Our Elders Understand Our Rights: Evolving International Law Regarding Indigenous Peoples

David Mardiros is a lawyer and anthropological consultant in Terrace,
British Columbia.

From Oka and Gustafsen Lake to what seems like a continuous series of
cases coming from the Supreme Court of Canada, Canadians are kept aware
of the various issues involving Native peoples and the Canadian legal
system. What we are less aware of is the larger legal context—the long
and complex body of law that has been developed by international bodies
and that Canada, as a result of being a signatory to various
conventions, is bound to observe and enforce. In this short book, Sharon
Venne outlines a considerable sweep of history, from the “doctrine of
discovery” (expounded as a legal theory in the 15th century to justify
the assertion of European sovereignty over the New World) to the Draft
Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples passed by the United
Nations in 1994. Along the way, Venne discusses the roles that the
International Labour Organization and the U.N. General Assembly have
played in advancing the rights of indigenous peoples.

In terms of specifics, however, the book is largely North American in
focus and only briefly mentions the experiences of indigenous peoples in
other parts of the world. This is the book’s greatest weakness. While
Venne discusses the problems that the various international
organizations charged with the responsibility of trying to codify the
rights of indigenous peoples have had in trying to form consensus, she
provides little or no political or historical context through which a
reader can understand the sources of division between various
nation-states. The book would have benefited from an inclusion of more
nation-specific material, which would have allowed readers to understand
why, for example, a country like Australia (a country that Canadians see
as being culturally and historically quite similar to their own) has
consistently resisted the inclusion of the term “nation” in
international conventions referring to indigenous peoples. As a guide to
the primary sources of indigenous rights in international law, however,
Our Elders Understand Our Rights provides much useful material for those
beginning an exploration of the common heritage of colonialism shared by
indigenous peoples worldwide.