Indigenous Peoples and the Politics of Founding

The article examines the “foundings-beyond-origins” framework as proposed by Angélica Bernal in her 2017 book, Beyond Origins: Rethinking Founding in a Time of Constitutional Democracy. While accepting Bernal’s arguments about the prevailing vision of founding a political order, she posits that the realities of power deauthorise political origins. This form of politics proposes a model of engagement between Indigenous Peoples (IPs), nations, tribes and communities and hegemonic political orders based on self-determination, autonomy, self-government and consent. These concepts are the cornerstones of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). At the heart of this politcs is the “axiom of indigeneity”, a proposition that bases political origins on populations, customs, territoriality and time. The fact that societies that existed prior to the founding of contemporary political orders have survived the realities of power gives meaning to the idea of indigeneity.