Full transcript
0:00hi I'm Derek nepinak and I'm going to
0:01provide a little bit of an overview as
0:03to why the road to Niagara is important
0:06and why we need to have this discussion
0:07now and begin a discussion about the
0:10nation tation relationship and what it
0:12might look like as well as some of the
0:13impetus as to why this this discussion
0:15is important in this day and age and
0:17part of part of this discussion has to
0:20start with recognizing foundational
0:22principles of treaty foundational
0:24principles of respect and relationship
0:25building that may have been found in the
0:271764 Treaty of Niagara I'm going to fast
0:30forward however from
0:321764 when we originally agreed to treaty
0:35when we lived as original people within
0:37the freedoms of who we are we lived
0:39under natural laws from the original
0:41instructions we received as the original
0:42people taking care of the land taking
0:44care of everybody within our communities
0:46and living truly as Nations who took
0:49care of one another within the
0:50Diplomatic environment of the time
0:52that's the conditions that existed in
0:541764 I'm going to fast forward to
0:561867 in the creation of Canada's
0:59Constitution
1:00under Canada's Constitution it broke
1:02down into section 91 and section 92 as
1:06two distinct heads of government section
1:0891 covered federal powers section 92
1:12covers provincial Powers okay under
1:15Section
1:169124 what was created was a head of
1:19power that we call Indians and lands of
1:21reserve for Indians under Section 9124
1:24was created the Indian Act the Indian
1:28Act in
1:281876 was created as a consolidation of
1:33pre-existing Colonial legislation by the
1:35time 1876 ruled around the intent of the
1:38legislation was to terminate the idea of
1:41Indians and lands reserve for Indians
1:44that was the motivation at the time in
1:461876 when this act was
1:48created there was already a number of
1:51people who had been excluded from being
1:53recognized as original people that
1:56process continued with this 1876
1:58manifestation today under Section six of
2:01this Indian
2:04Act are the provisions for creating a
2:07status Indian now when you want to
2:10become a status Indian you actually have
2:12to fill out a piece of paper and you
2:14have to send it into the bureaucracy of
2:17the Department of indigenous Affairs
2:19where the documentation is reviewed by a
2:21bureaucrat sitting in a in a quiet
2:23closed office somewhere in gatau Quebec
2:26now I've heard this many times before
2:28but it is fundamental to the existence
2:31of a Nation for a nation to determine
2:32who its members are so if we're filling
2:34out paperwork and sending it to gatau
2:36Quebec for somebody to make a
2:37determination under Section six of the
2:39Indian Act whether or not that person is
2:41part of a community that to me is not
2:43nationhood so this is one of the biggest
2:46questions we need to ask ourselves as to
2:47whether or not section six is an
2:49appropriate uh containment uh container
2:53for identifying who a status Indian is
2:55that is one of the pieces that we need
2:56to put on the table and I do believe
2:58that the intent of section six is to
3:00keep a definable limit on who can be
3:06defined as a status Indian now in
3:08today's comprehensive claims processes
3:10they're they're maintaining this power
3:13within the Indian Act head within the
3:15within section 9124 to determine who's
3:18who's going to be a status Indian and I
3:20do believe that the intent behind
3:21containing people within that within
3:23that legal fiction is to manage costs as
3:27well as to provide for the
3:29commodification of the indigenous person
3:31because once you can clearly Define who
3:33the status Indian is you can then assign
3:35a number to that status Indian and all
3:38people that carry a status Indian card
3:39are assigned a number and they're
3:41assigned a band and successive
3:43Generations under the provisions of
3:45section
3:46six people are falling off the band list
3:49today we have children and grandchildren
3:51who are being born and they're falling
3:52off the band list okay they're falling
3:54off the Indian register because they're
3:56not qualifying under Section 6 61 or 62
3:59to exclusions now for many years people
4:02have been taking this matter to court
4:03they've been taking it uh all the way up
4:06to the Supreme Court spending millions
4:07of dollars to keep us identified as
4:09status Indians but is that really
4:11something we need to do because what
4:13happened to the original intent of
4:15treaty in
4:171764 the principles of treaty identified
4:20in 1764 also surfaced in the treaties
4:24out in the
4:25west treaty 1
4:28to1 also operate from these fundamental
4:31principles but what we haven't done is
4:33we have not defined our original
4:35freedoms although there's been
4:36statements said that we recognize and
4:39affirm existing Aboriginal rights in
4:41today's Constitution we have not for
4:43ourselves identified clearly and
4:45articulated clearly what our treaty
4:47rights are what our treaty freedoms are
4:49within the context of this Canadian
4:51Colonial superstructure that was created
4:53to keep us contained within the Indian
4:55Act box okay fast forward to 1982
5:001982 Canada's Constitution created
5:02section
5:0535 within section 35 is a recognition
5:08and affirmation of existing Aboriginal
5:10treaty rights okay so what we've done in
5:141982 was we created a line of continuity
5:17that goes all the way back to the
5:20original founding principles of treaty
5:22which tied to the Royal Proclamation of
5:241763 which binds the crown to any future
5:28treaty relationship
5:30and it binds the crown to act honorably
5:33in dealings with existing Aber and
5:35treaty rights so today when you hear
5:38indigenous leadership who are under
5:40treaty talking about the governor
5:42general or the responsibilities of the
5:44crown it's because there's a golden
5:46thread that ties all the way back to the
5:48early treaties to today so in 1982 when
5:52section 35 was
5:53created section 35 identified that
5:56Canada's Aboriginal people include the
5:58Indian the mate and the
6:10Inuit
6:12however the question remains as to who
6:16that Indian is under Section
6:2035 the Indian under Section
6:2335 cannot be the creature of Statute
6:26that was created under the Indian Act it
6:29has to be something different than
6:31what's been created under the Indian Act
6:33system the section 35 Indian remains to
6:36be
6:37defined and it was put on the table as
6:40as an exercise and a discussion in the
6:421980s there was a series of
6:44constitutional conferences which put on
6:46the table the question of
6:48self-government the institution of
6:50self-government can exist but first we
6:53have to Define who that Indian is and
6:55that's going to take each and every one
6:56of us each and every one of us has to
6:58engage that idea from Beyond the
7:00institutions from Beyond Notions of of
7:03job titles whether you're a chief or a
7:05counselor or a Grand Chief you have to
7:07be a person first and we have to Define
7:09as people who this Indian is in section
7:1235 that is the realization I believe of
7:15who we can be going forward that is the
7:17purpose of a Reconciliation framework
7:20that is the purpose of ensuring and
7:22providing a way for our young people and
7:23our future generations to determine who
7:25they are within this Canadian landscape
7:28and I believe that's the unfinished
7:29business that was left from the 1980s
7:31that's the unfinished business that's
7:33spoken of time and time again from
7:34previous leaders and that's the
7:36unfinished business that this new
7:37federal government under Justin Trudeau
7:39is going to have to put on the table and
7:41uh and work with us towards uh the
7:43solutions so that is some of the context
7:46around why we need to have this
7:48discussion today we have an entire
7:50generation of young people that have
7:51grown up since 1982 that have been
7:54forced to go into this section six C uh
7:57status Indian uh container without
8:00without the recognition of who they are
8:02within their original freedoms without a
8:04recognition of how important it is to
8:06work from fundamentals of treaty and it
8:08it is our responsibility now to put this
8:10on the table as a serious and
8:12substantive matter that needs to be
8:13addressed in this generation me which