Regarding the land tenure Keynote I learned that land tenure was actually a policy of Indigenous peoples during pre-colonial times. Under land tenure, the majority of pre-colonial indigenous lands were almost exclusively for the ruling classes. However, when there was land tenure there were benefits in terms of sustainable land management and climate mitigation. I also learnt that Indigenous customary laws had a wide variety of land access and management rules that vary based on location, cultural tradition, ecological landscape and local historiography. Also, under the existing conditions, Indigenous peoples have to deal with a system that doesn’t work in their favour in fighting to maintain some autonomy over their land use and management.

As a result, this keynote illustrates to me that Indigenous peoples had their own laws and policies before settlers arrived. Within the context of state and indigenous relations today, this further illustrates to me why Indigenous peoples have had such great difficulty in attempting to exercise their full autonomy over settlers. Indigenous land tenure that acted as climate mitigation also reminded me about the Wet’suwet’en peoples in British Columbia, where the governments presence on their lands inherently harms the climate, as well as their right to sovereignty over their territory. In this sense, the connection I have made between an example of Indigenous struggle in Latin America and my home province allows me to believe that the concept of land tenure for indigenous peoples stretches across continents. As a result, my previous conception of colonialism has been changed through reading this keynote regarding colonialisms catastrophic impact on indigenous peoples.