Podcasts – Themes – Indigenous Peoples

Introduction
Download the LearnEnglish Themes podcast. You’ll find more information on this page:
http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-podcasts-themes.htm

This support pack contains the following materials:

• the article that you can listen to in the podcast
• an optional comprehension activity based on the article
• links to other activities on the LearnEnglish website on this theme (indigenous peoples).

Read the article

Indigenous peoples
by Richard Sidaway

‘We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors,
we borrow it from our children’ (Native American
proverb)
In December 2005, Evo Morales became the new
President of Bolivia. He is only 46 years old and
openly supports the production and use of the
coca plant. He also wants the state to take
control of the profitable natural gas industry. But
what is really significant is where he comes from.
He was born into a farming family in the Andes
and spent much his life campaigning for the
interests of the original inhabitants of the country.
He is one of the first leaders of an indigenous
people to make it to the top.
extraction has resulted in the pollution of rivers,
soil and drinking water. The story is repeated in
Ecuador and Peru. In Brazil, the government plan
to build five large dams on the Xingu River.
These will flood thousands of square kilometres
of tribal reserves and destroy much agricultural
land.
Often governments have used forced relocation
to get the local inhabitants out of the way. In
Botswana today it is happening because of
diamond mining and tourism. In the islands of
Diego Garcia, in the Indian Ocean, the entire
population were banished forever in order to build
an airbase.

There are perhaps 370 million indigenous

peoples in 70 countries around the world. They
live on 20% of the world’s land, and they
contribute 80% of the world’s biological and
cultural diversity. For the last few hundred years,
however, European colonialism has marginalised
them. Europeans gave them diseases against
which they had no defences, suppressed their
culture and language, and tried to assimilate
them into western societies.

Sometimes they almost disappeared from history.

Few people today have heard of the Herero of
Namibia. Eighty per cent of their population died
from starvation a century ago at the hands of
German colonisers. In 1803, there were 10,000
people living in Tasmania, but after the British
declared war on them twenty years later, only
300 survived. The last Tasman died in 1905.
The main reason for the decimation of indigenous
peoples has been to get their land and natural
resources. In Colombia, a hundred years of oil
The United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are registered in England as a charity.
Land has a spiritual significance for indigenous
people. In 1985 the Australian government finally
recognised this and returned ownership of Uluru
(Ayers Rock) to the Pitjantjatjara Aborigines. In
the USA, however, the government is planning to
store radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain in
Nevada, unaware that it is a sacred site for the
Shoshone nation.
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 Podcasts – Themes – Indigenous Peoples

Businesses often try to take possession of So is the election of Mr Morales, in one of the
indigenous cultures. Multinational companies world’s poorest countries, a sign that things are
wanted to become the owners of traditional finally getting better? Various peoples around the
knowledge in areas such as food, farming and world now have their own representation. There
health. They have tried to create patents on is a Sámi parliament in Sweden and an Assembly
plants and medicines that indigenous people of First Nations in Canada.
have used for centuries.
Formal Apologies were passed in several
Native languages are also disappearing. They Australian State Parliaments in 1998 for the past
were banned in schools for decades. Parents mistreatment of the Aboriginal population. In
stopped using them to communicate in the home, Aotearoa/New Zealand, the Treaty of Waitangi
and so they were no longer passed from one Act has made it possible for Maoris to claim back
generation to another. land, fisheries and forest in special courts where
Sometimes families have been affected in more they have equal representation with non-
dramatic ways. In Australia, it was government indigenous people. The Miskito Indians in
policy from 1900-1972 to forcibly remove children Nicaragua have had similar success.
from their parents and bring them up in
institutions. Some Native American Tribes have recently
become extremely wealthy because of a change
Health problems such as obesity, heart disease in the law. They can now start casinos on their
and diabetes are another feature of indigenous own land. Some people worry about the morality
life. The writer Paul Theroux, travelling in the of this, but some of the profit has been used for
Pacific, noted that most islanders’ diets improvements in education and health.
nowadays consisted of junk food and canned fish
imported from Japan thousands of miles away - The meeting between western and indigenous
despite the fact that they were surrounded by cultures has not often been a happy one, but
water, and fishing had been a way of life for perhaps there is hope yet for the continued
millennia. diversity of humankind.

After reading
Exercise 1
Match a place from the first table with a fact from the second table.

1. Australia 2. Bolivia 3. Botswana 4. Brazil 5. Namibia

6. Nicaragua 7. Sweden 8. Tasmania 9. USA

a. There are no longer any indigenous people b. Indigenous people have got their land back
living there
c. The government are moving many people to d. The local governments said sorry for what
attract tourists they did in the past
e. An indigenous person became leader of the f. Indigenous people are now rich because of
country gambling
g. The government may destroy a lot of h. Indigenous people have their own
indigenous land representatives
i. The majority of the indigenous population were killed

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The United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are registered in England as a charity.
 Podcasts – Themes – Indigenous Peoples

More activities on this topic

You’ll find links to all the following activities connected to the theme of indigenous peoples at:
http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-central-themes-indigenous-peoples.htm
• Word game: Indigenous peoples. Match the names of different types of indigenous peoples to
the places they come from and other information about them.
• Story: The Dreamtime is the central, unifying theme in Australian Aboriginal mythology. It
describes the process of the world being called into being. The Australian Aboriginal culture is
based on nature in every aspect. Most of their mythological heroes are animals common in
Australia.
• Trivia: Everything you (n)ever wanted to know about indigenous peoples.
• There is also an indigenous peoples-related cartoon and some carefully selected external links.
Answers to comprehension activity: 1. d; 2. e; 3. c; 4. g; 5. i; 6. b; 7. h; 8. a; 9. f

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The United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are registered in England as a charity.