Empowerment through the Internet: Opportunities and Challenges for Indigenous Peoples

This article provides an overview of internet use by indigenous peoples and offers policy recommendations on how these groups can benefit from the new information economy while maintaining their cultural values and identities. Several case studies are offered as well.

The First Indigenous Peoples Summit of the Americas was held in Ottawa, Canada in March 2001 and raised many questions about how the internet can influence international policy debates and promote indigenous people's rights. This article summarises some of the benefits and challenges of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs).

The report points to a number of challenges. One includes the use of ICTs to strengthen existing social capital. The report states that "the emphasis of using new technologies has to be based on using the technologies as a means of improving the living conditions of the communities, rather than becoming an end in themselves." It is key as well to focus on how ICTs can improve daily life through concrete services, such as e-government services to local ommunities or facilitating "economic transactions."

Further, "the benefits of ICTs for indigenous communities can only be fully realized if indigenous peoples themselves are acquiring the necessary skills to manage and 'own' the technology, or are working closely together with "community representatives/intermediaries" whom they trust..."Another challenge presented by the internet is the fact that a number of indigenous peoples are monlingual which makes it impossible for them to communicate outide of their own communities. One example from Bolivia includes 46 different indigenous groups.

ICTs can also also have a negative impact as illustrated in Guayana where indigenous women traded hammocks on the web thus creating financial independence from their husbands. The male community members forced an end to to the trading.

The article provides examples of how the internet can contribute to improving the livelihoods of local communities:

• In Venezuela, a local non-governmental organization provides training in linguistics, the production of books in indigenous languages (wood prints), mathematics and the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to reinforce "other training modules."
• In India, a software and education company, in cooperation with the government of New Delhi and the World Bank, is setting up a project entitled "Hole in the Wall" where computer kiosks are placed in the slums of New Delhi and street children with almost no education are teaching each other the use of computers.
• In India, a Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) has started trading their arts and crafts on the web.
• In Thailand, The Art Mirror Group demonstrated that the internet can channel funds through online donations to indigenous communities thus directly improving their living conditions.

The report concludes that ICTs can potentially benefit indigenous peoples and poor communities by providing new economic and social opportunities and that the internet can provide a "digital bridge" out of poverty. The report suggests that collaborative efforts between governments, donor agencies, the private sector and civil society are essential for ensuring that poor communities can employ the benefits provided by the new technologies.

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