If you are interested in contributing to the welfare or rights of indigenous peoples, here are a few links to get started.
A good place to start is:
- The American Anthropological Association’s list of indigenous peoples’ advocacy organizations.
Because they do not include links to these organizations’ web sites, here are a few:
- UNESCO’sInternational Decade of the World’s Indigenous People site. With this site, UNESCO (The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) aims “to strengthen international cooperation for the solution of problems faced by indigenous people.”
- Cultural Survival. Organization founded in 1972 by several Harvard professors. Originally concerned with Amazonian peoples, now with a more international focus.
- Direct Relief. A non-profit medical assistance organization based in Santa Barbara, California.
- Medecins sans frontieres. MSF is an independent humanitarian medical aid agency committed to providing medical aid wherever it is needed, and to raising awareness of the plight of the people they help.
- Indigenous Peoples and the Law. Provides links to online articles about laws affecting indigenous peoples.
- Initiative for Social Action and Renewal in Eurasia. Advocacy group for rural peoples of the former Soviet Union.
- International Work Group for International Affairs. Danish group supporting “indigenous peoples’ human rights, self -determination, right to territory, control of land and resources, cultural integrity, and the right to development.”
- The Kalahari Peoples Fund. Organization formed for the benefit of the San (Bushmen, Basarwa) and other rural peoples of the Kalahari desert region of southern Africa.
- Survival International. A worldwide organization supporting tribal peoples.
- International Commission for the Rights of Aboriginal People. ICRA International is “a world movement for active solidarity with threatened peoples and ethnic groups.”
- Physicians for Human Rights. PHR “mobilizes the health professions and enlists support from the general public to protect and promote the human rights of all people.”
