Here are brief definitions for some of the key terms and phrases used elsewhere in this website:
Autonomous: Having the right or power or self-government; Existing or capable of existing independently.
Community: A unified body of individuals; People with common interests living in a particular area; A body of persons or nations having a common history, or common social, economic and political interests.
Indigenous: Produced, growing, living or occurring natively or naturally in a particular region or environment; Of or relating to the earliest known inhabitants of a place. See ‘ Indigenous Peoples‘.
Jurisdiction: The power, right and authority to apply the law; The authority of a sovereign power to govern or legislate; The limits or territory within which authority may be exercised.
Micro: Small.
Nation: A community of people composed of one or more nationalities and possessing a more or less defined territory and government. See ‘ Nation versus Micro-Nation‘.
Natural Law: A body of law or a specific principle held to be derived from nature and binding upon human society in the absence of or in addition to positive law. See ‘ Natural Law versus Common Law‘.
Peoples: A body of persons that are united by a common culture, tradition, or sense of kinship, that typically have common language, institutions, and beliefs, and that often constitute a politically organized group; Human beings making up a group or assembly or linked by a common interest; The body of enfranchised citizens of a state.
Self-determined/Self-determination: Determined by oneself; Free choice of one’s own acts or states without external compulsion; Determination by the people of a territorial unit of their own future political status; Decisions made for oneself and/or one’s group without outside governance or influence; The rights for an individual, family, community or nation to make decisions for themselves. See ‘ What is Self-Determination?‘
Sovereign: Possessed of supreme power; Enjoying autonomy.
Territory: A geographic area belonging to or under the jurisdiction of a governmental authority; An indeterminate geographic area; An assigned area.
Trust: A property interest held by one [or more] persons for the benefit of another[s].
Selected definitions from: https://www.merriam-webster.com/