determiNation first-ever Indigenous-led summit that will bring together leaders to create a plan for moving beyond the Indian Act. determiNation is described as a national conference to plan for a new relationship between Canada and Indigenous peoples based on rights, recognition and reconciliation. This conference will be structured around the themes of premises, principles, and institutional, legislative, and constitutional mechanisms, with the goal of creating a plan of action.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Community Empowerment
It is clear that the only way to redress the harms done through the imposition of colonial top-down structures through the Indian Act is to empower communities to chart their own self-determined futures.
- NAN calls upon the Government of Canada to clarify its commitment to repeal the Indian Act and to replace it with a legal and constitutional framework based on a Nation-to-Nation relationship and the principles set out in UNDRIP.
- NAN calls upon the Government of Canada to make resources available to enable NAN to support its communities to develop their own vision for what lies beyond the Indian Act.
- NAN to facilitate a (fully funded) community empowerment process across NAN territory to develop Indigenous laws and practices in areas now imposed through the Indian Act.
- The Government of Canada to further develop and expand this engagement to support a national process to assist all Indigenous communities develop their own laws and practices in areas now imposed through the Indian Act.
- Finally, a Community Empowerment Fund should be established by the Government of Canada to support an Indigenous-led, community-driven process for dismantling the Indian Act and replacing it with a Nation-to-Nation reconciliation framework.