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Kuo-Sheng Chen
Professor Darian-Smith
Anthropology 41A
1 Sept 2022
Indigenous Cultures: Apology Required or Not?
Indigenous Cultures are everywhere in the world. In some significant cases, these groups
represent the original culture that exists in a place. Sometimes we called these people
“Aboriginals.” For instance: Indians represent the indigenous groups in the United States, First
Nations represents Canada and Maasai are the indigenous group in East Africa (verywellmind,
2021). In addition, various indigenous groups in Taiwan existed before the colonization of other
countries. These aboriginals represent life before the colonization of others, and they have their
own culture, languages, traditions, and historical sites. Therefore it is essential to preserve their
culture, respect their tongues, and take more consideration before making decisions that might
destroy their values.
To understand what happened to these indigenous groups, we must first understand what
cultural genocide is. According to Carasik and Backman (2), cultural genocide means any
attempt to destroy a group as such by eliminating the group’s culture. The attempt could be the
prohibition of religious practices, destruction of cultural heritage sites, and forced assimilation of
the group’s children to other religions. These are all considered attempts at cultural genocide.
The first example I come up with is the Indigenous group in Taiwan during the colonization
period of Japan. Two movie documentaries take place in the history of Seediq Bale, an
indigenous tribe in Taiwan's history during Japan’s colonization. The core concept of this movie
is that the Japanese colony wants the resources inside the mountain, and they start destroying the
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tribe’s historical sites and cultures to achieve their goal. In addition, the Japanese government
gives some benefits to a few groups of people that wish to work for them. Assimilation occurred
when Japanese people forced them to speak Japanese and practice Japanese traditions. From the
perspective of politics and economics, the Japanese government did such destruction to the
Seediq Bale tribes because they weren’t familiar with the forest in Taiwan. Still, they wanted the
resources to make profits. Therefore, they started a series of brutal actions that forced the
indigenous group to follow their command. Plus, the country has advanced technology that
allows them to take control of its armed forces. At the end of the event, the Japanese government
killed many lives of tribes and took away their culture, lands, and resources. But the colonization
in Taiwan changed over time. Japanese colonizers never take action to appeal for their lives.
The second example I want to talk about is the European colonization of Nigeria. There is
a book named Things Fall Apart, a fiction that describes the life of an indigenous group before
colonization. And eventually, the European colony took control over their land, stamina, and
traditions by armed force. Initially, the native Nigerian tribes had their own life. They produce
yams, have levels inside their society, have wealthier people have more power to speak and
celebrate traditions that connect to their ancient ancestors. People on the land speak their
languages, cultivate the farms, and sometimes males have fought to show their toughness. At the
end of the story, European missionaries came and took control of Nigerian societies. They forced
them to believe in the Western Catholic church, wear their costumes, and stop all other
traditional practices. Furthermore, the Western Colonization used guns, weapons, and power to
force them to leave their land. There is cultural genocide because Western countries destroy
Indigenous people’s land, take away their resources, and negatively affect their children. In the
real world, the state governments have land acknowledgment among these Indigenous groups.
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Land acknowledgment gives documentation to indigenous people that they will return the land
afterward. But the resources, grounds, and profits that colonizers took were never returned to the
indigenous groups (theatlantic, 2021). I think the colonizer benefited from the indigenous group
because they were minorities, didn’t have advanced technology, lived in a way close to nature,
did not trade with foreign nations, and didn’t focus on growing up in the country. Therefore, they
lost the power to speak. The inability to fight for their land caused colonizers to keep taking
away their resources.
Indigenous groups represent the culture that is closest to nature. They celebrate their
divinity in different ways; some praise the god of the land, the god of children, and the god of
cultivation. The cultural genocide that Western/Eurocentric power had brought to them
somewhat destroyed their original being. This contradicts the concept of diversity because
Western beliefs like Catholicism and Christianity ask the believer to show love and considerable
mind. Still, the missionaries were trying to break others’ traditions. Western culture develops
their countries from the beginning to the end by taking away Indigenous Groups’ land and
resources. Without paying them back, they kept forcing the group to migrate. Some Indigenous
people that lost their original beliefs were forced to join the modern culture. This is reasonable
because maintaining the authentic indigenous culture couldn’t make them money. Therefore they
wanted to have better living conditions. But in the long run, the old tribe tradition will be lost,
and they can’t preserve their ancestors' best. The loss of ancient tradition would be unfair to
indigenous groups because everyone is human; what defines the superior? To maintain cultural
diversity, we all must learn to understand each other and cooperate to ensure the growth of
society.
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In conclusion, an appropriate apology is needed from the government to Indigenous
Groups in that specific region. Since the recent colony (the government) has taken these
aboriginals' land, values, historical sites, discrimination, and cultures, they needed to take action
among these groups for economic and political cooperation. For instance, the New York Times
video expressed the First Nation's appreciation. The executive chief thanks the Pope-Francis for
apologizing for the past destruction of their culture. On June 18th, 2019. California state
governor apologized to Native Americans for mistreatment in the past and all the destruction that
the government had brought them in state history. More and more governors follow up the
apology to Indigenous Groups in their region. In the future, the state governor can cooperate with
the tribe by holding up religious event that attracts people’s attention. The economic activities
benefit the country because more and more people can understand the Indigenous culture, food,
traditions, languages, and behaviors. From the perspective of politics, these groups initially live
in the land; the colony then takes control of their land, advancing technology, forcing them to
leave their land, and creating other values. The apology, in this case, shows the government was
sad about all the destruction. In the long run, the formal apology constructs the relationship
between people and indigenous groups. A healthy relationship also encourages the development
of that region. Therefore, the process of people understanding each other is essential,
irreplaceable, and vital, especially in this diversified society. The destruction has already existed,
but the most important lesson we learned as a human in this society is to understand each other.
And work together to make progress and changes to this society. The other issues and conflicts
like politics, economics, labor, and genders are solvable once people understand and
communicate with each other.
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Works Cited
Admin. “Book Review: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.” The Bookish Elf, 28 Aug.
2020, https://www.bookishelf.com/book-review-things-fall-apart-by-chinua-achebe/.
California, State of. “Governor Newsom Issues Apology to Native Americans for State's
Historical Wrongdoings, Establishes Truth and Healing Council.” California Governor,
18 June 2019,
https://www.gov.ca.gov/2019/06/18/governor-newsom-issues-apology-to-native-american
s-for-states-historical-wrongdoings-establishes-truth-and-healing-council/#:~:text=SACR
AMENTO%20%E2%80%93%20Governor%20Gavin%20Newsom%20today,Americans
%20throughout%20the%20state's%20history.
Cherry, Kendra. “Why It's Important to Learn about Indigenous Peoples.” Verywell Mind,
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-are-indigenous-populations-5083698.
Destroying Indigenous Cultures in the United States by Lauren Carasik and Jefferey S.
Bachman
Canvas.eee.uci.edu
Press, The Associated. “Indigenous Communities React to Pope Francis's Apology.” The New
York Times, The New York Times, 25 July 2022,
https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/americas/100000008459873/pope-francis-apology
-indigenous-canada.html.
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Press, The Associated. “The Pope's Apology to Indigenous People Doesn't Go Far Enough,
Canada Says.” NPR, NPR, 28 July 2022,
https://www.npr.org/2022/07/28/1114207125/canada-pope-apology-indigenous.
Wood, Graeme. “'Land Acknowledgments' Are Just Moral Exhibitionism.” The Atlantic, Atlantic
Media Company, 3 Dec. 2021,
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/11/against-land-acknowledgements-nativ
e-american/620820/.