Aboriginal Self-Government Through Constitutional Design (original) (raw)
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In Manitoba Metis Federation, the Supreme Court of Canada makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of Aboriginal law, building on the foundations laid down in the Haida Nation case. It identifies three major pillars of the subject: the honour of the Crown, the Royal Proclamation of 1763 and Aboriginal Treaties. These three, taken together, make up the framework of the Aboriginal Constitution, which parallels the Federal Pact between the Provinces and provides the Constitution of Canada with its most ancient roots.
1992
for their helpful and insightful comments, as well as to acknowledge the support of the Anthropology Committee of SSHRCC which provided research funds used in the preparation of this paper. This paper wa,; originally presented at the conference on Ethnonationalism held at the University of Toronto, December, 1990. I understand that the term Indigenous is now replacing Aboriginal as the tenn of self-designation among Indigenous nations in Canada. I also understand that the term government or governance is replacing self-government. Thus, perhaps a year from now, it might have been conventional to entitle this paper "Indigenous Government and the Construction of Canadian Constitutional Identity.
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This paper argues that aboriginal rights in Canada have been greatly affected by 19 century governmental and social conflicts within the Canadian colonial state. These conflicts, largely over the ownership of land and regulatory authority between the federal government and the provinces necessarily impacted the First Nations on the ground while affecting how their legal claims were recognized and implemented. In particular they impacted the legal efficacy of treaty rights, the scope of rights recognised by the courts and an expansive legally protected notion of indigenous sovereignty. As a result, the rights now protected under sec. 25 and 35 of the Constitution Act 1982 are more restricted than the text might imply.
Aboriginal Self-Government and the Construction of Canadian Constitutional Identity
Alta. L. Rev., 1992
for their helpful and insightful comments, as well as to acknowledge the support of the Anthropology Committee of SSHRCC which provided research funds used in the preparation of this paper. This paper wa,; originally presented at the conference on Ethnonationalism held at the University of Toronto, December, 1990. I understand that the term Indigenous is now replacing Aboriginal as the tenn of self-designation among Indigenous nations in Canada. I also understand that the term government or governance is replacing self-government. Thus, perhaps a year from now, it might have been conventional to entitle this paper "Indigenous Government and the Construction of Canadian Constitutional Identity.
Negotiating Sovereignty: Aboriginal Perspectives on a Settler-Colonial Constitution, 1975-1983
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In contrast to settler colonial legal understandings of Aboriginal rights and title as existing within the Canadian state, BC Aboriginal political actors in the 1970s and 1980s relied on philosophical notions of Aboriginal rights as stemming from the inherent, pre-colonial sovereignty and nationhood of First Nations peoples. These concepts run throughout the history of Aboriginal experience and remained foundational to the discourse of Aboriginal sovereignty in British Columbia during debates surrounding the patriation of the Canadian constitution. Existing Canadian historiography has located Aboriginal activists as key and yet marginal figures in the constitutional debates, while a broad range of interdisciplinary scholarship has helped us understand the concept of Aboriginal sovereignty in theory. Building on these insights, our work shifts Aboriginal people into the foreground and emphasizes their centrality in the patriation debates, which, as an example, grounds and historicize...
Building new orders of government - the future of aboriginal self-government
Canadian Public Administration-administration Publique Du Canada, 1997
In the fifty years since the hearings of the joint committee of the Senate and the House of Commons that examined the Indian Act to the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP), there has been a quantum leap in the consideration of aboriginal issues in Canada. The 1996 report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples represents the most recent articulation of the need for a complete restructuring of the relationship between aboriginal and non-aboriginal peoples.' The report builds on past sources and pushes the envelope outwards on some issues and elaborates proposals on others. It will serve as a benchmark in the ongoing debate on aboriginal political, economic and social development. The purpose of this paper is to provide a practical appreciation of selected policy and administrative issues respecting aboriginal self-government. The paper examines some of the key elements in the implementation of aboriginal self-government and provides examples of practical results achieved to date. The discussion has been organized into four sections: basic issues; institution-building; changing relationships; and future directions. In part, the implementation of aboriginal self-government involves building bridges of understanding and accommodation between the different cultural outlooks. But the nature of those "bridges" or approaches and the accommodations made can have a significant influence on future relations. Basic issues The fundamental difference in the "world views" of aboriginal and nonaboriginal cultures continues to be an important feature of the public debates. The negative impact that Eurocentric thinking as reflected in government policies and government action has had on aboriginal culture has Subsequent to her academic work on Indian policy, the author was a senior executive in the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development in constitutional and self-government policy, from 1983-87, and in regional operations in Ontario, from 1991-96. While the views expressed here are her own, she wishes to thank the many chiefs and former colleagues with whom she worked on self-government issues. Building new orders of governmentthe future of aboriginal self-government CANADIAN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION / ADMINISTRATION PUBLIQUE DU CANADA VOLUME 40, NO. 2 (SUMMER/fiTfi), PP.274-289
Australian Indigenous Constitutions: Recognition and Renewal
Federal Law Review, 2016
The Anglo-Australian legal system has not readily recognised Indigenous constitutions. The absence of such recognition does not, however, deny that Australia's Indigenous nations have had constitutions for thousands of years and continue to do so. In this article, we explain how Indigenous laws, institutions and systems of authority are constitutional. Using the constitutions of the Gunditjmara peoples and Ngarrindjeri nation as examples, we identify three dimensions of Indigenous constitutions in Australia: first, the foundation of Indigenous constitutions in the continuing and inherent authority of Indigenous nations; secondly constitutional features deriving from Indigenous law; and thirdly the use in Indigenous constitutions of institutions and processes that also have status under Australian law. We suggest that this new understanding of Indigenous constitutions provides a basis for contributing to current efforts in Indigenous constitution-making and to the development of ...