for CBC radio
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thenextchapter/full-episode-june-18-2022-1.6491133/buffy-sainte-marie-s-new-children-s-book-tâpwê-and-the-magic-hat-draws-on-the-wisdom-of-indigenous-elders-1.6491178
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=50338

“[India] has the highest number of Indigenous people in the world after Africa. As tribes uphold unique cultures, their preservation is vital at a time when a specific national cultural discourse is growing stronger […] in the backdrop of climate change, development, and deforestation.” – Deepanwita Gita Niyogi in “India’s Adivasi Identity in Crisis” (Pulitzer Center, 27 May 2021)
https://pulitzercenter.org/projects/indias-adivasi-identity-crisis
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=17554

“I carry my life experiences with me everywhere I go. It’s those experiences that give me hope for the future. If an Indigenous woman from humble beginnings can be confirmed as Secretary of the Interior, our country holds promise for everyone.” – Deb Haaland quoted in “Reactions From Indian Country to Deb Haaland’s Confirmation as Secretary of the Interior” [USA] (National Museum of the American Indian, 18 March 2021)
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/national-museum-american-indian/2021/03/18/reactions-indian-country-deb-haalands-confirmation-secretary-interior/
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=4540

“We were here before King Wijaya [the first Aryan king] came. We are the oldest living inhabitants in the country – and I want everyone to know that we exist here. I want everyone to know that we have our language, and we want to take it forward.” – Gunabandilaaththo (Danigala Maha Bandaralage lineage of Vedda) interviewed by Zinara Rathnayake in “Sri Lanka’s last indigenous people” (BBC Travel, 28 March 2022)
https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20220327-sri-lankas-last-indigenous-people
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=49524

“[Archaeologist] Hazarika concludes that the earliest state formation in the region was not necessarily, as often thought, due to the inflow of Indo-Europeans into Assam, but as a result of intermittent trade between India and today’s China.” – Dhrijyoti Kalita reviewing Prehistory and Archaeology of Northeast India by Manjil Hazarika (Scroll.in, 3 March 2019)
https://scroll.in/article/915071/this-essential-book-on-the-prehistory-of-no
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=45657

“If it was possible for the land they stewarded to be violently taken by newcomers, isn’t it possible to peacefully return it, to make reparations for what was taken? In the past, and in our reckoning with loss, lies a world-expanding vision of the future, one that is not only possible but necessary.” – Alexandra Kleeman in “Bolder Reimagining”, discussing the past and future of the region now called California (55 Voices for Democracy: “Bolder Reimagining” by Alexandra Kleeman, 31 December 2021)
https://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/55-voices/55-voices-democracy-bolder-reimagining-alexandra-kleeman/
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=23900

“There are around 370 million indigenous peoples worldwide, living across 90 countries and representing 5000 diverse cultures. They make up less than 5 per cent of humanity, yet represent around 15 per cent of the world’s poorest people. Two thirds of the world’s indigenous peoples live in Asia and the Pacific. They include groups often referred to as tribal peoples, hill tribes, adivasis, janajati, orang asli, aboriginal or native. Indigenous peoples make significant contributions to humanity’s cultural, intellectual and economic wealth. Across Asia and the Pacific, they are sharing essential knowledge and skills in conservation and the sustainable use of land, forests and natural resources – key to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.” – Unicef in “The rights of indigenous peoples must be protected and respected”
https://www.un.org/en/events/indigenousday/pdf/IDWIP%20Joint%20Statement%20FINAL.pdf
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?page_id=31852

“We can take action in our own daily lives, to uphold the rights that protect us all and thereby promote the kinship of all human beings.” – Human Rights Day 10 December – United Nations
www.un.org/en/events/humanrightsday
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=25720

“The tribal world and the tribal way is complete in itself.” – Mahasweta Devi quoted by Gopalkrishna Gandhi in “Swearing by Mahasweta” (The Hindu, 6 August 2016)
https://www.thehindu.com/features/magazine/Swearing-by-Mahasweta/article14556890.ece
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=24902

“[R]ivers run through Navajo lands but the water is diverted to golf courses in Phoenix […] while natives lack legal rights to the water and can’t even get plumbing to wash their hands.” – Janene Yazzie (Navajo community organizer) quoted by Vinay Lal (Professor of History & Asian American Studies, University of California, Los Angeles UCLA) in “Coronavirus in Native American Communities: The Charade of ‘Thanksgiving'”
https://vinaylal.wordpress.com/2020/11/22/coronavirus-in-native-american-communities-the-charade-of-thanksgiving/
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=7629

“Indigenous people across North America depend on Native media outlets for essential information about their communities and tribal affairs. These newspapers, newsletters, magazines, radio and television broadcasts as well as online publications are often produced in places that otherwise lack a reliable source of timely, accurate and contextual coverage of what impacts their daily lives. Indigenous media, however, does more than distribute news. It serves as a community forum that can help reinforce cultural values and languages. Ultimately, it holds the potential to reaffirm an Indigenous community’s identity.” – Bryan Pollard (Cherokee Nation) in “More than News: Indigenous media empowers native voices and communities” (American Indian Magazine, Smithsonian, Summer 2020)
www.AmericanIndianMagazine.org
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=22744

“[N]ative people are – through our strength, through our resilience, through our creativity – forcing the question: what kind of country do we want to be? And might we want to privilege our virtues and our values over our baser impulses.” – Review “A New History of Native Americans Responds to ‘Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee'”: The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America From 1890 to the Present by David Treuer (New York Times, 20 January 2020)
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/20/books/review/david-treuer-heartbeat-wounded-knee.html
https://www.indiantribalheritage.org/?p=27370

“The pressure that has been brought to bear upon the native people, since the cessation of armed conflict, in the attempt to force conformity of custom and habit has caused a reaction more destructive than war, and the injury has not only affected the [American] Indian, but has extended to the white population as well.” – Luther Standing Bear (who “became hereditary chief of the Oglala Sioux in 1905”) in “What the Indian Means to America”; quoted in The Mammoth Book of Native Americans: the Story of America’s original inhabitants in all its beauty, magic, truth and tragedy by Jon E. Lewis (London, 2004)
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/784882158
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=22744

“The United States signed a series of treaties with Native Nations, making promises in exchange for parts, or the entirety, of their sovereign territories. The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized these treaties as legally binding. The unmet treaty rights have contributed to enormous health disparities between Native Americans and the general U.S. population, including a lack of access to well-equipped and staffed medical facilities” – “COVID-19 in Indian Country” (National Museum of the American Indian in Washington)
https://americanindian.si.edu/developingstories/quintero.html
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=23900

“From India to Brazil, Europe to the United States, xenophobia is a structuring logic of state power and statecraft.[…] Freedom is not a gift. Justice is not an inheritance.” – Ananya Roy (“55 Voices for Democracy”, 14 December 2019)
https://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/55-voices/55-voices-democracy-ananya-roy/
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=23343