In his latest book, The Culture Club, for instance, University of Sydney anthropologist Roger Sandall argues that federal policies of self-management for Aborigines in Canada and Australia and the Maori of New Zealand have not advanced their cause. Such an outlook, Sandall argues, when foisted on indigenous peoples, has led many to the mistaken belief that their cultures are worth preserving. We do not seek to answer the question of why some cultures appear to persist and others falter along the way. All cultures are constantly in flux. The U'wa are fighting not only for their territorial integrity but also for the social integrity and collective rights of their group.
Culture is what gives meaning to people's lives.
Individuals orient themselves toward each other, toward the world, and toward the cosmos in terms of the understandings they share with others who live by their culture. If a given population wishes its culture to survive, then its own responsibility is to do what is necessary to maintain and cultivate it, reordering priorities in accordance with the will of the group. This they will do unless they are forced to abandon it. The surrounding society, or the rest of the world for that matter, is not responsible for preserving or protecting that culture. But it is responsible for protecting the rights of the marginal or minority population in such a way that its culture can be maintained.