Members of colonised groups, statelessness and the right to have rights

Indigenous political theory offers an important critical resource in developing more nuanced broader understandings of citizenship and thereby also nuanced practice in the area of statelessness. Citizenship of a recognised State is often seen uncritically as the first and most important step in addressing the deprivations experienced as a result of statelessness. This chapter expresses that alongside supporting individuals to access their rights in whichever way necessary, there needs to be a significant re-examination of the liberal theoretical understanding of the State system itself in the light of the claims both of stateless persons and of members of Indigenous Nations. With a focus primarily on North American contexts, the chapter then explores the remedies currently offered for the problems associated with statelessness which are rooted in an assumption of citizenship of a member of the existing community of States as the only way in which people can or should relate politically within a State's territory and internationally.