ARC seminar - JOSHUA MENTANKO (Leiden University): 'Allá en Europa: Solidarity, indigeneity, and the quest for postcolonial justice'

Americas Research Collective

Organised with support from the United States Embassy, The Hague.

Abstract

This presentation draws on the archived papers of the organizing committee for the Fourth Russell Tribunal on Indigenous Rights. Held in Rotterdam in 1980, the tribunal exposed competing ideas about justice and liberation between the indigenous groups assembled as plaintiffs and the European and Latin American organizers.

“In this presentation, I will focus on the conflicts and collaborations between European solidarity organizations and Indigenous groups during the week-long tribunal. Some of the issues which threatened to torpedo the event which I will discuss include, 1) the politics of media engagement and visual representation of indigenous peoples, 2) the organization of the tribunal proceedings in ways that limited and manipulated indigenous voices, and 3) the dichotomizing of human rights and anticolonial frameworks for justice. I will conclude by reflecting on what the event can tell us about the entwined history of human rights, anticolonialism, and indigeneity in this period”.

Joshua Mentanko is postdoc at the Institute for History at Leiden University