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Ms. Ida Nicolaisen
Nationality: Denmark
Portfolio/s in the PFII: Children and Youth, Protection of Traditional Knowledge and Indigenous Intellectual Poperty, Human Rights |
PROFILE
Ida Nicolaisen was nominated by Denmark to the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. She became interested in indigenous peoples when she was a child. When she grew up, she decided to study anthropology and get more acquainted with indigenous peoples. She was the only student at that time and was lucky that her husband was working with the Tamasheg people of Western Sahara. This brought her to Africa very early. She immediately became interested on the issue of slavery and wrote her thesis on slavery among pastoral people in that region. She worked for many years with the Tamasheg people and a small hunter-gatherer group called the Hardad in Chad. She is currently publishing a monograph about these people.
The United Nations is not new to Ida. After working with the Tamasheg and the Hardad, she started working in Southeast Asia where she worked with indigenous groups in central Borneo over 30 years. She only went back to Africa when there was a big drought that hit the Sahel region. Then, the United Nations established the United Nations Sahelian Office (UNSO). She worked in this agency as the Danish government adviser to all the projects it funded. Ida is currently editor of a major Danish program of research among pastoral peoples. There are 16 volumes, including two on the Tamasheg. This study dates from the 1950s, and is based on the spiritual beliefs and culture of the Tamasheg. Ida is one of the experts who recognize and respect the intellectual property rights of a people as she has advocated for the preservation of many indigenous peoples artifacts in the museums where she has worked. She has always made sure that any collection is first left in the country and what is not needed, she takes with her for documentation.
Ida has been involved in work that has brought her closer to achieving her dreams to help in the positive development of indigenous peoples worldwide. She hopes the Permanent Forum will make a big difference, but she feels that will take a while before we see it.
"It is a political process that may take awhile. Indigenous peoples are becoming more and more strong in advocacy working with the Governments, international organizations and the United Nations. There is a hope that this can improve the way of life for indigenous peoples. We all know that it is high time to speed up efforts to improve the living conditions of hundreds of millions of indigenous peoples. We must fight for their right to live where their forefathers did, in accordance with their own values."
The Permanent Forum must work to raise awareness at all levels so that all people can be aware of indigenous issues, including women's rights. We must make the world understand indigenous issues, and we must all work towards those goals, otherwise we all stand to lose. The international community and the United Nations and governments have to look at the Permanent Forum in a holistic way. Discussions have continued for a long time without any positive outcome. Now is the time for all to collectively work together for the success of indigenous peoples.
On the African situation, Ida explains clearly that African problems goes back to colonial times, and the way the region has been cut up regardless of ethnic boundaries. African states have to develop themselves, and that has been a long process. With illiteracy, poverty, economic problems and political conflicts, it is difficult for these countries to develop. There are already regional institutions that have started work on indigenous people's issues, and this is a positive move. There is hope, because indigenous peoples are working hard worldwide despite the fact that the road has been a hard one.
Ida is grateful to have been nominated to the Permanent Forum by her government as an expert. Her work with the indigenous peoples and minority indigenous communities has given her strength to continue the work "to improve the situation of indigenous peoples around the world and give them their rightful place in the international community."
