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NUICC wants to deliver more teach-in events on Misquadis and UNDRIP to build on the work of recent months with coalitions. We continue to build consensus on the arguments laid out in NUICC’s policy challenge for a National Urban Indigenous Strategy. We’ll deliver a hybrid training workshop on “Urban Indigenous Rights” live from Saskatoon, on Friday, November 24, at 11:30am-1pm (Saskatoon time).
NUICC’s collaborator Yale Belanger from University of Lethbridge will share with us his research on Misquadis (watch this interview with Yale during our Summer of Action). Yale was a guest speaker at our Ottawa National Coalitions Gathering in March 2023 (watch the recording for this session by clicking here).
Check out Yale’s chapter in Indigenous in the City, Contemporary Identities and Cultural Innovation, “Chapter 3: Breaching Reserve Boundaries”.
Urban Indigenous coalitions are on the frontline of decolonizing municipal structures in Canadian cities that have for too long resisted real change. Equity, diversity, and inclusion policies have relied on incrementalism, but like trickle-down economics, they rarely deliver structural change. Speakers at the forum centered Indigenous Knowledge and the experience of urban Indigenous communities as we confront white supremacy and colonial structures in Canadian cities where we live.
This hybrid forum aims to discuss the ways we can rethink JEDI (justice, equity, diversity, inclusion) by re-centering municipal systems with a decolonial and UNDRIP (UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples) focus. We consider how UNDRIP provides a framework for
urban Indigenous governance and how the rights of our urban
communities can be achieved through policy work for measurable
change.
This panel discussion was part of a larger event produced by St. John’s coalition, First Voice. We heard from practitioners on the front lines of understanding and implementing UNDRIP in cities and joined the discussion as the First Peoples Policy Forum opened up for the hybrid session welcoming urban Indigenous coalition representatives from coast to coast to coast.
Live from Whitehorse as the NUIC National Council meets in the Yukon, Sept 29-30, 2022. Cohosted by Council of Yukon First Nations.
NUICC launched it’s Governance Series with SFU Vancouver Research Commons hosting keynote speaker Kanatase Horn (Mohawk) with a presentation “Building Upon the Work of Our Ancestors: Kinship Practices in Urban Spaces.” Kanatase is an Associate Professor at the University of Ottawa and a researcher on urban Indigenous justice issues. We also heard from Matthew Norris (Cree) who is the Board President of UNYA, pursuing his PhD from UBC, and an expert advisor to the BC government’s UNDRIP implementation work.
We discussed ways that Indigenous youth and families living in cities can achieve healthier outcomes and connections to place. The presentations will be followed by a panel of Indigenous youth from Surrey, Edmonton and Calgary who will provide their perspectives on well-being in cities.nnNUICC members will be invited to discuss and share their experiences and suggestions on how to integrate lessons into their own work.
We know that a significant part of community-engaged research starts before a project even begins with how we build consent for research, and the unique community ethics of each place. We discussed the practices we want to build or are already using to make sure that urban Indigenous Peoples are at the centre of research and projects. We are delighted to be joined by speakers who have experience in navigating consent and ethics including authors of Research 101: A Manifesto for Ethical Research in Vancouveru2019s Downtown Eastside.
We shared our expertise, practices, and ethics of bringing Indigenous knowledge into policy. The talk was followed by a group discussion that provides space for questions and sharing.
Guest speaker: Jennifer King, MSW Reconciliation and Policy Coordinator, First Nations Child & Family Caring Society
Please provide your postal code if would like to receive updates from Council members serving your traditional territory or municipal residence.
Please provide your postal code if would like to receive updates from Council members serving your traditional territory or municipal residence.
Please provide your postal code if would like to receive updates from Council members serving your traditional territory or municipal residence.