Transforming Peoples and Subverting States

Abstract

Recent debates underscore an increasing shift away from static conceptions of ethnicity and identity to an emphasis upon their more fluid and deconstructive qualities. The following examination of the international indigenous peoples’ movement demonstrates how the dynamic re-construction of indigenous identity and the discourses emanating from it are fundamental elements to successful mobilization. It also explores the ways in which the epistemologies underlying them are theoretically valuable and pragmatically transformative, and how they serve as the basis for developing a critical cultural pedagogy. It is argued that such a perspective would contribute to the development of a transformative and process-oriented approach to the conceptualization and study of ethnocultural mobilizations necessary for overcoming the constraints of western liberal thought and current preoccupations with ‘authenticity’ and typologies in related scholarship and practice.