National Centre for First Nations Governance
Tansi!
When I joined the National Centre for First Nations Governance (NCFNG), my first task was related to 28 research papers commissioned for the Centre and launched in July 2008 on the subject of Aboriginal rights, Governance, the Indian Act, and many other subjects, written by leaders in the field of Aboriginal law such as Kent McNeil (Osgoode Law School), Shim Imai (Osgoode Law School), John Borrows (University of Victoria Faculty of Law), and Mario Morellato (Blake, Cassels & Graydon). My work involved translating the research papers into more accessible public material for marketing efforts, to raise interest in these papers, and to form the basis of a communications and public education strategy to disseminate information more broadly to First Nation communities.
What I have learned in the process is that while there has been extensive precedent concerning guiding first principles, as Morellato has termed it, with respect to the Crown duty to consult and accommodate Aboriginal rights, Treaty rights, and the inherent right to self government, the challenge remains for Crown actions to follow in step and take seriously that First Nations must be engaged at all levels of the decision-making process that impacts on their Aboriginal rights and lands. It is also the case, given that the inherent right of Aboriginal peoples to govern themselves is constitutionally protected through s.35(1), that First Nation communities do not have to seek permission from Canadian governments or from Courts to exercise their inherent right of self-government. This fact, together with the challenge of changing the status quo of how Crown / federal departments relate to First Nations, is why it is imperative that the recent gains made in Canadian law be reinforced and communicated to all players and translated into building healthy and vibrant First Nation communities across Canada.
I'm also very pleased that my second project directly supports this goal and that of the two-pronged mandate of the Centre, which is to, firstly, support First Nations as they seek to implement their inherent rights of self-government and exercise jurisdiction over their lands, and, secondly, to assist First Nations in the further development of their day-to-day government operations. My project involves assisting the Director of Law, Land, and Governance to carry out NCFNG work with First Nations seeking legal and policy research. This has allowed me to study in detail numerous self-government agreements in place today.
Over the course of my Fellowship, I have been exposed to the breadth of work being done by First Nations for First Nations in terms of increasing capacity for self-government in communities and realizing in practice what legal judgments have pronounced in law. I consider myself extremely lucky to be in a position to both learn and grow while serving my First Nations people through the great work of the Centre. So thank you to June Callwood Fellowship for providing me with this valued opportunity and thank you to the Centre for taking me on for the summer! Please take a moment to visit the Centre's website at: http://www.fngovernance.org. The Centre has an extensive online publication library which includes the research papers that I mentioned and many others interpreting precedent-setting cases concerning Aboriginal title and rights.
