Indigeneity generally refers to the descendants of people who inhabited a territory prior to colonization or the formation of a country, often those who are disadvantaged as a result, and who continue to inhabit the land. Connection to the land is a fundamental element of indigeneity, as is the specific condition of dispossession by colonization: indigeneity, as it is understood today, emerges in relation to colonial processes.

So, although all distinct ethnicities may originate from specific places and times, indigeneity as a political and social identity is meaningful only in the context of colonial domination and resistance.

Not every engineer is engaged in an ongoing struggle for sovereignty against colonizing powers.