The Indigenous World
The Indigenous World 2021
For 35 consecutive years IWGIA has published The Indigenous World in collaboration with this community of authors. This yearly overview serves to document and report on the developments Indigenous Peoples have experienced throughout 2020. The Indigenous World 2021 adds not only documentation, but also includes a special focus on COVID-19.
Throughout 2020, Indigenous Peoples were disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic with, among other things, lack of access to proper health services, limited health information in Indigenous languages, minimal to no virtual education opportunities for Indigenous students and closure of markets for the sale of goods. Indigenous Peoples proved their resilience by setting up their own networks and solutions, connecting communities to help transfer information and goods, and implementing traditional methods of protection to keep themselves safe from the virus and the intrusion of outsiders who potentially carried it. Nonetheless, as the pandemic spread, Indigenous Peoples continued to be persecuted, threatened, criminalised and killed in their efforts to defend their rights, sometimes under the guise of emergency laws enacted to mitigate the virus, but which also allowed for Indigenous Peoples’ rights to be violated and their lands to be exploited.
The 62 regional and country reports and 20 reports on international processes and initiatives covered in this edition underscore these trends. IWGIA publishes this volume with the intent that it is used as a documentation tool and as an inspiration to promote, protect and defend the rights of Indigenous Peoples, their struggles, worldview and resilience.
Support us
The digital version of The Indigenous World will always be freely available online, but you can get a physical copy by supporting us in one of the following ways:
By becoming an IWGIA member – OR – 
By making a donation of 20 Euro or more and sending an e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with your post address
Thank you for your support!
Dr. Fleur Te Aho, Lecturer at Auckland Law School in New Zealand
-- When I teach my ‘Indigenous Peoples in International Law’ course I recommend The Indigenous World to my students as a way to get a sense of contemporary Indigenous rights challenges, and successes, from around the world. It is crucial that our stories are shared and the book is an important global platform for this.
Bestang Sarah Dekdeken, Kankanaey Igorot from the Cordillera region in northern Philippines and the current Secretary General of CPA.
-- The Indigenous World is a valuable publication that enables us to have a better understanding of the global situation of indigenous peoples, the common issues that we face and common actions we undertake. The book helps strengthen our solidarity relations among indigenous peoples and advocates.
Qapaj Conde, Aymara attorney and Co-Chair of the Global Indigenous Youth Caucus
-- The Indigenous World performs a far-reaching service by combining a unique global panorama with specialized national articles on the situation of indigenous peoples. Its comprehensive reporting allows the indigenous movement to articulate among themselves, as well as, to develop – from the local to the global level– a broad awareness about human rights.
International Indigenous Women's Foundation (IIWF)
-- The Indigenous World is a key reference documentation for us to underpin our positions in the defense of the rights of indigenous peoples. Having a global approach, the inclusion of our voice is critical for making our perspectives, worldviews, contributions and ways of acting known.
Antonella Cordone, Senior Technical Specialist Indigenous Peoples and Tribal Issues Policy at IFAD
-- The Indigenous World is an invaluable book used as an entry point and easily accessible information by anyone working on the topic. I do not let anybody touch the book in my office.
Ib Petersen, Former Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Denmark to the United Nations in New York
-- Fact-based tools like The Indigenous World are and will be the key to ensure that the Development Agenda 2030 leaves no one behind. IWGIA is able to produce such a tool every year in a short period of time, a task that no other organisation has managed to cope with.
Hawe Hamman, National Vice President of MBOSCUDA and Member of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations/Communities (ACHPR), Cameroon
-- I draw valuable information from The Indigenous World to prepare my interventions at national, regional as well as international level. The book both helps me master the topic and compare or elucidate in a case I wish to illustrate and give me relevant and general information of the global advancements to argue my interventions.
Jason Pan Adawai, PingPu and Director of TARA-PingPu
-- The Indigenous World has been invaluable for us, indigenous peoples in Taiwan, giving access to the global situation of indigenous peoples and their development. It has linked us in Taiwan to other indigenous peoples, beyond the barriers and restrictions for our engagement at UN and international indigenous peoples' forums.
The Indigenous World
Since 1986, the purpose of The Indigenous World has been to give a comprehensive yearly overview of the developments indigenous peoples have experienced. It is our hope that indigenous peoples themselves, along with their organisations, will find it useful in their advocacy work aimed at improving indigenous peoples’ human rights situation. The book is the unique result of a collaborative effort between indigenous and non-indigenous activists and scholars who voluntarily share their valuable insights and analysis. We thank them and celebrate the bonds, strengths and sense of community that emerge from making this one-of-a kind documentation tool available.
Tags: Human rights
