Chapter 7: Aboriginal Peoples: Rethinking

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Chapter 7 Aboriginal Peoples Rethinking the
Relationship
Presented By Christina Divitkos, Antoniette
Alfano, Sonia Lopes, Yvonne Scarangella
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Table of Contents

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Agenda
Goal of Chapter
Two Models
Nisgaa Final Agreement
The First Shall Be Last
Contesting the Terrain
Categories of Aboriginal Peoples
Conclusions
Toward A New Social Contract
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Agenda

• Word Search Ice-Breaker
• Feature PowerPoint Presentation
• Handout
• Movie
• Aboriginal Squares Game
• Discussion Questions

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Goal of the Chapter

• To unravel the historical disadvantages of
  aboriginal peoples and how Canadians often
  perceive them as a social problem in need of
  government intervention. However, the oppressed,
  social and economic conditions of aboriginal
  peoples may be a Canadian problem, as aboriginal
  people were forcibly incorporated into a system
  that continues to deny, exclude and exploit them.

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Two Models To The So-Called IndianProblem

• The Autonomy Model
• Living together separately
• Government to government relations are proposed
  that acknowledge the fundamental autonomy of
  aboriginal peoples, with a corresponding right to
  aboriginal models of self determination

• The Assimilation Model
• Unless they assimilate into the mainstream,
  aboriginals will continue to suffer from poverty
  and underdevelopment

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• Nisgaa Self-Government
• The Nisgaa First Nations of Central BC have
  looked to Ottawa since 1885 to redress the
  unlawful surrender of their land to the Crown
• Here are some of the actual terms of the Nisgaa
  Final Agreement in May 2000
• 5500 members of bands who live 800 kilometers
  north of Vancouver a land base of 1900 kilometres
• Control of forest and fishery resources
• 200 million in cash
• Release from Indian Act provisions
• A supra-municipal level of government including
  control over policing, education, community
  services and taxes
• They will receive forest and timber cutting
  rights
• Oil and Mineral Resources
• 21.5 million to purchase boats and equipment

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Criticisms of the Nisgaa FinalAgreement

• This provides the Nisgaa Nations of British
  Columbia with more autonomy and self-government
  than it constitutionally deserves
• It confers benefits unavailable to other
  Canadians based solely on culture or skin colour
• Prohibits non-Nisgaa from voting for the regions
  administration, thus disenfranchising local
  residents who may be taxed without representation
• There is a third order of government-where
  citizens live by different rules than other
  citizens

WHAT DO YOU THINK?
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The First Shall Be Last

• The term aboriginal itself refers to the
  original or first occupants of this country
• Aboriginal peoples are first in those social
  areas that count least (unemployment, under
  education, suicide) but barely first in matters
  such as wealth, power and privilege

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Canadas Aboriginal Peoples

• Terms used to categorize aboriginal peoples
  include
• Indian
• Native
• Status Indian
• Aboriginal
• Treaty Indian
• Non-treaty
• C-31s
• Non-status
• Inuit
• Metis
• All these terms are legalistic divisions rather
  than cultural or national distinctions

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Categories of Aboriginal Peoples

• Status Indian
• Membership to status Indian is defined
• Admittance to a general registry in Ottawa
• Affiliation with one of 633 bands
• Entitlement to residence on band reserve lands
• Jurisdiction under the Indian Act
• Responsibility for status Indian is with federal
  government
• The majority of status Indians live on reserves

• Non-Status Indian
• Persons of aboriginal ancestry are classified as
  non-status if their ancestors failed to register
  under the Indian Act, signed a treaty with
  federal authorities or were taken off the
  register and enfranchised for some reason
• They do not live on reserves
• They are scattered in small towns and large
  cities across Canada

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Categories of Aboriginal Peoples

• Inuit
• They enjoy a special relationship with the
  government but never signed a treaty arrangement
  or registered under the Indian Act
• At local levels they are governed by municipal
  councils
• Inuit interests at national level are represented
  by the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada

• Metis
• They comprise the offspring (and descendents) of
  mixed European-aboriginal unions

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Socio-Economic Status

• Aboriginals remain at the bottom of the
  socio-economic heap
• Housing is inadequate
• Unemployment is a major cause of poverty
• Deterioration of aboriginal cultural values
• Numerous aboriginal languages are under the
  threat of disappearing
• There are also psychological effects
• Domestic abuse is so endemic within aboriginal
  communities
• There is also a suicide rate of six times the
  nation average
• Infectious diseases like tuberculosis are
  prevalent
• Infant mortality rates are about 60 percent
  higher than the national average
• Alcohol and substance abuse

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Urban Aboriginals

• Reasons for migrating to the city are numerous
  but often reflect push factors (lack of
  resources, opportunity and excitement) and pull
  forces related to employment, education and
  lifestyle
• Structural, social and cultural factors are also
  important

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Aboriginal Policy

• One main question is whether government policies
  contribute to the social problems in aboriginal
  communities
• Accommodation
• The Royal Proclamation 1763 may be seen as laying
  down a blueprint for defining aboriginal
  peoples-Crown relations
• According to the Act, the principles of
  partnership, mutual recognition and
  non-interference were to guide the Crowns
  relationship with Aboriginal peoples

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• 2. Assimilation
• The French and British explorers were few in
  number and militarily weak and the benevolence of
  the aboriginal allies was crucial for survival
• Termination of the war of 1812 with the US
  eliminated the need for aboriginal allies thus
  rendering them expendable and subject to
  expedient actions
• Legislation served as an assimilationist tool in
  controlling aboriginal peoples
• The Indian Act was passed in 1876
• 3. Integration
• An official commitment to assimilation merged
  with the principles of integration as a blueprint
  for reform
• The White Paper proposed to terminate the special
  relationship between aboriginal peoples and the
  Crown

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• 4. Devolution
• A general commitment to the principles of
  devolution eventually replaced the policy vacuum
  in the aftermath of the White Paper fiasco
• In 1986 the government announced a devolutionary
  program of community-based, municipal style
  self-government in conjunction with Cabinet
  approved guidelines for community
  self-sufficiency
• 5. Conditional Autonomy
• Current government policy objectives are aimed at
  exploring the implementation inherent aboriginal
  self-government rights

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Toward A New Social Contract

• Three themes appear recurrent throughout this
  process of
• renewal and radical reform
• Taking Aboriginal Rights Seriously
• Aboriginal peoples want to live in a just and
  equal society where they have the same rights as
  all citizens but they also demand their
  differences complement citizenship rights as the
  basis for reward or relationships
• Aboriginal peoples have the claimed the right to
  be the same and the right to be different

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• 2. Promoting self-determination through
  self-governance
• Key elements include control over the process and
  power of local governance, the attainment of
  cultural sovereignty and a realignment of
  political relations around formal self-governing
  arrangements in key jurisdictional areas related
  to power, privilege and resources
• Self-governance refers to the allocation of power
  among constituent units self government is an
  institutional expression of this relationship
• 3. Acknowledging Aboriginal Title and Treaty
  Rights
• For aboriginal people treaties reaffirmed their
  autonomy as political communities
• Treaties were viewed as semi-sacred and mutually
  binding contracts involving a reciprocal exchange
  of rights and responsibilities

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Contesting the Terrain

• Resistance has shifted from a focus on survival
  and consolidation to challenging the distribution
  of power within a reconstituted state
• Aboriginal people do not want to separate from
  Canada in a territorial sense but they also
  reject any move toward assimilation with a
  corresponding diminution of their unique status
  as self-determining political communities

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Unblocking the Impasse Constructive Engagement

• One of the more striking developments in
  aboriginal peoples-state relations is a growing
  reliance on restitutional claims-making
• There has been the emergence of the constructive
  engagement model of interaction to replace the
  claims-making model

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• The following are foundational principles which
  are critical to the constructive engagement
  model
• Aboriginal people do not aspire to sovereignty
• Aboriginal people are not looking to separate or
  become independent
• Aboriginal peoples are neither a problem for
  solution nor a need to be met
• Acknowledging the status of aboriginal peoples as
  fundamentally autonomous political community is
  critical in crafting a constructive engagement
• Power sharing is pivotal in advancing
  co-operative engagement and co-existence

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• 6. Concerns over jurisdiction cannot be taken
  lightly. Control and power must be allocated
  along clear lines
• 7.Constructive engagement accepts as an absolute
  minimum need for aboriginal self-determination
  over jurisdictions related to land, identity and
  political voice
• 8. Innovative patterns of belonging such as
  shared sovereignty are critical when two groups
  live in the same country but neither wants to
  belong to the state dominated by the other
• 9.Placing constructive engagement at the center
  of a relationship entails a fundamental
  rethinking in sorting out the goodies
• 10.Constructive engagement are anchored in the
  notion that aboriginal differences must be taken
  seriously
• 11.Conciliation must be central to any
  constructive engagement

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Conclusions

• The distance traveled by aboriginals has been
  impressive
• They have recoiled from the brink of dependency
  and disappearance to reclaim a pivotal role in
  the reconstruction of Canadian society