Last Updated on October 3, 2013
Dr. Rob Williams explores the history and consequences of the denial of indigenous peoples’ human rights to lands and resources in the West from the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans up through Canada’s 21st century treaty negotiations with First Nations in British Columbia and its 2007 vote against the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Rob Williams is a member of the Lumbee Indian Tribe of North Carolina and a recipient of many awards and honours for his research into Indian rights and the legal history of racism. He has also served as Chief Justice for the Court of Appeals, Pascua Yaqui Indian Reservation, and as Justice for the Court of Appeals and trial judge pro tem for the Tohono O’odham Nation. He is Jr. Faculty Co-Chair of the University of Arizona Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program and Lead Counsel in the case of the Hul’qumi’num Treaty Group v. Canada (presently awaiting a decision on the Merits from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights).
He is also the author of Savage Anxieties: The Invention of Western Civilization<, a book on which this presentation is based.
Across the world right now, Indigenous peoples are facing a renewed assault on their lands, rights, and ways of life.
From extractive industries pushing deeper into ancestral territories, to governments rolling back hard-won protections,
the threat is global—and it is growing.
What makes this moment especially dangerous is how little attention it receives.
Stories like this are disappearing in real time. Mainstream media
barely covers it and the coverage is fragmented. The public is left without the context
needed to understand what is truly at stake.
That is exactly why IC Magazine exists..
For more than 20 years, IC has reported on Indigenous struggles worldwide — consistently, independently, and without compromise.
We don’t follow news cycles; we trace patterns. We don’t sensationalize; we provide context.
And when the world looks away, we stay focused.
But this work is increasingly difficult to sustain.
We refuse to lock our reporting behind a paywall. We don’t sell access through subscriptions.
And we don’t answer to advertisers. IC Magazine survives solely because readers like you choose to
support independent Indigenous journalism.
Please donate today if you can. Every contribution helps us to continue this crucial work.
Thank you,
John Ahni Schertow
Founder and Editor in Chief
