1.
A Cypher-Indigenous Manifesto
The Rights of Indigenous Peoples in the Digital Era
September 13, 2022
We, the indigenous peoples, in virtue of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
adopted by the General Assembly on 13 September 2007, have the right to self-determination.
By virtue of that right we freely determine our political status and freely pursue our economic,
social and cultural development and have the right to autonomy or self-government in
matters relating to our internal and local affairs, as well as ways and means for financing our
autonomous functions.
From this acknowledgment, and in order to preserve the integrity of these rights, and to maintain,
control, protect and develop our cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural
expressions, we claim that digital and decentralized technologies may be critical to protect
us, the indigenous peoples, from repression, extortion and intrusion, while preserving and
strengthening our traditions.
We admit that the digital realm tends to be an extension of the physical one, therefore the privacy,
autonomy and decentralization inherent to indigenous cultures must be extended into the
digital realm to preserve our integrity.
Privacy empowers us, the indigenous peoples, to express our right of self-determination, to
maintain, control, protect, develop our cultures and to preserve the autonomy of our
institutions from external actors who are not explicitly allowed to interfere with them.
Decentralized technologies empower us, the indigenous peoples, to integrate our cultural,
social, and economical institutions in the digital era as an extension and expansion of our
traditional institutions.
Therefore, we the indigenous peoples give our support to humans who protect and build
privacy and decentralized technologies fundamental to the preservation of our rights and,
by extension, to the freedom of all humanity.
This manifesto is a call to projects that want to help us protect and expand our rights in the
digital era. In this respect, we propose to work together in the creation of digital indigenous
institutions, opening beneficial reciprocity for the development of free and protective rights,
as stated in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, to provide global solutions
for planet Earth and all its inhabitants.
We, the indigenous peoples, are dedicated to the expansion of life, and we believe that it is
through the union of all our efforts, knowledge and technologies that we will find real solutions
for the preservation and evolution of humanity.
We, the indigenous peoples, see freedom as the expression of life itself, and now more than
ever, we must come together to protect its full expression as a legacy for future generations
The United Peoples
By Oyxabaten Collective
Translation by Mycelia