Abstract
While much academic attention continues to focus on Indigenous peoples in rural contexts, in many Latin American countries, most or many people self-identifying as Indigenous now live in urban centres or are affected by the urbanisation of their territories. At the same time, many Indigenous peoples are on the move, with cities representing a primary destination for them. This migration, whether it is voluntary or not, occurs both within and beyond national borders, and gives rise to a broad range of Indigenous identities in the (new) urban contexts. Faced with this situation, it is thus time for academia to raise and explore, inter alia, the following questions: what are the main challenges which Indigenous peoples face in an urban scenario? How do they articulate and defend their cultures and rights in cities? How gender, youth and indigeneity intersect in the urban realities? And what has been the impact of the pandemic on these processes?
Against this background, this roundtable takes stock of the considerable Indigenous presence in urban landscapes in Latin America, as well as the transnational migration of Indigenous peoples to both the United States and Europe. We will thus focus on the implications of mobility and urbanisation for Indigenous identities and rights in times of the COVID-19 pandemic.