by Richard Sidaway 理查德.賽德威著

'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children’ (Native American proverb)
我們并不是從我們的祖先那繼承了這個地球，而是借用了我們子孫后代的地球。(美國諺語)

In December 2005, Evo Morales became the new President of Bolivia. He was only 46 years old and openly supported the production and use of the coca plant. He also wanted the state to take control of the profitable natural gas industry. But what was really significant was where he came from. He was born into a farming family in the Andes and spent much his life campaigning for the interests of the original inhabitants of the country. He was one of the first leaders of an indigenous people to make it to the top.
2005年12月，埃沃.莫拉萊斯成為玻利維亞的新總統(tǒng)。那時候，他只有46歲，并公開支持種植和使用古柯植物。但真正重要的是莫拉萊斯來自何方。莫拉萊斯出生于安第斯山的一個農(nóng)民家庭，他的大半生在為國家原始居民利益的戰(zhàn)役中度過。他是做得最好的土著人領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人之一。

There are perhaps 370 million indigenous peoples in 70 countries around the world. They live on 20% of the world’s land, and they contribute 80% of the world’s biological and cultural diversity. For the last few hundred years, however, European colonialism has marginalised them. Europeans gave them diseases against which they had no defences, suppressed their culture and language, and tried to assimilate them into western societies.
全球70個國家大概有3.7億土著人口。 他們居住在占了全世界陸地的百分之二十的土地上，構(gòu)成了世界生物和文化多樣性的百分之八十。然而，在過去的幾百年里，歐洲殖民主義把他們驅(qū)逐出境。歐洲人給他們帶來了他們無法抵御的疾病，壓制了他們的文化和語言，并試圖將他們同化到西方社會中去。

Sometimes they almost disappeared from history. Few people today have heard of the Herero of Namibia. Eighty per cent of their population died from starvation a century ago at the hands of German colonisers. In 1803, there were 10,000 people living in Tasmania, but after the British declared war on them twenty years later, only 300 survived. The last Tasman died in 1905.
有時候，他們幾乎從歷史上消失了。當(dāng)今，很少有人聽過納米比亞的赫雷羅人。 一個世紀(jì)之前，赫雷羅人在德國殖民者的手中死于饑餓。1803年，塔斯馬尼亞居住了10000人，但是20年后，當(dāng)英國宣布戰(zhàn)爭后，只有300人幸存。 最后一個塔斯馬尼亞人在1905年去世。

The main reason for the decimation of indigenous peoples has been to get their land and natural resources. In Colombia, a hundred years of oil extraction has resulted in the pollution of rivers, soil and drinking water. The story is repeated in Ecuador and Peru. In Brazil, the government plan to build five large dams on the Xingu River. These will flood thousands of square kilometres of tribal reserves and destroy much agricultural land.
土著人口大量死亡的主要原因是他們?yōu)榱双@得住地和自然資源。在哥倫比亞，100多年的石油提煉導(dǎo)致了許多河流，土壤和飲用水的污染。這樣的故事在厄瓜多爾和秘魯也不斷上演。在巴西，政府計劃在興谷河上建5個大的水壩。 這將會使得數(shù)千平方公里的部落保護區(qū)遭受洪澇，也將會破壞大量的農(nóng)田。

Often governments have used forced relocation to get the local inhabitants out of the way. In Botswana today it is happening because of diamond mining and tourism. In the islands of Diego Garcia, in the Indian Ocean, the entire population were banished forever in order to build an airbase.
政府經(jīng)常使用強制遷移的辦法來驅(qū)逐當(dāng)?shù)鼐用瘛．?dāng)今的博茨瓦納，由于鉆石采礦和旅游業(yè)，仍然存在著這樣的強制遷移。為了建立一個空軍基地，在迪戈加西亞環(huán)礁島，在印度洋，所有的人口都被驅(qū)逐出去。

Land has a spiritual significance for indigenous people. In 1985 the Australian government finally recognised this and returned ownership of Uluru (Ayers Rock) to the Pitjantjatjara Aborigines. In the USA, however, the government is planning to store radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, although it is a sacred site for the Shoshone nation.
對于土著人來說，陸地有著精神上的意義。1985年，澳洲政府承認(rèn)了這一點并把烏魯魯巨石（艾爾斯巖）歸還給皮塔塔塔拉土著居民。然而，在美國，政府打算把放射性肥料填埋在內(nèi)華達(dá)州的卡亞山，盡管那是肖松尼族人的宗教場所。

Businesses often try to take possession of indigenous cultures. Multinational companies wanted to become the owners of traditional knowledge in areas such as food, farming and health. They have tried to create patents on plants and medicines that indigenous people have used for centuries.
商業(yè)發(fā)展總是試圖占領(lǐng)土著文化。跨國公司想要成為一些區(qū)域的傳統(tǒng)知識的擁有者，例如食品，農(nóng)業(yè)和保健行業(yè)。它們試圖在土著人使用了幾千年的農(nóng)作物和藥物方面創(chuàng)造專利。

Native languages are also disappearing. They were banned in schools for decades. Parents stopped using them to communicate in the home, and so they were no longer passed from one generation to another.
本地語言也正在消亡。本地語言在學(xué)校里禁止使用已經(jīng)有幾十年了。在家里，家長也不再用本地語言交流了，這樣，本地語言就不能再世代傳承下去了。

Sometimes families have been affected in more dramatic ways. In Australia, it was government policy from 1900-1972 to forcibly remove aboriginal children from their parents and bring them up in institutions.
有時候，許多家庭也會被很戲劇性的方法所影響。1900年到1972年，澳大利亞政府強制把土著孩子從他們的家長中遷移出來，讓孩子們在社會機構(gòu)里接受教育。

Health problems such as obesity, heart disease and diabetes are another feature of indigenous life. The writer Paul Theroux, travelling in the Pacific, noted that most islanders’ diets nowadays consisted of junk food and canned fish imported from Japan thousands of miles away - despite the fact that they were surrounded by water, and fishing had been a way of life for millennia.

土著人生活的另一特點健康問題，例如肥胖，心臟病和糖尿病。作家保羅.泰魯出游太平洋的時候注意到，盡管現(xiàn)在大多數(shù)島上居民居住在被海水圍繞的地方，而且?guī)浊陙聿遏~也是他們謀生的一種方式，但是他們的飲食卻是垃圾食物和從幾千英里外進(jìn)口的日本罐裝魚。

So is the election of Mr Morales, in one of the world’s poorest countries, a sign that things are finally getting better? Various peoples around the world now have their own representation. There is a Sámi parliament in Sweden and an Assembly of First Nations in Canada.

所以，莫拉萊斯的當(dāng)選是否意味著全世界最貧困的那些國家終于要有些改觀了？世界各地的不同種族都有代表為自己發(fā)聲。瑞典有一個薩米人的議會，加拿大也有原住民議會。

Formal Apologies were passed in several Australian State Parliaments in 1998 for the past mistreatment of the Aboriginal population. In Aotearoa/New Zealand, the Treaty of Waitangi Act has made it possible for Maoris to claim back land, fisheries and forest in special courts where they have equal representation with non-indigenous people. The Miskito Indians in Nicaragua have had similar success.
1998年，政府在澳洲幾個州議會上，正式對過去虐待土著人口致歉。在社會主義黨/新西蘭，在一些毛利人跟非土著人擁有平等代表權(quán)的特殊法庭上，懷唐伊日法案條約，使得毛利人要求歸還土地、漁場和森林的要求變成了可能。

Some Native American Tribes have recently become extremely wealthy because of a change in the law. They can now start casinos on their own land. Some people worry about the morality of this, but some of the profit has been used for improvements in education and health.
近來，因為法律的變更，一些土著的美洲部落變得極其富?！，F(xiàn)在，他們可以在自己的土地上建造賭場。一些人對這樣做的道德觀而擔(dān)憂，但是賭場帶來的一些利潤已用于教育和醫(yī)療的改善。

The meeting between western and indigenous cultures has not often been a happy one, but perhaps there is hope yet for the continued diversity of humankind.
西方文化和土著文化的相遇，經(jīng)常都是不愉快的，但是由于不斷延續(xù)的人類多樣性，這也許還有希望。