Why do First Nations people continue to be history’s outsiders?

Description

For as long as “History” with a capital ‘H’ has been written, Indigenous peoples have been placed outside its circle. Consequently, whole groups of peoples, whole continents like Australia, and whole spans of human time, are missing from history’s scope.

Why have Indigenous peoples become History’s outsiders? One reason is the formal discipline of history originated in Europe and was based on analysing written texts.

Traditionally History has used books and articles to share its findings. It has also relied on documentary archives for its data. Yet Indigenous cultures the world over had their own methods of maintaining History: story telling, art, ritual, dance and song. Many cultures still practice these today.

In our collection, The Routledge Companion to Indigenous Global History , we reveal no truly global history can be written unless we take account of the depth, scale and scope of Indigenous histories.