Ep. 24 - Panel 6A - Part 2 - A genocide by any other means - Gerard Maguire (MU)

NPPSH Conference

This paper will highlight the atrocity that is cultural genocide. It will offer two case studies to highlight the destruction caused by cultural genocide in varying forms by detailing acts perpetrated by the State in both Guatemala and Canada. Cultural genocide is especially applicable to the indigenous peoples of the world, who continuously face treats to their cultural survival. A topical study with the evolving nature of the indigenous identity in the contemporary world, a people, transitioning from weak and vulnerable subsections of the population to a self-actualizing entity demanding the rights and protections they deserve. This paper examines the history and continued plight of the indigenous peoples of Guatemala in the pursuit of their collective cultural survival. The measures, actions and inaction taken by the Guatemalan government through acts of both physical and cultural genocide. Secondly this piece will analyse the Canadian residential school system. The State and Church sponsored campaign ran with the slogan ‘don’t kill the child, kill the Indian in the child’. Over the course of more than one hundred years the central goals of Canada’s Aboriginal policy were to eliminate aboriginal lifestyle and custom by forcibly weakening the traditional and cultural links that bind them as a people. This piece will then assess the lack of prosecution of the cultural element to acts of genocide at present and question the validity of this crime in the indigenous context. A shared history of violence and oppression that has scared the face of two different nations. Gerard Maguire is a second year PhD student in the Department of Law, Maynooth University. His field of research is in the area of the rights of minorities and indigenous peoples with a focus on the dangers posed by cultural genocide to vulnerable populations.