The No-Nonsense Guide to Indigenous Peoples

No-Nonsense Guides

by Lotte Hughes

Indigenous peoples have long suffered from exoticization. Outsiders elevate their beauty, remoteness and difference and do not see beyond this to the real problems they face. The No-Nonsense Guide to Indigenous Peoples looks beyond the exotic images, tracing the stories of different indigenous peoples from their first (and often fatal) contact with explorers and colonizers. Much of this history is told here by indigenous people themselves.They vividly describe why land and the natural world are so special to them; how it feels to be snatched from your family as a child because the government wants to “make you white”; why they are demanding that museums must return the bones of their ancestors; how can they retain their traditional culture while moving with the times; and what kinds of development are positive. This short guide discusses all this and more, raising countless issues for debate.

Genres: Indigenous, Nonfiction, History

144 pages, Paperback

First published February 26, 2003

About the author

Lotte Hughes is an historian of Africa and empire, with a Kenya specialism. She is also a journalist. Since retiring from The Open University (UK), she has become an Independent Scholar.

Reviews

[Vasundhra Gupta · Rating 4 out of 5]

PROS:
- amazing and in-depth study of many challenges that Aboriginals have faced from time immemorial
- lots of real-life stories, struggles and great insights from around the world
- short and literally no-BS approach to writing

CONS:
- a tad bit too technical for an average reader
- slightly limiting in groups that were interviewed (though the author does disclaim this)

I enjoyed reading this, it was a significant introductory book for anyone who understands little to nothing about the Indigenous Peoples!

[Diane in Australia · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 Stars = Blah. It didn't do anything for me.

[Natalie Awdry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Given the format of the No-Nonsense Guides and their limited word count, this is a very effective and informative overview.

It's obviously a brief and non-exhaustive guide to indigenous peoples, but Hughes makes it clear from the start that there would be areas she would not be able to cover and that she would be "skirting over" the issues, but even with that warning I found it went into much more detail than I had expected and more detail of both sides of the story than I have previously found with The Internationalists' No-Nonsense Guides.

I particularly liked the case studies which Hughes interspersed amongst the presentation of the different issues. They gave a real personal flavour to what could otherwise be seen as quite a "dry" topic with a lot of political and legal intricacies.

Even though this was written almost 20 years ago, it still feels current and the bibliography for each chapter is relevant and helps you to explore further in the area. I would definitely recommend this book for people with limited knowledge of the infrastructure of, and legal battles faced by, indigenous communities around the world. The book manages to explain a lot in a small number of pages.

[Dawn Livingston · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been curious about Native Americans (I live in the US) for ages. I've read enough to know Native American's history involving Whites is beyond tragic, dozens of stories involving the lies and deception and cruelty of Whites toward Indians. I got this book out of curiousity because I'm not really familiar with other indigenous peoples, like Aborigines and the Maori though the only thing I know about them I learned from Crocodile Dundee and Once Were Warriors.

This book was amazing, not only in the details but the overview of indiginous peoples around the world. So much that I didn't know anything about, so many peoples I'd never heard of.

Apparently, Native Americans aren't the only peoples to be so deceived and taken advantage of. However, another thing they have in common which seems somehow worse is that they have not recovered from being mistreated, they have not been able to crawl out of the hole they were thrown in.

Of course, there is some hope, some peoples are starting to use the system to their advantage. Good for them!

I'm white and I don't feel guilty because I'm white, but I do see that grave injustices were done over and over to the Native Americans. In my curiousity I've read this book and found that those injustices were not unique to Native Americans but so many others. I don't like injustice, I like to help where I can. What's been done can't be undone, but I'd really like to know what I can do to help. There doesn't seem to be any practical book on how to help NOW. I don't think I can help those in other countries so I'd settle for what I can do for Native Americans today. Half seriously, the only thing I can think of is go to a Native run casino. It seems quite fair that since Whites took things from Natives for profit "legally" that Natives now take money from Whites legally.

[Stacie Nishimoto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very bummed that I have to return this book to the Tinku library

Provides information on complex and contentious topics (land rights, NGO's, ethnic equality, shamanism, biopiracy, development, fertility, colonization, global law, etc.) through case studies, quotes by indigenous group leaders, and song/poem lyrics.

(my only complaint: the beginning chapter is fairly dry as Hughes attempts to pin down a workable definition of 'indigenous')

'Once I moved about like the wind. Now I surrender to you and that is all...My heart is yours and I hope yours will be mine.'-Geronimo (N. American folk hero)

[Jeffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a clever and useful overview of Indigenous people globally - helps to provide a lot of perspective