{"id":7848,"date":"2017-11-08T09:26:57","date_gmt":"2017-11-08T14:26:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=7848"},"modified":"2025-10-17T16:25:45","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T20:25:45","slug":"indigeous-communities-governance","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/indigeous-communities-governance\/","title":{"rendered":"Indigenous Communities Governing Themselves"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Indigenous Communities Governing Themselves\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

In 2002, after a series of logging blockades drew international attention to the destruction of the old-growth forests on their traditional territory, the Haida Nation<\/a> filed a case with the Supreme Court of Canada, claiming full title to the land and waters surrounding Haida Gwaii<\/a> \u2014 an archipelago off the coast of British Columbia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That legal challenge will finally be heard in a few months, but over the last 15 years, while gathering evidence to support their argument, the Haida have not sat back and waited for the federal government to determine their fate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Council of the Haida Nation (CHN) \u2014 the Haida Nation\u2019s governmental organization, which represents the roughly 3,000 Haida who live on Haida Gwaii and another 3,000 who live off the islands \u2014 has been negotiating with both the federal and provincial governments, and with agencies such as Parks Canada and commercial logging companies, and enacting policies and legislation that shape the lives of its people on the islands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur philosophy is to just do it,\u201d said Peter Lantin, president of the Haida Nation.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cOur nation has governed itself for millennia, and today we are transitioning our processes to meet modern challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Lantin was speaking at the Transitional Governance Think-Tank<\/a>, a conference that brought together Indigenous leaders, researchers and policy experts at Carleton University in October. Their discussions focused on how Indigenous communities across Canada can move out from under the Indian Act toward a practical realization of their inherent right to self-government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have to wait for the government or courts to give us a declaration of title,\u201d said Lantin, who studied journalism at Carleton for a couple of years in the early 1990s. \u201cThat\u2019s our mindset. And our main job as an organization is to improve the socio-economic well-being of our people, and see how we can make their lives better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, Lantin concedes that as the Haida court case progresses, and as CHN evolves as an entity, the transition of its governance is a dynamic and ongoing process, as it has been historically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which is why \u2014 even though the Haida Nation is unique:\u202fan isolated homeland with no overlapping land claims \u2014\u202fthere is great value in coming to gatherings such as the Transitional Governance Think-Tank with other Indigenous communities working toward self-government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe path we\u2019re on can feel very lonely at times,\u201d says Lantin, \u201cso it\u2019s important to share experiences, stories and ideas with others who are on the same journey.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Engaging in Change<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The conference that Lantin attended is part of the Transitional Governance Project, a collaboration between the Centre for First Nations Governance (CFNG<\/a>), the Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC<\/a>) and Carleton\u2019s School of Public Policy and Administration (SPPA<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SPPA Prof. Frances Abele<\/a>, CFNG Senior Associate Satsan <\/a>(Herb George) and Catherine MacQuarrie<\/a>, IPAC\u2019s senior executive in residence, Indigenous Government Programs, proposed the gathering and moderated most of the sessions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their overarching goal is to \u201cbuild an enduring research and practice partnership between scholars, students and public service partners\u201d and work with First Nations in developing a \u201cversatile transitional governance model that can show what is possible and demonstrate the steps to getting there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The roots of the project can be traced back about a decade, when Satsan \u2014 a\u202fWet\u2019suwet\u2019en hereditary chief of the Frog Clan and two-term regional chief representing B.C. at the Assembly of First Nations \u2014\u202fasked Abele to conduct a systems analysis of the Indian Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her 2007 paper, \u201cLike an Ill-Fitting Boot<\/a>: Government, Governance and Management Systems in the Contemporary Indian Act,\u201d the product of a winter spent deconstructing the legislation, confirmed to Abele the \u201chorrible history of displacement and conquest crystalized inside the act,\u201d regardless of how many adjustments have been made over the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Indian Act, she argues, imposes top-down authority, fiscal control and law enforcement, and leaves little room \u201cfor the basic features of modern government\u201d \u2014\u202fsuch as policy development, management accountability and citizen engagement \u2014\u202f in Indigenous communities.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cFirst Nations citizens and societies have been living under these conditions \u2014\u202fand, for decades, very personal controls \u2014\u202ffor at least eight generations,\u201d says Abele.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cNo other group of people in Canada has been subject to such legislation, except incarcerated convicted criminals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The contemporary Indigenous rights movement, however, is beginning to turn the tide. From mounting efforts to ensure environmental stewardship of their lands to sustainable development of natural resources, led by a growing group of university-educated leaders and activists and a generation of youth that\u2019s plugged into the world via social media and simultaneously re-establishing connections to traditional practices, many Indigenous communities see self-government as a practical \u2014\u202fand feasible \u2014\u202fnext step.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUltimately, the responsibility is ours,\u201d says Satsan. \u201cNobody is going to do this for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Indigenous Communities Learning From Each Other<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Kent McNeil<\/a>, a professor emeritus at Toronto\u2019s Osgood Hall Law School, who has decades of experience researching Indigenous land rights, treaty rights and self-government, spoke at an opening-day session focused on the constitutional and legal principles arising from Section 35 of the 1982 Constitution Act, which declares that \u201cexisting Aboriginal and treaty rights of the Aboriginal people in Canada are hereby recognized and affirmed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This clause, said McNeil, gives Indigenous communities \u201ca full box of tools they can exercise without anybody\u2019s permission,\u201d noting that while federal and provincial laws can infringe upon these constitutionally protected rights, the infringement has to be justified by legal precedent, and the bar for that is very high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s important now is capacity building,\u201d said McNeil.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cYou can\u2019t just instantly transform from the Indian Act to full self-government. First Nations can do this incrementally, maybe starting with family matters, inheritance laws, these kinds of things.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

One conference participant interjected, relaying a story about having to get a lawyer and fight for permission to speak at a custody hearing for her grandchild \u2014\u202fan example of the conflict between Canadian law and Indigenous culture and tradition, which recognizes a grandparent\u2019s right to be heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUnder a system of self-government, these types of situations would be settled in your community, within your laws and culture,\u201d responded McNeil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a window of opportunity now because we have a federal government that\u2019s sympathetic,\u201d he continued. \u201cAnd, in a sense, they\u2019re not sure what to do and are looking for guidance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McNeil was followed by Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly<\/a>, a political scientist at the University of Victoria\u2019s School of Public Administration. His presentation addressed the fiscal intergovernmental relationship between First Nations and Ottawa, a system he described as \u201cbasically a straightjacket \u2014\u202fit holds a lot of different bands in a straightjacket, and prevents a lot of things from happening.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The federal government has a pattern of delegating powers but not resources, he said, which downloads costs onto First Nations without the monetary resources to tackle their social and economic needs or operate within the global economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there are steps that First Nations are taking, said Jailly, such as administering property taxes and pooling resources with other communities \u2014\u202fa shift that must start with developing knowledge and training people, which reflects McNeil\u2019s call for capacity building and incremental change.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Hearing the Land Speak<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On the second day of the conference, in a session called \u201cLessons from the Land,\u201d Indigenous leaders from \u201chighly self-determining\u201d communities shared their practices, approaches and insights from the frontlines of the self-government movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chief Connie Lazore<\/a>, who represents the Tsi Snaihne\u202fDistrict on the Mohawk Tribal Council<\/a>, told the gathering that she earned a graduate diploma in\u202fIndigenous Policy and Administration<\/a>\u202fat Carleton \u201cto help understand my role as a leader and to build capacity within myself, so I could offer it to my community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her community straddles the borders between Ontario, Quebec and New York, which presents jurisdictional challenges \u2014 for example, when people have to cross an international boundary to travel from home to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no forestry or mining to regulate in the Akwesasne Territory. One of the pressing environmental issues involves erosion from the ship traffic in the St. Lawrence Seaway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou have to understand your own community, and its needs, before you can tell Canada what you want,\u201d said Lazore, noting that this requires widespread consultation and communication with community members, and a commitment to transparency and accountability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lazore was followed by John B. Zoe, a senior adviser to the Tlicho Assembly<\/a>, which has governed the Northwest Territories nation<\/a> since its combined comprehensive land claim and self-government agreement\u202fwere signed in 2005.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zoe, who has served in an incredible range of roles in his community, from translator and engineer to executive director and land claims negotiator, recalls being told by Elders to spend more time on the land. \u201cThat\u2019s who we were,\u201d he said, \u201cand what we\u2019re now trying to achieve is an extension of who we were.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canada\u2019s history is a saga of settler institutions \u2014 companies and governments \u2014 exploiting the land to extract resources, said Zoe. Indigenous communities are in the process of subverting this top-down approach, and using their land titles to develop sustainable revenue streams that can be allocated toward addressing social issues such as health care and education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t win all the battles,\u201d said Zoe, \u201cbut over time, as the authority we have is recognized, there will be openings and opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lantin was part of the session with Lazore and Zoe, and like the other two leaders, he talked about the importance of education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn this world of self-determination, taking charge of education and teaching our young people is the most important thing we can do,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need to ensure that young people are informed and involved in decision making.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Haida Gwaii, Lantin said, there\u2019s a generation growing up that has never lived on the \u201cQueen Charlotte Islands,\u201d the name applied to the islands by Britain in the mid-1800s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve made a significant journey in a short period of time,\u201d he said, \u201cbut we still have a very long way to go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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