The introduction of the principle of Prior Consultation in international law has been a revindication of indigenous people formulated by their ONU working group existing since 1982. It is the cornerstone of the guarantee of indigenous peoples’ territorial, physical and cultural integrity by the ILO convention 169 and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. 23 countries signed this convention, but the implementation of the principle of Prior Consultation on a national level raises fundamental questions about the possibilities of dialogue bridging the “colonial difference”.

This talk is based on interactional analysis of the official recordings and documentation of prior consultation processes in Peru and interviews with their actors. Peru implemented a national law on Prior Consultation in 2011/2012 after an important political crisis provoked by the State’s adamant refuse of dialogue with indigenous people about its Free Trade policy. We reconstruct persisting asymmetries on the level of interactional structures, cultural premises as well as language use, but we also emphasize the opportunities of social transformation that emerge in the personal encounter of actors.

Based on these results we discuss the possibilities of decolonial dialogue with reference to the concepts of “complex communication” of Maria Lugones (2006) and the “coalitional approach” of Gabriela Veronelli (2016).

References 
Lugones, María. « On Complex Communication ». Hypatia 21, no 3 (2006): 75-85. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1527-01.2006.tb01114.x.
Veronelli, Gabriela A. « A Coalitional Approach to Theorizing Decolonial Communication ». Hypatia 31, no 2 (2016): 404-20.  https://doi.org/10.1111/hypa.12238.

Organized by Ana Paulla Braga Mattos

Poster 
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