Here's the History and Significance of the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples

With an estimated 370 million indigenous people in the world, living across 90 countries, August 9 is widely celebrated as the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples or the World Tribal Day. The tribal or indigenous people make up less than 5 per cent of the world’s population, speaking a majority of the world’s estimated 7,000 languages and representing 5,000 different cultures.

To front up and protect the rights of the world’s indigenous population, International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples or World Tribal Day is observed on August 9 each year.

World Tribal Day 2019: History and Significance

The World Tribal Day also recognizes the achievements and contributions made by indigenous people in order to improve world issues such as environmental protection. It is also celebrated with the goal of strengthening international cooperation for solving problems faced by indigenous peoples in areas such as human rights, the environment, development, education, and health, economic and social development.

The day was first pronounced by the General Assembly of the United Nations in December 1994. The date marks the day of the first meeting, in 1982, of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations of the Sub commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights.

World Tribal Day 2019: Theme

It was reported in the year 2016 that about 2680 indigenous languages were in danger and on the verge of getting extinct. To safeguard the loss of these indigenous languages, the UN has designated 2019 to be the International Year of Indigenous Languages. This will help in persuading, convincing and creating awareness to people about the Indigenous Languages.