{"id":198,"date":"2019-05-21T07:21:14","date_gmt":"2019-05-21T07:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/engp08.epgpbooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/?post_type=chapter&p=198"},"modified":"2019-05-22T06:22:41","modified_gmt":"2019-05-22T06:22:41","slug":"indigenous-peoples-writings-and-the-new-literatures-in-english","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp08\/chapter\/indigenous-peoples-writings-and-the-new-literatures-in-english\/","title":{"rendered":"Indigenous People\u2019s Writings and the New literatures in English"},"content":{"raw":"
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\r\n\r\nDefinitions<\/strong>\r\n\r\n\u00a0<\/strong>\r\n

The concept of Indigeneity has to be explored in terms of the marginalized needs of the Indigenous and as one which posits all forms of colonialism in its diverse ramifications. In the seminal conference proceedings of the first global conference organized for literary scholars and social scientists entitled \u2018Chotro I\u2019, Ganesh Devy tries to arrive at a working principal for the \u2018Indigenous\u2019 as follows:<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Recognized as \u201cAborigines\u201d in Australia, as Maori in New Zealand, as \u201cFirst Nations\u201d in Canada, as \u201cIndigenous\u201d in the United States, as \u201cJanajatis\u201d in India or as \u201cTribes\u201d in anthropology, as \u201cNotified Communities\u201d in the administrative parlance of many countries, as \u201cIndigenous People in the discourse of Human Rights, and as \u201cAdivasis\u201d in the terminology of Asian activists, these variously described communities are far too numerous and dispersed in geographical locations to admit of a single inclusive description.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

As a matter of fact, organizations such ILO and UNESCO use the term \u2018Indigenous\u2019 to represent over a thousand different communities across the world. Given the diversity of Indigenous communities, no official definition has been employed for Indigenous peoples by any UN-body. The anthology on Indigeneity <\/em>is significantly dedicated to \u201cThe indigenous peoples in all continents who know they belong to the earth and not that the earth belongs to them.\u201d (Devy 2009) The concerns of Indigenous performers and scholars are directly related to the destructive presumptuousness, distortion and ignorance to which many of their traditions have been subjected. It has often been predicated on mythical notions of superiority on the basis of race, ethnicity and gender.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Indigenous studies today has been gaining much emphasis world-wide since it promotes and initiates cross-disciplinary research and teaching in a wide range of areas of relevance to Indigenous peoples. It is only possible to forge connections by being sensitive to specific historical and discursive Indigenous practices which in turn, would involve a different construction in reading\/ learning\/ understanding practices. It is important to \u2018listen,\u00a0internalize, learn, imagine and empathize.\u2019 (Devy 2009) In order to engage with the concept of \u201cIndigeneity\u2019 within the paradigms of research, it is important to begin a process of decolonization. Linda Tuhiwai Smith, in the pathbreaking book Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples<\/em>, observes that decolonization \u201cis about centring our concerns and world views and then coming to know and understand theory and research from our own perspectives and for our own purposes.\u201d<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Today, the Indigenous Agenda involves the following salient features:<\/p>\r\n\r\n