A Journey into Five Decades of Struggles for Indigenous Self-Determination in the Americas: An Interview with Armstrong A. Wiggins
Year: 2021
Type: article
Abstract: Born in Nicaragua, he is a Mískito Indian from the village of Karatá, La Moskitia.At the age of 18, he became President of his Karatá community and, in 1972, he became a founding member of AIPROMISU, the first regional Indian organization in La Moskitia that works to defend Miskito rights to self-determination, land, territories, environment, natural resources, sustainable development and their cultural survival.In 1977, Armstrong and other Indigenous leaders from around the world traveled to the United Nations' headquarters in Geneva to demand that the international community hold countries accountable for violating their individual and collective rights.After the Sandinista Revolution of 1979 in Nicaragua, Armstrong became the national representative for MISURASATA, a regional Indian organization in the country.Due to his human rights work in La Moskitia, he was arrested both during the Somoza and Sandinista regimes and was taken as a political prisoner.In 1981, the political situation in Nicaragua forced him into exile.In the United States, Armstrong started working for the Indian Law Resource Center (ILRC) and currently serves as the Director of the Washington D.C. Office.For the past two decades, Armstrong has been actively involved A Journey into Five Decades of Struggles for Indigenous Self-Determination in... IdeAs, 17 | 2021Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this interview took place virtually on January 29 th , 2021.For two hours, Laura Cahier (from France) and Laetitia Braconnier Moreno (from Colombia) discussed with Armstrong A. Wiggins (from Washington, D.C.) about his personal history and long-lasting involvement in the struggles for Indigenous Peoples' rights since the mid-1970s.From criminalization and systemic attacks to other forms of discrimination against Indigenous Peoples, he explored the difficulties that Indigenous leaders from the Americas continue to face in the recognition and implementation of their human rights.Among other things, his remarks specified how the struggles led by Indigenous Peoples for their human rights are situated in relation to, or sometimes in contrast to, other social movements.Advocating for universal education on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, Armstrong engaged in a pedagogical discussion on their legal culture, emphasizing their collective rights to self-determination, land, territory, or cultural survival.Laetitia Braconnier
Source: IdeAs
DOI: 10.4000/ideas.11159
Authors: Laetitia Braconnier Moreno, Laura Cahier
Language: English
Subfield: Law
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W3139536382