This presentation argues that Indigenous peoples’ rights to land can be fruitfully seen in terms of three intertwined processes: occupations, perseverances, and transitions.  First, while the ‘occupation’ of indigenous territories has often involved armed, technological, territorial, cultural, and ecological aspects, their most important dimension is ontological.  Second, ‘perseverance’ similarly involves resistances, oppositions, defense, and affirmations, yet not infrequently these can most radically be seen as ontological.  What ‘occupies’ in this framework is the One-World modern project of making many worlds into One; what perseveres is precisely the affirmation of a multiplicity of worlds. By interrupting the One-world project of neoliberal globalization, many indigenous, afro-descendant, and peasant communities may be seen as engaged in ontological struggles. Thirdly, these struggles can be interpreted as contributing to ecological and cultural transitions towards the pluriverse. These transitions are necessary to redress the ecological and social crises created by the One-World ontology and its accompanying narratives, practices, and enactments. The argument is illustrated with the case of afrodescendant struggles in the Colombian Pacific region, particularly their reframing and radicalization of legislation for free, prior and informed consultation and consent in defense of their territories against the armed, developmentalist, and extractivist onslaught of the past ten years.

Intervenant : Arturo Escobar, Université de Chapel Hill.

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