"Walking Backwards into the Future": Indigenous Peoples and International Human Rights Law

Maori, the Indigenous peoples of Aotearoa New Zealand, refer to the past as I nga ra o mua or the days before us. We figuratively walk backwards into the future, drawing on the past to move forward. Where the futures for international human rights are concerned, the aphorism is pithy. Understanding what is to come for international human rights law means first understanding what has been and what is. I argue that an appreciation of the changing practice of Indigenous peoples rights in the international system usefully illuminates some future pathways for human rights more broadly. It is a history punctuated by highs and lows: invisibility, institutional accommodation and emerging recognition, crowned by the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (Declaration) in 2007. In this paper I briefly trace these developments and the current state of practice in order to explore what could lie ahead. I devote especial attention to how emerging support and strengthsbased approaches to promoting implementation of the Declaration hint at possible new performances of international human rights.