From transnational to trans-Indigenous: a critical analysis of the role of categorization and everyday coloniality in Indigenous mobilities

Abstract

Addressing the special issue’s focus on the contestation of state categories, this article investigates the categorization of Indigenous Peoples on the move and how they resist and re-exist these categorizations. Rooted in decolonial approaches from Latin America, we propose a trans-Indigenous conceptual framework for the analysis of such mobilities. Based on 15 semi-structured interviews with Indigenous people on the move conducted in the State of Roraima in Brazil and supplemented by an examination of relevant policy documents in the region, our arguments are built around the perspectives of Indigenous people on the move and their resistance. In outlining the contours of a trans-Indigenous conceptual framework, this article’s primary contributions lie in contextualizing Indigenous mobilities within a decolonial critique of the modern-colonial nation-state and human rights in Latin America that may lead toward an independent praxis related to territory, sovereignty, and mobilities.