Trusteeship Council
The earliest official United Nations Indigenous Interventions began with the Trusteeship Council as they were in charge of establishing 17 non-self-governing territories which include Tokelau and the Falkland Islands in 1946.
The Tokelau at a Glimpse
The administering power over Tokelau is New Zealand with a primarily indigenous community relying on indigenous weaving and fish sea markets. In 2020 a draft resolution numbered XV, entitled “Question of Tokelau”, was written and submitted by Papua New Guinea in the attempts to advocate for the annexation of Tokelau as its own independent self-sovereign nation, which then was adopted by consensus on 5 August 2020.
However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the General Assembly and the Trusteeship Council did not meet and no plans have been established to further prioritize the annexation of Tokelau. Interestingly, the relationship between Tokelau and New Zealand is reportedly peaceful, however the last time officials from New Zealand went to visit and conduct investigations of the current state of Tokelau was in 2018. But New Zealand has continued to send economic relief up to $NZ 4.6 Million and diagnostic equipment to protect the people and their pandemic preparedness and ensure the economic sustainability of the people and territory.
The Falklands at a Glimpse
The Falkland Islands is a special case because the administering power is legally the United Kingdom but it is currently disputed with Argentina for sovereignty over the territory. Due to the lack of scientific evidence that there is currently little to no current inhabitation of indigenous peoples beyond the case of Cristina Calderón Harban who was a Chilean ethnographer, craftswoman, writer, and cultural activist who was the last living full-blooded Yaghan person after the death of her 84-year-old sister Úrsula in 2005. As she was born in the Tierra del Fuego region of Chile, she had reported that her family and her ancestral lineage was familiar to the Falkland Islands, highlighted in the MercoPress article titled, Last living Yagan language speaker dies aged 93; members of her ethnicity lived in the Falklands.
Due to the account of the lack of living Indigenous members in the Falkland Islands, the UN trusteeship council and General Assembly have not prioritized the emancipation of the Falkland Islands as well as prioritizing the intervention between the Argentine and British dispute over current administration powers.
However, the Falkland Islands maintain a dependent relationship with Tourism and its connections to both Argentina and the United Kingdom due to its popularity in the Global North because of the inconsistency and reliability of the sovereign nations.
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Durbin, Adam. “Falklands War Remains ‘an Open Wound’ in Argentina, Says Ambassador.” BBC News, BBC, 2 May 2022, https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-61294958.
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“Last Living Yagan Language Speaker Dies Aged 93; Members of Her Ethnicity Lived in the Falklands.” MercoPress, https://en.mercopress.com/2022/02/17/last-living-yagan-language-speaker-dies-aged-93-members-of-her-ethnicity-lived-in-the-falklands.
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New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. “Tokelau.” New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, https://www.mfat.govt.nz/en/aid-and-development/our-aid-partnerships-in-the-pacific/tokelau/.
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“Tokelau a True Small Island Developing State.” Tokelau Government, https://www.tokelau.org.nz/About+Us.html.
“Tokelau a True Small Island Developing State.” Tokelau Government, https://www.tokelau.org.nz/About+Us.html.
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