'Nations With Whom We Are Connected' - Indigenous Peoples and Canada's Political System

• Main Author: Jull, Peter
• Format: Report
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2001
• Subjects: Nunavut; Inuit - land tenure; Indigenous self-government - Canada; Self-determination; 370103 Race and Ethnic Relations; 379902 Aboriginal Studies; Northwest Territories; Canada; inuit
• Online Access: https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:11291/nations.pdf; https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:11291

The purpose of this report is to outline briefly indigenous peoples' relationship with Canada's formal political system and the dominant non-indigenous political culture. It sketches the historical indigenous-white relationship in Canada, and notes some major documents and decisions. It then illustrates recent post-1945 transformations through some of the most important indigenous policy and political outcomes - the Northwest Territories' recent political evolution; reform of Canada's Constitution (both by indigenous politics and British/Canadian law); creation of Nunavut; and the impact of active indigenous internationalism. Finally the report moves to discussion and observations drawing in part on the Canadian national election of 2000; and ends with conclusions. The observations and conclusions reflect on all of Canada, a general summing-up, while the four cases described are chosen for their richness in illustrating aspects of that generality and for the author's familiarity with them. The report attempts to contextualise national political systems (including elections and political parties) at work vis-a-vis indigenous politics and peoples to show how Canada's process-oriented and steadily evolving national and indigenous political cultures shape and are shaped by these.