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How should I write about indigenous peoples respectfully?

Use the name a people use for themselves. Write in the present tense about living societies. Be specific about which people you mean. Avoid words such as primitive, backward, stone age and exotic. Capitalise names of peoples, and check current preferences with the people's own organisations.

Start with names. Prefer the people's own name, such as Diné, Sámi or Inuit, and mention an older outside name only if readers need it. Do not use names a people have rejected, such as 'Eskimo' in Canada or 'Lapp'.

Be specific. Say 'the Gond of central India', not 'a tribe'. Do not lump hundreds of nations together as if they shared one culture. Where a general term is needed, use the one common in that country: First Nations, Adivasi, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Use the present tense. These are modern communities with phones, schools, lawyers and artists, not relics. Avoid 'lost', 'vanishing' or 'untouched', and avoid describing people as part of the scenery. Write about history as history, and make clear that the people are still here.

Describe, do not rank. Words like 'primitive' or 'simple' judge one society by another's standards. Say what people actually do: how they farm, govern and worship. Give people a voice as well. Quote members of the community, credit knowledge to its holders, and treat oral history as a serious source.

Words used here

EndonymExonymEthnocentrismCultural relativismOral traditionSelf-identification

Sources

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