Indigenous by definition, experience, or world view.

Links between people, their land, and culture need to be acknowledged " I ndigenous " has a number of usages that differ from " to be born in a specific place, " which is how the Concise Oxford Dictionary defines it. 1 These usages tend to define indigenous by the experiences shared by a group of people who have inhabited a country for thousands of years, which often contrast with those of other groups of people who reside in the same country for a few hundred years. A number of alternative terms are preferred to indigenous. For example, in Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander is appropriate and acceptable. In Canada and the United States, the term First Nations is used to describe the Indian, Métis, and Inuit populations, whereas in Hawaii, native Hawaiian finds favour. Many groups prefer their own language. The Maori of New Zealand use " Tangata Whenua " or " people of the land " in preference to Maori used by the colonising Victorian English who, unaware of its meaning (ordinary or common), ironically deemed the indigenous population to be the ordinary inhabitants, rendering themselves extraordinary in the process. 2 Te Ahukaramu Charles Royal, a recent Maori recipient of the Churchill fellowship for overseas study, offers an attractive definition of indigenous based on what he calls world views—indigenous is used for those cultures whose world views place special significance on the idea of the unification of the humans with the natural world. 3 Royal contrasts three major world views—a Western (Judaeo-Christian) view which sees God as external and in heaven " above " ; an Eastern view, which focuses internally and concentrates on reaching within through meditation and other practices; and an indigenous view, which sees people as integral to the world, with humans having a seamless relationship with nature which includes seas, land, rivers , mountains, flora, and fauna. If we accept that indigenous people have an integral association with nature, then it is easy to see the validity of an argument presented by many people, including Foliaki and Pearce (p 437). This states that the dislocation of most indigenous peoples from their lands through colonisation has contributed to the effects of newly introduced diseases on their health (figure). The direct linkages between the current health status of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and the various practices that followed invasion and colonisation and the …