Tag Archives: rights

United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

The United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 61/295: The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples on September 13, 2007. This declaration affirms that “indigenous peoples are equal to all other peoples, while recognizing the right of all peoples to be different, to consider themselves different, and to be respected as such”. The resolution contains 46 articles.

On November 12, 2010, Canada endorsed this Declaration in Ottawa. John Duncan, the Minister of Indian and Northern Development at the time stated that endorsement of the declaration will “further reconcile and strengthen our relationship with Aboriginal peoples in Canada”.

On December 16, 2010, the United States announced they would lend its support to the declaration after opposing the original United Nations resolution in 2007. Canada, New Zealand and Australia also opposed the resolution at the time.

Metis National Council

The Metis National Council website is a great starting point for anything Metis in Canada. Metis are sometimes referred to as the forgotten North American aboriginal group as they are caught between their two cultures: North American First Nation and European. The site has a wealth of information and links about Metis Governments, Metis Rights and Metis Constitution as well as links to provincial Metis Nation websites: Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and BC.

There are links to some great videos about Metis including: Metis Summer (A Journey through Time) Metis Nation Veterans (No Longer Forgotten) and videos about Metis Heroes such as Harry Daniels.

This is a good place to learn about Metis and a starting point for doing research on Metis people and culture.

Assembly of First Nations

http://www.afn.ca/index.php/en

Assembly of First Nations is a Canadian National organization of chiefs from bands across Canada. The goal of the AFN is to raise awareness of the role of First Nations people in the development and history of Canada and to correct injustices that have occurred during colonization and the years of contact and interaction that followed. They have considerable power and are well represented in Ottawa and in the Assembly by Chief Shawn A-in-chut Atleo. The site is text heavy and not very interactive but it does present a great amount of current information regarding issues involving First Nations peoples across Canada. On the main page I encountered a powerful video, Shannon’s Dream, highlighting the issues that First Nations communities continue to struggle with regarding access to education. This site would be a must visit for students grad 12+ in First Nations Studies. It does not provide many other links that might guide me to sites that would be useful to younger students which I would find useful.

Spam prevention powered by Akismet