You’ve Got to Paddle Your Own Canoe: The effects of federal legislation on participation in, and exercising of, traditional governance while living off-reserve
Date
2019-03-07
Authors
George, Ronald
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Abstract
Abstract
This project describes the challenges and impediments members of two clans experienced while growing up and living off-reserve. Members of the Gitimt’en clan and their father clan, the Likhts’amisyu, descendants of Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs Gisdayway (Thomas George), and Tsaybaysa (Mary George) respectively, and which includes the writer, related personal experiences of living off-reserve amidst the dominant colonial culture. Approximately 70% of the total Indigenous population in Canada live off-reserve. These experiences were documented through the Wet’suwet’en hereditary system which is an oral, transparent, publicly witnessed, and ever evolving living history.
Through this project, our clan realized commonalities of experience, both positive and negative, as well as potential strategies to continue our hereditary governance system with increased efficiency and unity while we continue, through legislation, to live off-reserve. Consideration that the off-reserve population comprises approximately two thirds of the Indigenous population in Canada, and is yet to be recognized by government authorities, added legal challenges disproportionate to those of the dominant culture, and to the on-reserve population.
Research for this project involved increased contact amongst clan members. Through increased contact and discussion, we discovered methods to ensure consultation and inclusion in our hereditary system while living off-reserve. Members of the Gitimt’en clan also worked toward increased communication with the Wet’suwet’en on-reserve population, as well as with both provincial and federal government authorities.
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Racist education in Canada, Indigenous Red Curtain, Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, On/Off-reserve Indians, Apartheid in Canada, Decolonisation,, Racist legislation and government policy, Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), Tsebesa (Mary George), General List Indians, residential schools, Wet'suwet'en Matrilineal hereditary governance system, United Native Nations, Smogilthgem (Gloria George), Elected chiefs and government control, Assembly of First Nations, Constitution Express, Internal-Internalized Colonialism, Reconciliation, First Nations/Status Indians/ Legal Indians,, Enfranchised/Non-status Indians/Illegal Indians, Genocide, cultural genocide