Westphalian Vs. Indigenous Sovereignty: Challenging Colonial Territorial Governance

Abstract

The Westphalian concept of sovereignty frames international relations and law. Since the 2007 UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the notion of Indigenous sovereignty has also entered international political debate. In this article, we examine the underlying premise of Westphalian and Indigenous sovereignties. A scoping review of the literature reveals that Westphalian sovereignty is a Eurocentric concept implicated in the colonialisation of Indigenous peoples in settler societies. Conversely, Indigenous sovereignty is a broader idea that involves social and cultural aspects, recognises the interdependencies between political actors and relationships to the land, and acknowledges the contextualised nature of sovereignty. We suggest that the two conceptions of sovereignty cannot be reconciled with each other. However, in a shifting political terrain, Indigenous sovereignty poses a critical challenge to the Eurocentric definition of sovereignty.