Isle Of Man Natives
Native Title And Aboriginal Sovereignty On The Isle Of Man
The Isle Of Man (located in the British Isles) is reportedly the home of the world's oldest continuous parliament - the Tynwald, established 7000 years ago. Well, that's a bit of a Eurocentric statement - there are Australian Indigenous communities who still have parliaments which have remained uninterrupted for at least ten thousand years, according to oral history records.
However, the Isle Of Man has one thing that most of the world's indigenous communities lack - autonomy. They make their own laws, retain their native language and even have their own separate currency. They are not part of either the United Kingdom or the European Union. Their culture is so strong that they were actually able to "gaelicize" their Viking invaders thousands of years ago. As far as I know, this is the only case in history of an indigenous people assimilating its invaders! We could all learn some lessons from these islanders.
The native islanders still speak their traditional "Manx" language, which they call Gaelg Vanninagh. The language is used in schools and even in local government.
The Isle existed for a long time under feudal oppression, with the "house of Stanley" acting as feudal lords. However, during the twentieth century the islanders won native title over their traditional lands, and achieved the status of a Crown dependency, with its own elected government and autonomy, utilising the Tynwald parliament that has remained throughout the numerous invasions and foreign occupations of the island.
