Potential of Indigenous Studies

After over 22 years of heated debate, The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2007.

“Prior to that, we were simply accidents of history,” Dr. Roger Maaka explained as he spoke to an audience of over 50 students in the Miller Learning Center on Wednesday, detailing the struggles of keeping Native American Studies curriculum relevant in today’s educational system and explaining the importance of the emergence of Indigenous Studies. “As a scholar and indigenous person, there are intellectual and social challenges about what makes our field relevant to all people.”

Maaka, a Maori scholar and a professor of Indigenous Studies at the University of Saskatchewan, was invited to speak at the event sponsored by the Institute of Native American Studies.

Maaka described how the consequences of imperialism in earlier centuries led to the creation of what are now the indigenous people of the world. One of the effects of that expansion was to push those people into geographically marginal locations that were unappealing at the time. Ironically, however, these are the areas that have become prime resource sites. They are also prime conservation sites. “That means whether states like it or not, they have to engage with those populations,” Maaka explained.

Because of global issues including the energy crisis and conservation of resources, Maaka believes indigenous people will certainly remain relevant rather than simply political fare. “We’re right in the middle of all of this. You cannot discuss such global issues without talking about indigenous people and their rights.”

While Maaka described the challenges that face indigenous people, he also addressed the hurdles his field faces in the academic arena. Maaka explained that while most fields can trace their genealogies back hundreds of years, the field of indigenous studies is just under 40 years old, years he labels as the formative era.

“40 years is not a long time to build up a faculty. The founding professors have now all retired, and there may be a few survivors, but they are certainly not publishing. Most have been preoccupied with survival, not advancement.” This, he believes, has had serious implications. It affects the volume of publications, not only in depth but the breadth as well.

Maaka believes those in his field have two choices. The first is to accept the status quo and an undetermined future. The second is to create a distinctive intellectual identity that has relevance to academic institutions and the indigenous worlds. Clearly preferring the latter option, Maaka said, “I would argue that this is incredibly important for our respective peoples. That we not only remain in the public eye and academic structure but we should also become a major intellectual force.”

While he believes his field is in a much different place from where Native American studies first started, Maaka still believes there is much progress to be made. “We’re not limited by the bounds of any academic discipline, what we’re limited by is actually the living communities,” he says. “Where they go, we must go. If we do not do that, we are no different that the very forces that marginalized our people in the first place.”

On the other hand, Maaka is proud of the progress that has been made. After the United Nation’s accepted the Indigenous People’s Declaration of Rights, Maaka is certain that decision changed many people’s perceptions of indigenous people and made them more relevant in today’s culture. “After a 40 year formative era, I believe we can and will accept whatever challenges come our way.”