The Chams as Indigenous People: Issues of Survival, Resistance, and (In)Visibility

The chapter traces the causes and factors that contributed to the violence against the Cham and the question of how they survived and resisted. The discrimination and subjugation of indigenous peoples in Vietnam and Cambodia have been closely connected to the history of dispossession, expulsion, and extermination of the descendants of Champa. The term “genocide by attrition” or “attritional violence” can be applied to the Central Highlands of modern Vietnam. The last part of the paper considers specifics of the Cham diaspora in the USA, and the general conclusion is that religious identity prevails among the American Cham community, followed by ethnic and language identities. The term “double invisibility” can be applied to the Cham and other small ethnic diasporas from Asia living in the USA. The author concludes that the Cham managed to preserve their ethnic and religious identity despite the tough assimilation policy, massacres, racial discrimination and violations of their fundamental rights.