The term is commonly applied to a range of different belief systems across the Americas, Australasia, Asia, Africa, and Northern Europe, particularly to those practiced by communities living under the impact of colonialism.
They are also often characterised as being distinct from the "world religions" because they are orally transmitted, intertwined with traditional lifestyles, and pluralist.
[5] However, according to the scholar of religion Graham Harvey, such approaches preference Western industrialized people and the course of Protestant Enlightenment culture.
[8] At the same time, he noted that "indigenous religionists" do not numerically make up the majority of religious people.
[9] For instance, musicians influenced by the belief systems of the Maori, Indigenous Australian, and Canadian First Nations peoples have had their work exposed to an international audience.