The Indigenous Youth’s Place Is In The Struggle For Self-determination

INTERNATIONAL YOUTH DAY 2023

Indigenous youth are fighting for a self-determined future. And we are called to harness, protect and uphold the power of the youth for they’re the inheritor of tomorrow.

In 1965, the Declaration on the Promotion among Youth of the Ideals of Peace, Mutual Respect and Understanding between Peoples was adopted. One of its principles reads that “Young people shall be brought up in the spirit of peace, justice, freedom, mutual respect and understanding in order to promote equal rights for all human beings […]” in the spirit of realizing the rights and role of youth from a war-torn world.

However, 38 years since the first International Youth Year in 1985, problems facing the youth, especially indigenous youth, remain. Equal rights, least the recognition of Indigenous Peoples rights, remains to be realized.

Racism, discrimination, and exclusion continuously shape the current generation of indigenous youth, manifested in unemployment and lack of secured jobs, inaccessible and colonial-ridden education, and poor living conditions.

In addition, ancestral land grabbing, punitive state policies and authoritarianism expedite the encroachment and exploitation of multinational and big local companies to indigenous resources. Indigenous youth today are brought up in a world where there’s widespread indigenous rights violations, forced displacement, harassment, arbitrary arrest, and extrajudicial killings of indigenous leaders.

But more than at the receiving end of present crises, Indigenous youth forge our future. They demand vital space in climate solutions. They shape education to keep indigenous knowledge and land alive. They’re bridging solidarity for peace and self-determination. They are demanding accountability from imperialist polluters. They’re stewarding actions to fight for land rights. They live and preserve indigenous culture as an act and tool of resistance.

For IPMSDL, this occasion is an opportune time to highlight our indigenous youth, their movement and organizations raising the conversation on issues that affect them and their communities. They are pushing for meaningful changes in policies affecting them at the local and international level, where youth plays a crucial role in widening spaces for Indigenous Peoples to exercise their social, cultural, political, and economic rights.

The Indigenous youth’s place is in the struggle for self-determination. For only by reimagining a better world and joining the society’s transformation for genuine change can they live their historical and revolutionary role.

© Scoop Media