Indigenous and Decolonial Disability Activisms
摘要
In this chapter, disability activism of Indigenous and decolonial backgrounds in Latin America is seen as a human-empowered and enlightened change of epochs and cultures that annul the holding on of disability to the Eurocentric worldview and the unfavorable perception of the differently-abled. By granting Euro-American culture a long-standing influence over the world, the author of this chapter supports their claim about the disability in Indigenous and Afro-descendant groups being irrevocably intertwined with colonialism, land theft, racial segregation, assimilation, and neoliberal rule. The chapter illustrates, through decolonial theory, Indigenous cosmology, feminist disability studies, and community psychology, the liberatory shift in disability activism in Latin America from mere inclusion to justice grounded in liberation. Directing the readers’ attention to Indigenous-led movements, grassroots resistance among Black and rural communities, women- and youth-led initiatives, and transnational solidarity, the chapter emphasizes that activism is anchored in care of the community, cultural sovereignty, and self-determination. Attention is particularly directed toward protests, direct actions, and reclaiming public, territorial, and sacred spaces, as well as the increasing significance of digital activism in both visibility-building and alliance-making, notwithstanding the ongoing digital and language inequalities. Narratives, particularly through art, storytelling, oral histories, and embodied protests, were pointed out as necessary means to reclaim the power to narrate and to fight against the medicalization of disability and the provision of charity to disabled people as the only legitimate model of disability. The chapter also tackles criticisms of decolonial disability activism by emphasizing the necessity for, and sometimes the complexity of, negotiation with the international legal order, internal power differences, and co-optation by state and NGO structures. The chapter illustrates how the Indigenous and decolonial disability movements in Latin America are far from being merely rights-based struggles, but rather a complete and radical transformation of disability, justice, and community concepts that are based on Indigenous epistemologies and shared futures.