Campbelltown Library My Account

 Campbelltown Library My Account


Nemarluk
Nemarluk
Idriess, Ion L. (Ion Llewellyn), 1890-1979.

C0170648845

-------------

Burnum Burnum's Aboriginal Australia : A Traveller's Guide

Burnum Burnum's Aboriginal Australia : a traveller's guide

Burnum Burnum, 1936-

C0113877051
-----------------



The photographs of Baldwin Spencer

Spencer, Baldwin, Sir, 1860-1929.

C0445216527

----------
Blood On The Wattle : Massacres And Maltreatment Of Australian Aborigines Since 1788

Blood on the wattle : massacres and maltreatment of Australian Aborigines since 1788

Elder, Bruce.

The Hate Race review: Maxine Beneba Clarke's urgent writing is unique and vital

The Hate Race review: Maxine Beneba Clarke's urgent writing is unique and vital

• Fiona Wright

• FACEBOOKSHARE
 
• TWITTERTWEET
 
• EMAIL
 
 
 

MEMOIR & POETRY

The Hate Race
MAXINE BENEBA CLARKE
HACHETTE, $32.99

Maxine Beneba Clarke, Australian writer and poet of Afro-Caribbean decent whose first book, Foreign Soil, won the Premier's unpublished manuscript award. Photo: Michael Clayton-Jones

Carrying the World
MAXINE BENEBA CLARKE
HACHETTE, $26.99

A few years ago, my writers' workshop, based in Bankstown, left a meeting to celebrate at the nearby sports club – a place that, despite its location and status as a glorified RSL, makes amazing pizza. I walked through the door without a second thought, as did the two Anglo-Australian men I was walking with. A few steps behind us was our colleague Mohammed, and as he entered the building he was immediately intercepted by security, asked to take off his hat and show his licence, and told not to give any cheek.

The Hate Race, by Maxine Beneba Clarke. 

Mohammed shrugged it off – this happens all the time, he said – but I was rattled to the core. This is what it's like for you, I remember thinking, this is what you have to deal with every day.

This is the territory that Maxine Beneba Clarke's memoir, The Hate Race, charts. It is a chronicle of the everyday injustices of racism that are always present in this country, no matter how hard we try to deny that they exist, and the way they accrue, and slowly wear away at the people against whom they are directed. ("This is how it changes us," Clarke writes, "This is how we're altered.")

Advertisement

Clarke introduces many of these incidents with a refrain that breaks into the text at points where a new anecdote is about to begin or comes to an end: "this is how I tell it, or else what's a story for." It is at once a reference to the Afro-Caribbean storytelling tradition from which Clarke is descended, a consciously poetic interjection, a structuring device, and an allusion to the deliberate selection of these details and anecdotes.

Clarke states explicitly in in the acknowledgements of the book that this memoir charts a "very specific aspect" of her childhood, the confusion, anxiety and often downright hostility with which her race was met by the people she encountered in outer-suburban Sydney in the 1980s and '90s. It is a partial memoir – as all memoirs must be – but it is always conscious of its agenda, and its importance.

Carrying the World, by Maxine Beneba Clarke. 

The most damning of these interactions occurs early in the book, during the young Maxine's first year of school. A well-meaning teacher has a ritual in her class, whereby each child, in turn, is nominated "Student of the Week", and the rest of the class writes "something nice" about that student on a card.

Maxine's card, returned to her at the end of the day, reads "Maxine is brown. Maxine has brown skin. Maxine has funny curly hair … Maxine is nice and Maxine is black…Maxine is brown and she does dancing.'' There's something awful in how terribly wrong such a simple exercise, with such young children, can turn out, let alone in how such comments can make someone feel so unrecognised, so unseen.

Other stories within the book outline a subtler, or less unambiguous kind of cruelty – a gymnastics teacher who scolds the young Maxine to tuck in her "rounded backside", a boyfriend's parents who try to start conversations about the attractiveness of "mixed-race babies", dermatologists and hairdressers who are ill-equipped to deal with dark skin and tightly-curled hair.

These incidents Clarke relates with a sense of humour and an eye for absurdity, and this skilful move offsets the horror of the more frequent kind of anecdote that makes up the majority of the book – descriptions of the very deliberate mockery and bullying levelled against her by classmates, and ignored or abetted by teachers in her school.

Clarke's descriptions of this schoolyard bullying – and the effect that it had on her – mean that The Hate Race is, in many ways, a book about the cruelty of school children, and the pack-mentality nastiness that is endured by any child who is different, or who stands out.

Set against this are lovely descriptions of Clarke's suburb, her home and its rituals – picking out a birthday cake from the Women's Weekly party cake book, gathering tadpoles in ice cream buckets at the local creek, shopping at the local K-Mart. Again, this speaks to Clarke's skill in balancing – the familiarity of these gestures make the particularities of her racialised experience all the more confronting.

Clarke is an assured and direct narrator, although at times, the perspective she grants to her younger self seems a bit too precocious. The most striking example occurs when her second-grade class discusses the "discovery" of Australia as a part of bicentennial celebrations. Clarke's narrator, here, is six or seven years old, but nonetheless canny enough to question the version of history her teacher is telling.

Clarke's suggestion is that she is particularly alert to the suffering of Indigenous Australians because of her own experiences of racism, but there's something deeply uncomfortable about this alignment that elides very real differences of historical context and oppression.

This is a strange discomfort, because one of the most exciting things about Clarke's writing is her ability to inhabit different perspectives, and to draw links between different histories and experiences – and thereby enlarge the kinds of stories we consider "ours".

This facility is clearly evident in her new collection of poems,Carrying the World, which covers some of the same territory as the memoir, alongside broader stories and encounters.

Here, the poem marngrook, about the racial vilification of the Indigenous AFL player Adam Goodes, acknowledges in its opening stanzas that the poet has "no traditional name/ or right/ or tongue for" Indigenous stories, but also describes her own ancestors as being "chained and stolen too". This is, of course, true – other poems in the collection attempt to come to terms with the long history of slavery that brought Clarke's ancestors to the Caribbean – but there's still something problematic about comparing this to Indigenous experience.

The strongest poems in Carrying the World are the most personal ones, which deal mostly with family – especially with motherhood, and with coming to terms with family history. Demerara sugar, for example, describes a research trip through England, weaving together observations, oral histories, and chant-like invocations of place-names and the products – sugar, molasses, coffee beans – produced by slaves.

Also powerful is nothing here needs fixing, which charts the breakdown of a relationship and establishment of a new home as a single mother, and is a beautiful meditation on grief, resilience and the joys found in small moments.

As a whole, however, Carrying the World is uneven. Many of the poems – including marngrook and imkarikaturaustralischdeutsch, where the bottom-tucking gymnastics teacher reappears – are written for and with the energy of performance poetry, but feel flat or awkward on the page.

Others, such as armageddon and i is the revolution offer endings that feel too neat and come across as moralising. This unevenness makes the collection somewhat disappointing, because the impact of the very powerful poems that it does contain is, inevitably, lessened.

Nonetheless, Carrying the World is impressive in its passion and vigour. Clarke's writing, in this collection and in The Hate Race alike, is fresh, and her voice is confident, and unlike anything else in our literary landscape. But the inconsistency and unevenness across both works do mean that they are vaguely unsatisfying, despite the urgency and energy that drives them.

Amazon.com: Voltaire's Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West (9780679748199): John Ralston Saul: Books

Amazon.com: Voltaire's Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West (9780679748199): John Ralston Saul: Books

Time for Treaty, By Tony McAvoy

Time for Treaty, By Tony McAvoy

Principles for a treaty based on fundamental human equality

On 30 March 2016 The Daily Telegraph ran the front-page headline ‘“WHITEWASH” UNSW rewrites history books to state Cook “invaded” Australia’. It had a large picture of Captain James Cook. The fact that the offending ‘guidebook’ was published by the University of New South Wales in 2012 and such guidebooks arede rigueur at most Australian universities did not inhibit the promotion of the story as news.

Nevertheless, the story did promote discussion of an issue that struggles to get any consideration in modern-day Australia. Indeed the absence of discussion surrounding the foundation of the colonies and their federation is surprising given the extraordinary resources and effort being put into the Recognise campaign. One would have thought that the drafting of amendments to provide for ‘recognition’ of Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders in the Constitution would, out of necessity, have to at least attempt to accurately (and truthfully) characterise the nature of the relationship at the assertion of sovereignty by the British Crown.

The various Aboriginal ‘nations’ of the Australian continent had been existing in relative peace for many thousands of years when Captain James Cook mapped and claimed the east coast for the British. Of course, Cook didn’t discover Australia but rather, for the purposes of the European powers, engaged in the hunt for new colonies and in Britain’s case a repository for its failing social order. He named it New South Wales.

Under the European laws prevailing in the 1770s, the claim to new lands was not perfected by the claim itself and could be subject to counter claim if not populated. It was the arrival of the First Fleet that is purported to have been the act of erecting and establishing the colony of New South Wales as a British colony. The absurdity of such a claim is made readily apparent when one considers the extent of the colony. It encompassed the whole of the Australian mainland and coastal islands as far west as the 135th meridian. As a ready reckoner, you could roughly draw a line from Milingimbi in Eastern Arnhem Land, south through Coober Pedy, to Elliston on the west coast of the Eyre Peninsula. If I may be permitted to labour the point, according to the British that means the arrival of eleven ships in the First Fleet, comprising 1350 people, on Gadigal land at the newly named Port Jackson effected acquisition for Britain of the territories of the Ngarakwal people at Byron Bay, the Wik on eastern Cape York, the Kalkadoon at Mt Isa, the Yolngu in Arnhem Land, the Arrernte at Alice Springs, the Ngarrandjeri at the Murray River mouth, the Barngarla on the Eyre Peninsula, and all territories in between.

For the vast majority of Aboriginal people in Australia, our cosmology has our ancestors coming from our lands as the original creator spirits or being given life by our creator spirits. Our creator spirits imbued the lands and waters and sky with our songs and stories. The Adnyamathanha people of the Flinders Ranges in South Australia do not call them ‘stories’; they say it is their ‘history’. That seems to me to be a wholly more appropriate translation into English of the relationship between us, our ancestors, our cosmology and our land.

The archaeologists confirm our belief that we have been here since time immemorial and the anthropologists confirm our understanding that our territorial boundaries were largely settled millennia before the British arrival. The land, having been invested with the songs and narratives of the creator spirits in one form, is not conducive to change. Our law and world view does not permit of the acquisition of rights in land by any means other than descent.

How then did the British acquire our lands by establishing a colony on the lands of the Gadigal? Under the British law of the day, it was possible to acquire the territories of other people by conquest, cession or settlement. The British claim that there was ‘settlement’ of our lands. ‘Settlement’ can only occur where the lands are ‘desert and uncultivated’. That does not mean uninhabited. Its meaning in the late eighteenth century involves an agrarian viewpoint of land management. The failure of the British to appreciate the complexity and sophistication of Aboriginal land- and resource-management techniques, whether deliberately denied or not, was an imperial necessity and, in time, may turn out to be a significant marker in the development or downfall of the human species. For it is clear that Aboriginal Australia, in the period immediately prior to the British invasions, was arguably the most refined form of sustainable human existence this world will ever see. Of course, it was not perfect and it was never going to be able to resist the catastrophic changes rippling out of Europe.

But the inevitability of European domination does not equate to rectitude.

Putting morality to one side, a purely objective analysis should remove all doubt in any informed person’s mind that Aboriginal people were subjected to invasion, genocidal practices and oppression perpetrated by or sanctioned by the state. In this case the ‘state’ is the British Crown, and later the colonial governments in the name of the British Crown, and eventually the federation and the colonial governments in the name of the British Crown.

The dual questions now are whether Australians and the Australian governments should do anything about it, and if the answer is yes, then what should be done.

*       *       *

The focus on the inaccuracy of the foundational aspects of the establishment of the British colonies in Australia is important from both a historical and a legal standpoint. But rather than get embroiled in legal argument about the effect of the invasion, it is far more relevant to present-day Australians to put the discussion in terms of the moral well-being of the country and its people.

The moral well-being of Australia is poorer for the failure to come to terms with the past. The response from certain media commentators about the UNSW guidebook indicates a nation with a chip on its shoulder. The reason for Australia’s moral ill health is not just those things that happened in the past but what is still occurring. As Chris Sarra has recently put it, there is an ongoing failure to respect our humanity, which thereby diminishes Australia’s own.

More specifically, Australia is living a historical lie. The very notion that the British could simply come and take our land and resources is understood by many if not most Australians to be lacking in respect for the fundamental principle of human equality. The notion of settlement of other people’s lands is now anachronistic. In Mabo the High Court said we cannot go back. But in circumstances in which Australia is one of the most affluent and modern First World countries and yet Aboriginal people are made to apply for the return of lands from the Crown, or to undergo the belittling legal hearings that comprise the native-title processes, the inequity bites hard. That is without descending into the ugliness that is Aboriginal social policy.

Many Australians understand this inequality. I think that they also understand that the truth will, in a sense, set them free. We in Aboriginal Australia suffer some form of intergenerational post-traumatic stress disorder, and the rest of Australia suffers from a guilty conscience. Our responses are emotive and reveal the hurt and humiliation we continue to suffer, and the Australian governments are trapped by a perceived need to deny the truth in an effort to assuage the guilt of the denialists who vote.

The answer to the first question is ‘yes’: we, both Aboriginal people and non-Aboriginal Australians, need to do something about this fundamental flaw in the national foundations and we should begin now. It should not be left until the debate about an Australian republic gathers speed. A modern Australia needs a modern relationship with those of us who were dispossessed and on whose dispossession the nation has been built over and over again.

However, I do not see the present Recognise campaign and proposed referendum to amend the Australian Constitution as dependent upon resolution of the broader relationships. The concept of recognition of the prior existence of Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders in the Australian Constitution and the correction of the record regarding the purported acquisition of the Australian continent for the British Crown are no doubt closely related to each other. But it should be remembered that whatever constitutional reform occurs as a result of the present Recognition campaign, it will only be a step along the path to a more equitable future, not an arrival at the factual, moral and legal endpoint.

In my view the simplest and most elegant solution to a very complicated scenario is to enter into an overarching national treaty framework agreement that is secured by statute, followed by individual or regional treaties.

The most important reasons for such a structure are:

• If agreements are to be comprehensive and final they must involve both the relevant colonial government or governments and the federation;
• The government needs certainty that the process is not going to lead to a claim for secession;
• The First Nations need certainty that the process guarantees certain outcomes.

Aboriginal Australia would need to develop a representative body holding a mandate to negotiate an agreement such as the proposed national framework.

*                 *                *

Logically, the process of creating a national treaty framework agreement could be commenced by an invitation from the First Nations to the federal and state governments to indicate the willingness of the Assembly of First Nations and its members to enter into negotiations based on certain broad parameters. The most critical of these parameters would be:

• An admission by the Australian colonies and federation that the Australian continent was not ‘settled’;
• A corresponding agreement by the First Nations that, notwithstanding that the colonies did not acquire legitimate sovereignty by the act of establishing the penal colony of New South Wales, a form of practical sovereignty has been acquired in the years since;
• Agreement by all that the colonies and federation are burdened to varying degrees by a contested sovereignty;
• Agreement that the contested sovereignty can only be resolved by agreements entered into by First Nations with the federal and relevant state governments; and
• An expression of the desire by all to reach a final settlement of all matters arising from the contested sovereignty.

Within those broad parameters the governments of the colonies and the federation could negotiate a framework agreement with a national First Nations representative body. Canada went down the final-settlement path many decades ago. Review of the final agreements entered into in Canada give us insight into the subject matter that needs to be addressed if we are truly to draw a line under the past and work towards a new future. The subject matter includes the entitlement to lands, waters and resources; the entitlement to compensation and reparations; the entitlement to benefit sharing from resource use; self-determination; tax relief; security of social welfare benefits and support services; and the resources to enter into negotiations on an equal footing.

In my view the aim should be to negotiate this framework agreement over the next few years. Once negotiated, individual First Nations or groups of First Nations would then be able to express a willingness to negotiate according to the agreed process. The process would be drafted in such a way as to ensure that any treaty that has already been entered into could be accommodated, such as that which might result from the Victorian government’s recent commitment to attempt to negotiate a treaty with the Aboriginal peoples of south-east Australia.

The ultimate aim for all participants in the process should be to arrive at a position where there is certainty about the past, and a path to social and cultural prosperity for First Nations and citizens of those nations.

For my part, the most difficult part of the process is describing success. I have some idea of what a successful transition from colonial oppression might look like for my people, the Wiri of central Queensland. It will not look like our ancestors’ pre-colonial lives. But I would like to think that my people will be rich in our culture; free from the trauma that haunts us; possessed of some of our lands; joint decision-makers in resource- and environmental-management issues; beneficiaries of royalties from development that we have agreed to; and able to afford, and be in a position to receive, the best education available.

The real dilemma we will have to face as peoples is whether we promote the pursuit of individual wealth and all that that entails. As Noel Pearson has recently stated in relation to the Queensland government’s latest restrictions on native-vegetation clearing, Aboriginal people also have a right to develop. He is correct. Article 1 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights provides that all human beings have the right to economic development as an expression of their right to self-determination. How we balance that human right against obligations to protect our country, obligations to kin and obligations to act sustainably, I am not sure. Do we give in to the Western gods of growth and material wealth, concluding that the old ways that are very deeply ingrained in our societies and culture must be abandoned or put to one side? Noel Pearson often cites modern Japan as evidence of a society that moved from a largely agrarian model to a thriving First World economic success while maintaining all of its cultural identity. I appreciate the point that is being made, but I say that the very things that make us culturally different are those that are embedded in our social equality and sustainability.

This is a discussion, along with many others, we need to focus on within the broader Aboriginal community. We must develop methods, processes and models that First Nations can adopt or discard as they please. Such is the fierce independence of each nation and clan that none will accept any form of edict.

*                *                *

Rather conveniently, this brings me back to the discussion regarding the need for a body to advocate nationally for a framework agreement and negotiate the content of that agreement should the governments be brought to the table, which is looking at least possible in light of the Victorian government’s announcement and the Queensland premier’s ready admission of colonial invasion.

Over recent years there has been discussion at the annual National Native Title Conferences about the creation of a national Assembly of First Nations. These discussions have led to the establishment of a working group consisting of a number of people having interest in pursuing such a body. The working group consists of Mick Gooda (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner), Geoff Scott (CEO of the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples), Mark McMillan (law lecturer at Melbourne University), Valerie Cooms (member of the National Native Title Tribunal and chair of the Quandamooka Yoolooburrabee Aboriginal Corporation (RNTBC)), Robynne Quiggin (formerly CEO of the Australian Indigenous Governance Institute and now at the Australian Human Rights Commission) and Janine Gertz (a Gugu Badhun and Ngadjon-jii woman). I am also a member of that working group.

I have drafted a charter for the assembly and presented the draft at numerous native-title and Indigenous legal conferences. There have been various meetings over the last three years driving the establishment of an Assembly of First Nations along. It is not a new name or idea. There is a Canadian version bearing the same name. However, the structure of the proposed Assembly of First Nations mirrors that of the United Nations in a number of important respects. First, it will respect the sovereignty of the member nations. Secondly, declarations and conventions will gain force by a majority vote at a meeting of the general assembly. And finally, individual First Nations will only be bound by such declarations or conventions if they ratify the instrument domestically. Each First Nation will be entitled to have a delegate attend the meetings and exercise a vote.

There are two other critical features of the Assembly of First Nations. They are that the body must be independently funded, and that it should not be incorporated.

Government funding is antithetical to the objectives of the assembly. In my view we are now in a position to fund our political representatives ourselves. The most readily available sources of funding are a share of royalties and for a small levy to be added to each native-title compensation agreement. The proceeds would be paid to a trust that would fund the meetings and a small administrative arm.

Finally, in answer to a question I am often asked by non-Indigenous Australians—‘What can I, a non-Aboriginal person, do?’—there is one simple thing that can be done at this point in time. Your help is needed to overcome the threshold issue, which is the political recognition that Australia was not settled. The whole construct that other peoples’ territories can be acquired depends for its legitimacy on the notion of a stratified humanity.

The threshold will have been crossed when the prime minister and a sufficient number of the state premiers accept that Australia was not settled. From there we should move to negotiation mode. So, my answer to that question is that non-Aboriginal Australians can reject the notion of settlement as part of our national dialogue. When somebody raises it in conversation, tell them that the British did not settle Australia. When a politician refers to Australia being settled, respond to them, call them out on it, ring their electorate office, and write to their party leader. Whenever it appears in written form or online, write to the authors or publishers.

The use of the term ‘settled’ is a horrendous euphemism that for many smooths out the jagged reality of Australia’s past. I refuse to characterise those events in the language of the eighteenth-century British Empire. That language only serves to legitimise a brutal and inhumane past. I say that the British and Australian governments owe us far more than they can ever repay (à la Bernie Sanders’ election commitment to the Aboriginal people of the United States). Therefore, it makes no difference how they characterise our invasion.

The term ‘settlement’ really is insulting and dehumanising. Once that lie has been put to rest, the remainder of the roadblocks to a proper reckoning should tumble.

Aboriginal peoples in Canada - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Aboriginal peoples in Canada - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Aboriginal peoples in Canada

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Aboriginal peoples in Canada

Total population
1,400,685[1]
Languages
Indigenous languages, Canadian Englishand Canadian French
Religion
Christianity (mainly Roman Catholicismand Anglican), Traditional Indigenous beliefs
Related ethnic groups
Native Americans in the United States,Greenlandic Inuit, Indigenous peoples of the Americas

Aboriginal peoples in Canada, orAboriginal Canadians, (also known asIndigenous peoples in Canada andIndigenous Canadians) are the indigenous peoples within the boundaries of present-dayCanada. They comprise the First Nations,^[2]Inuit^[3] and Métis.^[4] Although "Indian" is a term still commonly used in legal documents, the descriptors "Indian" and "Eskimo" have somewhat fallen into disuse in Canada and are sometimes considered pejorative.^[5][6][7]

Old Crow Flats and Bluefish Caves are some of the earliest known sites of human habitation in Canada. The Paleo-Indian Clovis, Plano andPre-Dorset cultures pre-date currentindigenous peoples of the Americas. Projectile point tools, spears, pottery, bangles, chiselsand scrapers mark archaeological sites, thus distinguishing cultural periods, traditions and lithic reduction styles.

The characteristics of Canadian Aboriginal culture included permanent settlements,^[8]agriculture,^[9] civic and ceremonial architecture,^[10] complex societal hierarchies and trading networks.^[11] The Métis culture of mixed blood originated in the mid-17th century when First Nation and Inuit people married Europeans.^[12] The Inuit had more limited interaction with European settlers during that early period.^[13] Various laws,treaties, and legislation have been enacted between European immigrants and First Nations across Canada. Aboriginal Right to Self-Government provides opportunity to manage historical, cultural, political, health care and economic control aspects within first people's communities.

As of the 2011 census, Aboriginal peoples in Canada totaled 1,400,685 people, or 4.3% of the national population, spread over 600 recognized First Nations governments or bands with distinctive cultures, languages, art, and music.^[1][14]National Aboriginal Day recognizes the cultures and contributions of Aboriginals to thehistory of Canada.^[15] First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples of all backgrounds have become prominent figures and have served as role models in the Aboriginal community and help to shape the Canadian cultural identity.^[16]

Contents

 [hide] 

• 1Terminology
• 2History
  • 2.1Paleo-Indians period
  • 2.2Archaic period
  • 2.3Post-Archaic periods
    • 2.3.1First Nations
    • 2.3.2Inuit
    • 2.3.3Métis
  • 2.4Forced assimilation
• 3Politics, law and legislation
  • 3.1Treaties
  • 3.2Indian Act
  • 3.3Royal Commission
  • 3.4Health policy
  • 3.5Political organization
• 4Culture
  • 4.1Languages
  • 4.2Visual art
  • 4.3Music
• 5Demographics and classification
• 6See also
• 7References
• 8Further reading
• 9External links

Terminology

The terms First Peoples and First Nations are both used to refer to indigenous peoples of Canada.^[17] The terms First Peoples or Aboriginals in Canada are normally broader terms than First Nations, as they include Inuit, Métis and First Nations. First Nations(most often used in the plural) has come into general use for the indigenous peoples of North America in Canada, and their descendants, who are neither Inuit nor Métis. On reserves, First Nations is being supplanted by members of various nations referring to themselves by their group or ethnical identity. In conversation this would be "I am Haida", or "we are Kwantlens", in recognition of their First Nations ethnicities.^[18] In this Act, "Aboriginal peoples of Canada" includes the Indian, Inuit and Métis peoples of Canada.^[19]

Indian remains in place as the legal term used in the Canadian Constitution. Its usage outside such situations can be considered offensive.^[6] Aboriginals is more commonly used to describe all indigenous peoples of Canada.^[20] It also refers to self-identification of aboriginal people who live within Canada claiming rights of sovereignty or aboriginal title to lands.

An aboriginal community inNorthern Ontario

The term Eskimo has pejorative connotations in Canada and Greenland. Indigenous peoples in those areas have replaced the term Eskimo with Inuit.^[21][22] The Yupikof Alaska and Siberia do not consider themselves Inuit, and ethnographers agree they are a distinct people.^[7][22] They prefer the terminology Yupik, Yupiit, or Eskimo. The Yupik languages are linguistically distinct from the Inuit languages.^[7] Linguistic groups of Arctic people have no universal replacement term for Eskimo, inclusive of all Inuit and Yupik people across the geographical area inhabited by the Inuit and Yupik peoples.^[7]

Besides these ethnic descriptors, Aboriginal peoples are often divided into legal categories based on their relationship with the Crown (i.e. the state). Section 91 (clause 24) of the Constitution Act, 1867 gives the federal government (as opposed to the provinces) the sole responsibility for "Indians, and Lands reserved for the Indians". The government inherited treaty obligations from the British colonial authorities in Eastern Canada and signed treaties itself with First Nations in Western Canada (theNumbered Treaties). It also passed the Indian Act in 1876 which governed its interactions with all treaty and non-treaty peoples. Members of First Nations bands that are subject to the Indian Act with the Crown are compiled on a list called theIndian Register, and such people are called Status Indians. Many non-treaty First Nations and all Inuit and Métis peoples are not subject to the Indian Act. However, two court cases have clarified that Inuit, Métis, and non-status First Nations people, all are covered by the term "Indians" in the Constitution Act, 1867. The first was Re Eskimosin 1939 covering the Inuit, the second being Daniels v. Canada in 2013 which applies to Métis and non-Status First Nations.^[23]

Notwithstanding Canada's location within the Americas, the term "Native American" is not used in Canada as it is typically used solely to describe the indigenous peoples within the boundaries of the present-day United States.^[24]

History

Paleo-Indians period

Maps depicting each phase of a three-step early human migrations for the peopling of the Americas

According to archaeological and genetic evidence, North and South America were the last continents in the world with human habitation.^[25] During the Wisconsin glaciation, 50,000–17,000 years ago, falling sea levels allowed people to move across the Bering land bridge that joined Siberia to north west North America (Alaska).^[26][27] Alaska was ice-free because of low snowfall, allowing a small population to exist. TheLaurentide ice sheet covered most of Canada, blockingnomadic inhabitants and confining them to Alaska (EastBeringia) for thousands of years.^[28][29]

Aboriginal genetic studies suggest that the first inhabitants of the Americas share a single ancestral population, one that developed in isolation, conjectured to be Beringia.^[30][31][32] The isolation of these peoples in Beringia might have lasted 10,000–20,000 years.^[33][34][35] Around 16,500 years ago, the glaciers began melting, allowing people to move south and east into Canada and beyond.^[36][37][38]

The first inhabitants of North America arrived in Canada at least 15,000 years ago, though increasing evidence suggests an even earlier arrival.^[39] It is believed the inhabitants entered the Americas pursuing Pleistocene mammals such as the giant beaver, steppe wisent, musk ox,mastodons, woolly mammoths and ancient reindeer (early caribou).^[40] One route hypothesized is that people walked south by way of an ice-free corridor on the east side of the Rocky Mountains, and then fanned out across North America before continuing on to South America.^[41] The other conjectured route is that they migrated, either on foot or using primitive boats, down the Pacific Coast to the tip of South America, and then crossed the Rockies and Andes.^[42] Evidence of the latter has been covered by a sea level rise of hundreds of metres following the last ice age.^[43][44]

The Old Crow Flats and basin was one of the areas in Canada untouched by glaciations during the Pleistocene Ice ages, thus it served as a pathway and refuge for ice age plants and animals.^[45] The area holds evidence of early human habitation in Canada dating from about 12,000.^[46] Fossils from the area include some never accounted for in North America, such as hyenas and large camels.^[47] Bluefish Caves is an archaeological site in Yukon, Canada from which a specimen of apparently human-worked mammoth bone has been radiocarbon dated to 12,000 years ago.^[46]

A Clovis point created using bi-facial percussion flaking(that is, each face is flaked on both edges alternatively with a percussor)

Clovis sites dated at 13,500 years ago were discovered in western North America during the 1930s. Clovis peoples were regarded as the first widespread Paleo-Indian inhabitants of the New World and ancestors to all indigenous peoples in the Americas.^[48] Archaeological discoveries in the past thirty years have brought forward other distinctive knappingcultures who occupied the Americas from the lower Great Plains to the shores of Chile.^[49]

Localized regional cultures developed from the time of theYounger Dryas cold climate period from 12,900 to 11,500 years ago.^[50] The Folsom tradition are characterized by their use of Folsom points as projectile tips at archaeological sites. These tools assisted activities at kill sites that marked the slaughter and butchering of bison.^[51]

The land bridge existed until 13,000–11,000 years ago, long after the oldest proven human settlements in the New World began.^[52] Lower sea levels in the Queen Charlotte sound andHecate Strait produced great grass lands called archipelago of Haida Gwaii.^[53] Hunter-gatherers of the area left distinctivelithic technology tools and the remains of large butchered mammals, occupying the area from 13,000–9,000 years ago.^[53] In July 1992, the Federal Government officially designated X̲á:ytem (near Mission, British Columbia) as a National Historic Site, one of the first Indigenous spiritual sites in Canada to be formally recognized in this manner.^[54]

The Plano cultures was a group of hunter-gatherer communities that occupied the Great Plains area of North America between 12,000–10,000 years ago.^[55] The Paleo-Indians moved into new territory as it emerged from under the glaciers. Big game flourished in this new environment.^[56] The Plano culture are characterized by a range of projectile point tools collectively called Plano points, which were used to hunt bison. Their diets also included pronghorn, elk, deer, raccoon and coyote.^[55] At the beginning of the Archaic Era, they began to adopt a sedentary approach to subsistence.^[55] Sites in and around Belmont, Nova Scotia have evidence of Plano-Indians, indicating small seasonal hunting camps, perhaps re-visited over generations from around 11,000–10,000 years ago.^[55] Seasonal large and smaller game fish and fowl were food and raw material sources. Adaptation to the harsh environment included tailored clothing and skin-covered tents on wooden frames.^[55]

Archaic period

The North American climate stabilized by 8000 BCE (10,000 years ago); climatic conditions were very similar to today's.^[57] This led to widespread migration,cultivation and later a dramatic rise in population all over the Americas.^[57] Over the course of thousands of years, American indigenous peoples domesticated, bred and cultivated a large array of plant species. These species now constitute 50 – 60% of all crops in cultivation worldwide.^[58]

Distribution of Na-Dene languages shown in red

The vastness and variety of Canada's climates, ecology, vegetation, fauna, and landform separations have defined ancient peoples implicitly into cultural orlinguistic divisions. Canada is surrounded north, east, and west with coastline and since the last ice age, Canada has consisted of distinct forest regions. Language contributes to the identity of a people by influencing social life ways and spiritual practices.^[59]Aboriginal religions developed from anthropomorphismand animism philosophies.^[60]

The placement of artifacts and materials within an Archaic burial site indicated social differentiation based upon status.^[57] There is a continuous record of occupation of S'ólh Téméxw by Aboriginal people dating from the early Holocene period, 10,000–9,000 years ago.^[61] Archaeological sites atStave Lake, Coquitlam Lake, Fort Langley and region uncovered early period artifacts. These early inhabitants were highly mobile hunter-gatherers, consisting of about 20 to 50 members of an extended family.^[61] The Na-Dene people occupied much of the land area of northwest and central North America starting around 8,000 BCE.^[62] They were the earliest ancestors of the Athabaskan-speaking peoples, including the Navajo andApache. They had villages with large multi-family dwellings, used seasonally during the summer, from which they hunted, fished and gathered food supplies for the winter.^[63] The Wendat peoples settled into Southern Ontario along the Eramosa Riveraround 8,000–7,000 BCE (10,000–9,000 years ago).^[64] They were concentrated between Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay. Wendat hunted caribou to survive on the glacier-covered land.^[64] Many different First Nations cultures relied upon the buffalo starting by 6,000–5,000 BCE (8,000–7,000 years ago).^[64] They hunted buffalo by herding migrating buffalo off cliffs. Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, near Lethbridge, Alberta, is a hunting grounds that was in use for about 5,000 years.^[64]

Thule site (Copper Inuit) near the waters of Cambridge Bay (Victoria Island)

The west coast of Canada by 7,000–5000 BCE (9,000–7,000 years ago) saw various cultures who organized themselves around salmon fishing.^[64] The Nuu-chah-nulth of Vancouver Island began whaling with advanced long spears at about this time.^[64] The Maritime Archaicis one group of North America's Archaic culture of sea-mammal hunters in the subarctic. They prospered from approximately 7,000 BCE–1,500 BCE (9,000–3,500 years ago) along the Atlantic Coast of North America.^[65] Their settlements included longhouses and boat-topped temporary or seasonal houses. They engaged in long-distance trade, using as currency white chert, a rock quarried from northern Labrador to Maine.^[66] The Pre-Columbianculture, whose members were called Red Paint People, is indigenous to the New England and Atlantic Canada regions of North America. The culture flourished between 3,000 BCE–1,000 BCE (5,000–3,000 years ago) and was named after their burial ceremonies, which used large quantities of red ochre to cover bodies and grave goods.^[67]

The Arctic small tool tradition is a broad cultural entity that developed along the Alaska Peninsula, around Bristol Bay, and on the eastern shores of the Bering Strait around 2,500 BCE (4,500 years ago).^[68] These Paleo-Arctic peoples had a highly distinctive toolkit of small blades (microblades) that were pointed at both ends and used as side- or end-barbs on arrows or spears made of other materials, such as bone or antler.Scrapers, engraving tools and adze blades were also included in their toolkits.^[68] The Arctic small tool tradition branches off into two cultural variants, including the Pre-Dorset, and the Independence traditions. These two groups, ancestors of Thule people, were displaced by the Inuit by 1000 Common Era (CE).^{[68]:179–81}

Post-Archaic periods

PP

S

L

Great Lakes area of theHopewell Interaction Area:
PP=Point Peninsula Complex
S=Saugeen Complex
L=Laurel Complex

The Old Copper Complex societies dating from 3,000 BCE–500 BCE (5,000–2,500 years ago) are a manifestation of the Woodland Culture, and are pre-pottery in nature.^[69] Evidence found in the northernGreat Lakes regions indicates that they extracted copper from local glacial deposits and used it in its natural form to manufacture tools and implements.^[69]

The Woodland cultural period dates from about 2,000 BCE–1,000 CE, and has locales in Ontario, Quebec, and Maritime regions.^[70] The introduction of pottery distinguishes the Woodland culture from the earlier Archaic stage inhabitants. Laurentian people of southern Ontario manufactured the oldest pottery excavated to date in Canada.^[59] They created pointed-bottom beakers decorated by a cord marking technique that involved impressing tooth implements into wet clay. Woodland technology included items such as beaver incisor knives, bangles, and chisels. The population practising sedentary agricultural life ways continued to increase on a diet of squash, corn, and bean crops.^[59]

The Hopewell tradition is an Aboriginal culture that flourished along American rivers from 300 BCE–500 CE. At its greatest extent, the Hopewell Exchange Systemnetworked cultures and societies with the peoples on the Canadian shores of Lake Ontario. Canadian expression of the Hopewellian peoples encompasses the Point Peninsula, Saugeen, and Laurel complexes.^[71][72][73]

First Nations

Chief George from the village of Senakw with his daughter in traditional regalia,c. 1906

First Nations peoples had settled and established trade routes across what is now Canada by 500 BCE–1,000 CE. Communities developed each with its own culture, customs, and character.^[74] 

In the northwest were the Athapaskan,Slavey, Dogrib, Tutchone, and Tlingit. 

Along the Pacific coast were the Tsimshian; Haida; Salish; Kwakiutl; Heiltsuk;Nootka; Nisga'a; Senakw and Gitxsan. 

In the plains were theBlackfoot; Káínawa; Sarcee and Peigan. 

In the northern woodlands were the Cree and Chipewyan. 

Around the Great Lakes were the Anishinaabe; Algonquin; Míkmaq; Iroquoisand Huron. 

Along the Atlantic coast were the Beothuk,Maliseet, Innu, Abenaki and Mi'kmaq.

Many Aboriginal civilizations^[75] established characteristics and hallmarks that included permanent urban settlements or cities,^[76] agriculture, civic and monumental architecture, andcomplex societal hierarchies.^[77] These cultures had evolved and changed by the time of the first permanent European arrivals (c. late 15th–early 16th centuries), and have been brought forward through archaeological investigations.^[78]

There are indications of contact made before Christopher Columbus between the first peoples and those from other continents. Aboriginal people in Canada interacted with Europeans around 1000 CE, but prolonged contact came after Europeans established permanent settlements in the 17th and 18th centuries.^[79] In Columbus' time there was speculation that other Europeans had made the trip in ancient or contemporary times; Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés records this in his General y natural historia de las Indias of 1526, which includes biographical information on Columbus.^[80] European written accounts generally recorded friendliness of the First Nations, who profited in trade with Europeans.^[79] Such trade generally strengthened the more organized political entities such as the Iroquois Confederation.^[81]Throughout the 16th century, European fleets made almost annual visits to the eastern shores of Canada to cultivate the fishing opportunities. A sideline industry emerged in the un-organized traffic of furs overseen by the Indian Department.^[82]

Prominent First Nations people include Joe Capilano, who met with King of the United Kingdom, Edward VII, to speak of the need to settle land claims and Ovide Mercredi, a leader at both the Meech Lake Accord constitutional reform discussions and Oka Crisis.^[83][84]

Inuit

The Inuit are the descendants of what anthropologists call the Thule culture, which emerged from western Alaska around 1,000 CE and spread eastward across the Arctic, displacing the Dorset culture (in Inuktitut, the Tuniit). Inuit historically referred to the Tuniit as "giants", or "dwarfs", who were taller and stronger than the Inuit.^[85]Researchers hypothesize that the Dorset culture lacked dogs, larger weapons and other technologies used by the expanding Inuit society.^[86] By 1300, the Inuit had settled in west Greenland, and finally moved into east Greenland over the following century. The Inuit had trade routes with more southern cultures. Boundary disputes were common and led to aggressive actions.^[13]

Inuk in a kayak,c. 1908–1914

Warfare was common among Inuit groups with sufficient population density. Inuit, such as theNunatamiut (Uummarmiut) who inhabited theMackenzie River delta area, often engaged in common warfare. The Central Arctic Inuit lacked the population density to engage in warfare. In the 13th century, the Thule culture began arriving in Greenland from what is now Canada. Norse accounts are scant. Norse-made items from Inuit campsites in Greenland were obtained by either trade or plunder.^[87] One account, Ívar Bárðarson, speaks of "small people" with whom the Norsemen fought.^[88] 14th-century accounts that a western settlement, one of the two Norse settlements, was taken over by theSkræling.^[89]

After the disappearance of the Norse colonies in Greenland, the Inuit had no contact with Europeans for at least a century. By the mid-16th century, Basque fishers were already working the Labrador coast and had established whaling stations on land, such as been excavated at Red Bay.^[90] The Inuit appear not to have interfered with their operations, but they did raid the stations in winter for tools, and particularly worked iron, which they adapted to native needs.^[91]

Notable among the Inuit are Abraham Ulrikab and family who became a zoo exhibit inHamburg, Germany, and Tanya Tagaq, a traditional throat singer.^[92] Abe Okpik was instrumental in helping Inuit obtain surnames rather than disc numbers and Kiviaq(David Ward) won the legal right to use his single-word Inuktituk name.^[93][94]

Métis

Mixed-blood fur trader,c. 1870

The Métis are people descended from marriages between Europeans (mainly French)^[95] and Cree, Ojibway, Algonquin,Saulteaux, Menominee, Mi'kmaq, Maliseet, and other First Nations.^[12] Their history dates to the mid-17th century.^[2]When Europeans first arrived to Canada they relied on Aboriginal peoples for fur trading skills and survival. To ensure alliances, relationships between European fur traders and Aboriginal women were often consolidated through marriage.^[96] The Métis homeland consists of the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Ontario, as well as the Northwest Territories (NWT).^[97]

Amongst notable Métis people are television actor Tom Jackson,^[98] Commissioner of the Northwest Territories Tony Whitford, and Louis Riel who led two resistance movements: the Red River Rebellion of 1869–1870 and the North-West Rebellion of 1885, which ended in histrial.^{[99][100][101]}

The languages inherently Métis are either Métis French or a mixed language calledMichif. Michif, Mechif or Métchif is a phonetic spelling of Métif, a variant of Métis.^[102]The Métis today predominantly speak English, with French a strong second language, as well as numerous Aboriginal tongues. A 19th-century community of the Métis people, the Anglo-Métis, were referred to as Countryborn. They were children ofRupert's Land fur trade typically of Orcadian, Scottish, or English paternal descent and Aboriginal maternal descent.^[103] Their first languages would have been Aboriginal (Cree, Saulteaux, Assiniboine, etc.) and English. Their fathers spoke Gaelic, thus leading to the development of an English dialect referred to as "Bungee".^[104]

S.35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 mentions the Métis yet there has long been debate over legally defining the term Métis,^[105] but on September 23, 2003, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Métis are a distinct people with significant rights (Powley ruling).^[106]

Unlike First Nations people and Inuit, there has been no distinction between status and non-status,^[107] and the Métis, their heritage and aboriginal ancestry have often been absorbed and assimilated into their surrounding populations.^[108]

Forced assimilation

From the late 18th century, European Canadians (and the Canadian government) encouraged assimilation of Aboriginal culture into what was referred to as "Canadian culture".^[109][110] These attempts reached a climax in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with a series of initiatives that aimed at complete integration of the aboriginal peoples. These policies, which were made possible by legislation such as theGradual Civilization Act^[111] and the Indian Act,^[112] focused on European ideals of Christianity, sedentary living, agriculture, and education.

The attempt at Christianization of the aboriginal people of Canada had been ongoing since the first missionaries arrived in the 1600s, however it became more systematic with the Indian Act in 1876, which would bring new sanctions for those who did not convert to Christianity. For example, the new laws would prevent non-Christian aboriginals from testifying or having their cases heard in court and ban alcohol consumption.^[113] When the Indian Act was amended in 1884, traditional aboriginal religious and social practices, such as the Potlatch, would be banned, and further amendments in 1920 would prevent aboriginals from wearing traditional dress or performing traditional dances in an attempt to stop all non-Christian practices.^[113]

Another focus of the Canadian government was to make the aboriginal groups of Canada sedentary, as they thought that this would make them easier to assimilate. In the 19th century, the government began to support the creation of model farming villages, which were meant to encourage non-sedentary aboriginal groups to settle in an area and begin to cultivate agriculture.^[114] When most of these model farming villages failed,^[114] the government turned instead to the creation of Aboriginal reservations with the Indian Act of 1876.^[112] With the creation of these reservations came many restricting laws, such as further bans on all intoxicants, restrictions on eligibility to vote in band elections, decreased hunting and fishing areas, and inability for aboriginals to visit other groups on their reservations.^[112]

Through the Gradual Civilization Act in 1857, the government would encourage aboriginals to enfranchise – to remove all legal distinctions between [Indians] and Her Majesty’s other Canadian Subjects.^[111] If an aboriginal chose to enfranchise, it would strip them and their family of aboriginal title, with the idea that they would become more integrated into Canadian society.^[115] However, they were often still defined asnon-citizens by Europeans, and those few who did enfranchise were often met with disappointment.^[115]

St. Paul's Indian Industrial School, Middlechurch, Manitoba, 1901

The final government strategy of assimilation, made possible by the Indian Act was the Canadian residential school system:

Of all the initiatives that were undertaken in the first century of Confederation, none was more ambitious or central to the civilizing strategy of the Department, to its goal of assimilation, than the residential school system… it was the residential school experience that would lead children most effectively out of their "savage" communities into "higher civilization" and "full citizenship."^[116]

Beginning in 1847 and lasting until 1996, the Canadian government, in partnership with the Catholic Church, ran 130 residential boarding schools across Canada for aboriginal children, who were forcibly taken from their homes.^[117] While the schools were said to educate, they were plagued by under-funding, disease, and abuse.^[118]

Because of laws and policies that encouraged or required aboriginals to assimilate into a Eurocentric society, Canada violated the United Nations Genocide Convention that Canada signed in 1949 and passed through Parliament in 1952.^[119] The residential school system that removed aboriginal children from their homes has led scholars to believe that Canada can be tried in international court for genocide.^[119] A legal case resulted in settlement of 2 billion C$ in 2006 and the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission which confirmed the injurious effect on children of this system and turmoil created between aboriginal Canadians and Canadian Society.^[120]In 2008 Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued an apology on behalf of the Canadian government and its citizens for the residential school system.^[121]

Politics, law and legislation

Treaties

The Indian Chiefs Medal, presented to commemorateTreaties 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, bearing the image of Queen Victoria

The Canadian Crown and Aboriginal peoples beganinteractions during the European colonialization period.Numbered treaties, the Indian Act, the Constitution Act of 1982 and case laws were established. Aboriginals construe these agreements as being between them and the Crown of Canada through the districts Indian Agent, and not the Cabinet of Canada.^[122] The Māoriinterprets the Treaty of Waitangi in New Zealand similarly.^[123] A series of eleven treaties were signed between Aboriginals in Canada and the reigning Monarch of Canada from 1871 to 1921. TheGovernment of Canada created the policy, commissioned the Treaty Commissioners and ratified the agreements. These Treaties are agreements with the Government of Canada administered by Canadian Aboriginal law and overseen by the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development.^[124]

According to the First Nations– Federal Crown Political Accord "cooperation will be a cornerstone for partnership between Canada and First Nations, wherein Canada is the short-form reference to Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada.^[122] The Supreme Court argued that treaties "served to reconcile pre-existing Aboriginal sovereignty with assumed Crown sovereignty, and to define Aboriginal rights".^[122] First Nations people interpreted agreements covered in treaty 8 to last "as long as the sun shines, grass grows and rivers flow."^[125]

Indian Act

Former federal Indian affairs minister David Crombie was responsible for Bill C-31.

The Indian Act is federal legislation that dates from 1876. There have been over 20 major changes made to the original Act since then, the last time being in 1951; amended in 1985 with Bill C-31. The Indian Act indicates how Reserves and Bands can operate and defines who is recognized as an "Indian".^[126]

In 1985, the Canadian Parliament passed Bill C-31, "An Act to Amend the Indian Act". Because of a Constitutional requirement, the Bill took effect on April 17, 1985.^[127]

• It ends discriminatory provisions of the Indian Act, especially those that discriminated against women.^[127]
• It changes the meaning of "status" and for the first time allows for limited reinstatement of Indians who were denied or lost status and/or Band membership.^[127]
• It allows bands to define their own membership rules.^[127]

Those people accepted into band membership under band rules may not be status Indians. C-31 clarified that various sections of the Indian Act would apply to band members. The sections under debate concern community life and land holdings. Sections pertaining to Indians (Aboriginals) as individuals (in this case, wills and taxation of personal property) were not included.^[127]

Royal Commission

The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples was a Royal Commission undertaken by the Government of Canada in 1991 to address issues of the Aboriginal peoples of Canada.^[128] It assessed past government policies toward Aboriginal people, such asresidential schools, and provided policy recommendations to the government.^[129] The Commission issued its final report in November 1996. The five-volume, 4,000-page report covered a vast range of issues; its 440 recommendations called for sweeping changes to the interaction between Aboriginal, non-Aboriginal people and the governments in Canada.^[128] The report "set out a 20-year agenda for change."^[130]

Health policy

In 1995, the federal government announced the Aboriginal Right to Self-Government Policy.^[131] This policy recognizes that First Nations and Inuit have the constitutional right to shape their own forms of government to suit their particular historical, cultural, political and economic circumstances. The Indian Health Transfer Policyprovided a framework for the assumption of control of health services by Aboriginal peoples, and set forth a developmental approach to transfer centred on self-determination in health.^[132][133] Through this process, the decision to enter transfer discussions with Health Canada rests with each community. Once involved in transfer, communities can take control of health programme responsibilities at a pace determined by their individual circumstances and health management capabilities.^[134]The National Aboriginal Health Organization (NAHO) incorporated in 2000, is an Aboriginal-designed and-controlled not-for-profit body in Canada that works to influence and advance the health and well-being of Aboriginal Peoples.^[135]

Political organization

First Nations and Inuit organizations ranged in size from band societies of a few people to multi-nation confederacies like the Iroquois. First Nations leaders from across the country formed the Assembly of First Nations, which began as the National Indian Brotherhood in 1968.^[136] The Métis and the Inuit are represented nationally by theMétis National Council and the Inuit Circumpolar Council respectively.

Today's political organizations have resulted from interaction with European-style methods of government through the Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians. Aboriginal political organizations throughout Canada vary in political standing, viewpoints, and reasons for forming.^[137] First Nations, Métis and Inuit negotiate with the Canadian Government through Indian and Northern Affairs Canada in all affairs concerning land, entitlement, and rights.^[136] The First Nation groups that operate independently do not belong to these groups.^[136]

Culture

Traditional snowshoemaker, c. 1900

Countless North American Indigenous words, inventions and games have become an everyday part of Canadian languageand use. The canoe, snowshoes, the toboggan, lacrosse, tug of war, maple syrup and tobacco are just a few of the products, inventions and games.^[138] Some of the words include the barbecue, caribou, chipmunk, woodchuck,hammock, skunk, and moose.^[139] Many places in Canada, both natural features and human habitations, use indigenous names. The word "Canada" itself derives from the St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement".^[140] The province of Saskatchewan derives its name from the Saskatchewan River, which in the Cree language is called "Kisiskatchewani Sipi", meaning "swift-flowing river."^[141] Canada's capital city Ottawa comes from the Algonquin language term "adawe" meaning "to trade."^[141] Modern youth groups such as Scouts Canada and the Girl Guides of Canada include programs based largely on Indigenous lore, arts and crafts, character building and outdoor camp craft and living.^[142]

Aboriginal cultural areas depend upon their ancestors' primary lifeway, or occupation, at the time of European contact. These culture areas correspond closely with physical and ecological regions of Canada.^[143] The indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast were centred around ocean and river fishing; in the interior of British Columbia, hunter-gatherer and river fishing. In both of these areas the salmon was of chief importance. For the people of the plains, bison hunting was the primary activity. In thesubarctic forest, other species such as the moose were more important. For peoples near the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River, shifting agriculture was practised, including the raising of maize, beans, and squash.^[14][143] While for the Inuit, hunting was the primary source of food with seals the primary component of their diet.^[144]The caribou, fish, other marine mammals and to a lesser extent plants, berries and seaweed are part of the Inuit diet. One of the most noticeable symbols of Inuit culture, the inukshuk is the emblem of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. Inuksuit are rock sculptures made by stacking stones; in the shape of a human figure, they are calledinunnguaq.^[145]

Tsuu T'ina children at a parade

Indian reserves, established in Canadian law by treaties such as Treaty 7, are lands of First Nations recognized by non-indigenous governments.^[146] Some reserves are within cities, such as the Opawikoscikan Reserve inPrince Albert, Saskatchewan, Wendake in Quebec Cityor Stony Plain 135 in the Edmonton Capital Region. There are more reserves in Canada than there are First Nations, which were ceded multiple reserves by treaty.^[147] Aboriginal people currently work in a variety of occupations and may live outside their ancestral homes. The traditional cultures of their ancestors, shaped by nature, still exert a strong influence on them, from spirituality to political attitudes.^[14][143] National Aboriginal Day is a day of recognition of the cultures and contributions of the First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples of Canada. The day was first celebrated in 1996, after it was proclaimed that year, by then Governor General of Canada Roméo LeBlanc, to be celebrated on June 21 annually.^[15] Most provincial jurisdictions do not recognize it as a statutory holiday.^[15]

Languages

There are 13 Aboriginal language groups, 11 oral and 2 sign, in Canada, made up of more than 65 distinct dialects.^[148] Of these, only Cree, Inuktitut and Ojibway have a large enough population of fluent speakers to be considered viable to survive in the long term.^[149] Two of Canada's territories give official status to native languages. In Nunavut, Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun are official languages alongside the national languages of English and French, and Inuktitut is a common vehicular language in territorial government.^[150] In the NWT, the Official Languages Act declares that there are eleven different languages: Chipewyan, Cree, English, French, Gwich’in, Inuinnaqtun, Inuktitut, Inuvialuktun, North Slavey, South Slavey and Tłįchǫ.^[151]Besides English and French, these languages are not vehicular in government; official status entitles citizens to receive services in them on request and to deal with the government in them.^[149]

Aboriginal language	No. of speakers	Mother tongue	Home language
Cree	99,950	78,855	47,190
Inuktitut	35,690	32,010	25,290
Ojibway	32,460	11,115	11,115
Montagnais-Naskapi (Innu)	11,815	10,970	9,720
Dene	11,130	9,750	7,490
Oji-Cree (Anishinini)	12,605	8,480	8,480
Mi'kmaq	8,750	7,365	3,985
Siouan languages (Dakota/Sioux)	6,495	5,585	3,780
Atikamekw	5,645	5,245	4,745
Blackfoot	4,915	3,085	3,085
For a complete list see : Spoken languages of Canada

Source: Statistics Canada, 2006 Census Profile of Federal Electoral Districts (2003 Representation Order): Language, Mobility and Migration and Immigration and Citizenship Ottawa, 2007, pp. 2, 6, 10.

Visual art

A young Métis girl wearing a traditional shawl

Aboriginals were producing art for thousands of years before the arrival of European settler colonists and the eventual establishment of Canada as a nation state. Like the peoples who produced them, indigenous art traditions spanned territories across North America. Indigenous art traditions are organized by art historians according to cultural, linguistic or regional groups: Northwest Coast, Plateau, Plains, Eastern Woodlands, Subarctic, and Arctic.^[152]

Art traditions vary enormously amongst and within these diverse groups. Indigenous art with a focus on portability and the body is distinguished from European traditions and its focus on architecture. Indigenous visual art may be used conjunction with other arts. Shamans'masks and rattles are used ceremoniously in dance, storytelling and music.^[152]Artworks preserved in museum collections date from the period after European contact and show evidence of the creative adoption and adaptation of European trade goods such as metal and glass beads.^[153] The distinct Métis cultures that have arisen from inter-cultural relationships with Europeans contribute culturally hybrid art forms.^[154]During the 19th and the first half of the 20th century the Canadian government pursued an active policy of forced and cultural assimilation toward indigenous peoples. The Indian Act banned manifestations of the Sun Dance, the Potlatch, and works of art depicting them.^[155]

It was not until the 1950s and 1960s that indigenous artists such as Mungo Martin, Bill Reid and Norval Morrisseau began to publicly renew and re-invent indigenous art traditions. Currently there are indigenous artists practising in all media in Canada and two indigenous artists, Edward Poitras and Rebecca Belmore, have represented Canada at the Venice Biennale in 1995 and 2005 respectively.^[152]

Music

Dancer at Drum Dance Festival, Gioa Haven,Nunavut

The Aboriginal peoples of Canada encompass diverse ethnic groups with their individual musical traditions. Music is usually social (public) or ceremonial (private). Public, social music may be dance music accompanied by rattles and drums. Private, ceremonial music includes vocal songs with accompaniment on percussion, used to mark occasions like Midewivin ceremonies and Sun Dances.

Traditionally, Aboriginal peoples used the materials at hand to make their instruments for centuries before Europeans immigrated to Canada.^[156] First Nations people made gourdsand animal horns into rattles, which were elaborately carved and brightly painted.^[157] In woodland areas, they made horns of birch bark and drumsticks of carved antlers and wood. Traditional percussion instruments such as drums were generally made of carved wood and animal hides. Thesemusical instruments provide the background for songs, and songs the background for dances. Traditional First Nations people consider song and dance to be sacred. For years after Europeans came to Canada, First Nations people were forbidden to practice their ceremonies.^[155][156]

Demographics and classification

People who self-identify as having aboriginal ancestors are the plurality in large areas of Canada. Areas coloured in brown have a North American Indian plurality, areas inmagenta have an Inuit plurality.

There are three (First Nations,^[2] Inuit^[3] and Métis^[4]) distinctive groups of North America indigenous peoples recognized in the Canadian Constitution Act, 1982,sections 25 and 35.^[19] Under the Employment Equity Act, Aboriginal people are a designated group along with women, visible minorities, and persons with disabilities.^[158] They are not a visible minority under the Employment Equity Act and in the view of Statistics Canada.^[159]

The 2011 Canadian Census enumerated 1,400,685 Aboriginal people in Canada, 4.3% of the country's total population.^[1] This total comprises 851,560 people of First Nations descent, 451,795 Métis, and 59,445 Inuit. National representative bodies of Aboriginal people in Canada include the Assembly of First Nations, the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the Métis National Council, the Native Women's Association of Canada, the National Association of Native Friendship Centres and the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples.^[160]

Approximately 40,115 individuals of Aboriginal heritage could not be counted during the 2006 census.^[161][162] This is due to the fact that certain Aboriginal reserves and communities in Canada did not participate in the 2006 census, since enumeration of those communities were not permitted.^[161][163] In 2006, 22 Native communities were not completely enumerated unlike in the year 2001, when 30 First Nation communities were not enumerated and during 1996 when 77 Native communities could not be completely enumerated.^[161][163] Hence, there were probably 1,212,905 individuals of Aboriginal ancestry (North American Indian, Metis, and Inuit) residing in Canada during the time when the 2006 census was conducted in Canada.

Indigenous people assert that their sovereign rights are valid, and point to the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which is mentioned in the Canadian Constitution Act, 1982, Section 25, the British North America Acts and the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (to which Canada is a signatory) in support of this claim.^[164][165]

Province/Territory	Number	%A	Indian (First Nations)	Métis	Inuit	Multiple	OtherB
British Columbia	232,290	5.4%	155,015	69,475	1,570	2,480	3,745
Alberta	220,695	6.2%	116,670	96,865	1,985	1,875	3,295
Saskatchewan	157,740	15.6%	103,205	52,450	290	670	1,120
Manitoba	199,940	17.0%	130,075	78,835	580	1,205	1,055
Ontario	301,430	2.4%	201,100	86,015	3,360	2,910	8,045
Quebec	141,915	1.8%	82,425	40,960	12,570	1,550	4,410
New Brunswick	22,620	3.1%	16,120	4,850	485	145	1,020
Nova Scotia	33,845	3.7%	21,895	10,050	695	225	980
Prince Edward Island	2,230	1.6%	1,520	410	55	0	235
Newfoundland and Labrador	35,800	7.1%	19,315	7,665	6,260	260	2,300
Yukon	7,710	23.1%	6,585	845	175	30	70
Northwest Territories	21,160	51.9%	13,345	3,245	4,335	45	185
Nunavut	27,360	86.3%	130	135	27,070	15	15
Canada	1,400,685	4.3%	851,560	451,795	59,445	11,415	26,470
Source: 2011 Census[166]

A.^ % of the provincial or territorial population that is Aboriginal

B.^ According to Statistics Canada this figure "Includes those who identified themselves as Registered Indians and/or band members without identifying themselves as North American Indian, Métis or Inuit in the Aboriginal identity question."

Cultural areas of North American Indigenous peoples at the time of European contact

Ethnographers commonly classify indigenous peoples of the Americas in the United States and Canada into ten geographical regions, cultural areas, with shared cultural traits.^[167] The Canadian regions are:

• Arctic cultural area – (Eskimo–Aleut languages)
• Subarctic culture area – (Na-Dene languages – Algic languages)
• Eastern Woodlands (Northeast) cultural area – (Algic languages and Iroquoian languages)
• Plains cultural area – (Siouan–Catawban languages)
• Northwest Plateau cultural area – (Salishan languages)
• Northwest Coast cultural area – (Penutian languages,Tsimshianic languages and Wakashan languages)

In the 20th century the Aboriginal population of Canada increased tenfold.^[161] Between 1900 and 1950 the population grew by 29%. After the 1960s the infant mortality level on reserves dropped dramatically and the population grew by 161%.^[168][169] Since the 1980s the number of First Nations babies more than doubled and currently almost half of the First Nations population is under the age of 25.^[161][169]

See also

• Index of Aboriginal Canadian-related articles
• Native Americans in the United States

References

1. 2011 National Household Survey: Aboriginal Peoples in Canada: First Nations People, Métis and Inuit
2. "Civilization.ca-Gateway to Aboriginal Heritage-Culture". Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation. Government of Canada. May 12, 2006. Archived from the original on 20 October 2009. Retrieved September 18, 2009.
3. "Inuit Circumpolar Council (Canada)-ICC Charter". Inuit Circumpolar Council > ICC Charter and By-laws > ICC Charter. 2007. Retrieved September 18, 2009.
4. Roy Todd; Martin Thornton; D. N. Collins (2001). Aboriginal people and other Canadians: shaping new relationships. University of Ottawa Press. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-7766-0541-8.
5. "Words First An Evolving Terminology Relating to Aboriginal Peoples in Canada". Communications Branch of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. 2004. Retrieved June 26,2010.
6. "Terminology of First Nations, Native, Aboriginal and Metis" (PDF). Aboriginal Infant Development Programs of BC. 2009. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 July 2010. Retrieved June 26, 2010.
7. Olson, James Stuart; Pappas, Nicholas Charles (1994). An Ethnohistorical dictionary of the Russian and Soviet empires. Connecticut Greenwood Press. p. 213. ISBN 0-313-27497-5.
8. Darnell, Regna (2001). Invisible genealogies: a history of Americanist anthropology. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. p. 338. ISBN 0-8032-1710-2. Retrieved October 3,2010.
9. Cameron, Rondo E (1993). A concise economic history of the world: from Paleolithic times to the present. Oxford University Press. p. 92. ISBN 0-19-507445-9. Retrieved October 3,2010.
10. Kalman, Harold; Mills, Edward (September 30, 2007). "Architectural History: Early First Nations". The Canadian Encyclopedia (Historica-Dominion). Retrieved November 27, 2013.
11. Macklem, Patrick (2001). Indigenous difference and the Constitution of Canada. University of Toronto Press. p. 170. ISBN 0-8020-4195-7. Retrieved October 3, 2010.
12. "What to Search: Topics-Canadian Genealogy Centre-Library and Archives Canada". Ethno-Cultural and Aboriginal Groups. Government of Canada. May 27, 2009. RetrievedOctober 2, 2009.
13. "Innu Culture 3. Innu-Inuit 'Warfare'". 1999, Adrian Tanner Department of Anthropology-Memorial University of Newfoundland. Retrieved October 5, 2009.
14. "Civilization.ca-Gateway to Aboriginal Heritage-object". Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation. May 12, 2006. Archived from the original on 15 October 2009. RetrievedOctober 2, 2009.
15. "National Aboriginal Day History" (PDF). Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. RetrievedOctober 18, 2009.
16. "National Aboriginal Achievement Award Recipients". National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation. Archived from the original on 11 October 2009. Retrieved October 7, 2009.
17. "Terminology of First Nations, Native, Aboriginal and Metis (NAHO)" (PDF). aidp.bc.ca/. Retrieved October 5, 2009.
18. Edwards, John (2009). Language and Identity (Digitized online by Google books). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-69602-9. Retrieved October 5, 2009.
19. "Constitution Act, 1982 Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms". Department of Justice. Government of Canada. 1982. Archived from the original on 21 October 2009. RetrievedOctober 5, 2009.
20. "Terminology". Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. Archived from the original on 27 October 2009. Retrieved October 5, 2009.
21. Hirschfelder, Arlene B; Beamer, Yvonne (2002). Native Americans today: resources and activities for educators, grades 4–8. Teacher Ideas Press, 2000. p. 3. ISBN 978-1-56308-694-6. Retrieved January 11, 2015.
22. ""Eskimo" vs. "Inuit"". Expansionist Party of the United States. Retrieved October 5, 2009.
23. http://ctvnews.ca%2Fcanada%2Fcourt-rules-metis-non-status-indians-qualify-as-indians-under-act-1.1105186
24. "Native American". Oxford Advanced American Dictionary. Archived from the original on 27 May 2013. Retrieved 27 May 2013. In Canada, the term Native American is not used, and the most usual way to refer to the Aboriginal peoples of Canada, other than the Inuit and Métis, is First Nations.
25. "Atlas of the Human Journey-The Genographic Project". National Geographic Society. 1996–2008. Retrieved October 6, 2009.
26. "An mtDNA view of the peopling of the world by Homo sapiens". Cambridge DNA Services. 2007. Archived from the original on 11 May 2011. Retrieved June 1, 2011.
27. Goebel T, Waters MR, O'Rourke DH (2008). "The Late Pleistocene Dispersal of Modern Humans in the Americas" (PDF). Science. The Center for the Study of First Americans. 319(5869): 1497–502. doi:10.1126/science.1153569. PMID 18339930.
28. "Pause Is Seen in a Continent's Peopling". The New York Times. 13 March 2014.
29. Pielou, E.C. (1991). After the Ice Age: The Return of Life to Glaciated North America.University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-66812-6.
30. Wells, Spencer; Read, Mark (2002). The Journey of Man – A Genetic Odyssey. Random House. pp. 138–140. ISBN 0-8129-7146-9.
31. "The peopling of the Americas: Genetic ancestry influences health". Phys.org. August 14, 2009.
32. Lewis, Cecil M. (February 2010). "Hierarchical modeling of genome-wide Short Tandem Repeat (STR) markers infers native American prehistory". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 141 (2): 281–289. doi:10.1002/ajpa.21143. (subscription required (help)).
33. Than, Ker (2008). "New World Settlers Took 20,000-Year Pit Stop". National Geographic Society. Retrieved January 23, 2010.
34. Sigurðardóttir, Sigrún; Helgason, Agnar; Gulcher, Jeffrey R.; Stefansson, Kári; Donnelly, Peter (May 2000). "The Mutation Rate in the Human mtDNA Control Region". American Journal of Human Genetics. 66 (5): 1599–609. doi:10.1086/302902. PMC 1378010.PMID 10756141.
35. "First Americans Endured 20,000-Year Layover – Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News". Retrieved November 18, 2009. Archaeological evidence, in fact, recognizes that people started to leave Beringia for the New World around 40,000 years ago, but rapid expansion into North America didn't occur until about 15,000 years ago, when the ice had literally broken page 2
36. Tamm, Erika; Kivisild, Toomas; Reidla, Maere; et al. (September 5, 2007). "Beringian Standstill and Spread of Native American Founders". PLoS ONE. Public Library of Science.2 (9): e829. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0000829. PMC 1952074. PMID 17786201.
37. Dyke, A.S., A. Moore, and L. Robertson, 2003, Deglaciation of North America. Geological Survey of Canada Open File, 1574. (Thirty-two digital maps at 1:7 000 000 scale with accompanying digital chronological database and one poster (two sheets) with full map series.)
38. Jordan, David K (2009). "Prehistoric Beringia". University of California-San Diego. Retrieved April 15, 2010.
39. Alfred J. Andrea; Kevin McGeough; William E. Mierse (2011). World History Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 99. ISBN 978-1-85109-929-0.
    Jacques Cinq-Mars (2001). "The Significance of the Bluefish Caves in Beringian Prehistory". Hull: Canadian Museum of Civilization. Retrieved March 3, 2015.
    Laurel Sefton MacDowell (2012). An Environmental History of Canada. UBC Press. p. 14.ISBN 978-0-7748-2104-9.
    Guy Gugliotta (February 2013). "When Did Humans Come to the Americas?". Smithsonian Magazine. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved June 25, 2015.
40. Gibbard, P.; van Kolfschoten, T. (2004). "Chapter 22: The Pleistocene and Holocene Epochs" (PDF). A Geologic Time Scale. Gowin Institute for Quaternary Research. Cambridge University Press, UK: Quaternary Palaeoenvironments Group, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge. ISBN 0-521-78142-6.
41. Merchant, Carolyn (2007). American environmental history: an introduction. Columbia University Press. p. 6. ISBN 978-0-231-14034-8.
42. Fladmark, K. R. (January 1979). "Alternate Migration Corridors for Early Man in North America". American Antiquity. 44 (1): 55–69. doi:10.2307/279189. JSTOR 279189.
43. "68 Responses to Sea will rise 'to levels of last Ice Age". Center for Climate Systems Research, Columbia University. Archived from the original on 27 October 2009. RetrievedOctober 6, 2009.
44. Harris, Ann G.; Tuttle, Esther; Tuttle, Sherwood D. (2004). Geology of National Parks. Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company. pp. 1–. ISBN 978-0-7872-9970-5.
45. "Life in Crow Flats-Part 1". Old Crow's official Website. Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation. 1998–2009. Retrieved September 18, 2009.
46. Cordell, Linda S.; Lightfoot, Kent; McManamon, Francis; Milner, George (2008).Archaeology in America: An Encyclopedia. 4. ABC-CLIO. p. 3. ISBN 978-0-313-02189-3.
47. "Old Crow Flats". taiga.net. Archived from the original on 23 August 2007. RetrievedAugust 5, 2007.
48. Lepper, Bradley T. (1999). "Pleistocene Peoples of Midcontinental North America". In Bonnichsen, Robson; Turnmire, Karen. Ice Age People of North America. Corvallis: Oregon State University Press. pp. 362–394. ISBN 0-87071-458-9.
49. Firestone, R. B.; West, A.; Kennett, J.P.; et al. (2007). "Evidence for an extraterrestrial impact 12,900 years ago that contributed to the megafaunal extinctions and the Younger Dryas cooling". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 104 (41): 16016–16021. doi:10.1073/pnas.0706977104. ISBN 0-87071-458-9. PMC 1994902.PMID 17901202.
50. Kennett, D.J.; Kennett, J.P.; West, A.; et al. (January 2009). "Nanodiamonds in the Younger Dryas boundary sediment layer". Science. 323 (5910): 94.doi:10.1126/science.1162819. PMID 19119227.
51. Hillerman, Tony (June 1980). "The Hunt for the Lost American". The Great Taos Bank Robbery: And Other Indian Country Affairs. University of New Mexico Press. p. 52.ISBN 978-0-8263-0530-5.
52. Dyke, Arthur S.; Prest, Victor K. (1987). "Late Wisconsinan and Holocene History of the Laurentide Ice Sheet" (PDF). Géographie physique et Quaternaire. 41 (2): 237–263.doi:10.7202/032681ar.
53. "Prehistory of Haida Gwaii". Civilization.ca-Haida-The people and the land-Prehistory. Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation. June 8, 2001.
54. John H. Jameson (1997). Presenting archaeology to the public: digging for truths. Rowman Altamira. p. 159. ISBN 978-0-7619-8909-7.
55. Reynolds, Graham; MacKinnon, Richard; MacDonald, Ken. "Period 1 (10,000–8,000 years ago) Palaeo-Indian culture". Learners Portal. Folkus Atlantic Productions. Archived from the original on July 13, 2011. Retrieved September 18, 2009.
56. Taylor, Colin F. (2002). The American Indian. Running Press. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-7624-1389-8.
57. Imbrie, J; K.P.Imbrie (1979). Ice Ages: Solving the Mystery. Short Hills NJ: Enslow Publishers. p. 135. ISBN 0-226-66811-8. Retrieved October 18, 2009.
58. United States. Foreign Agricultural Service (1962). Foreign agriculture. 24. United States: Bureau of Agricultural Economics. p. 167. ISBN 0-16-038463-X.
59. Fagan, Brian M (1992). People of the Earth: An Introduction to World Prehistory. University of California. Harper Collins. ISBN 0-321-01457-X.
60. Friesen, John (1997). Rediscovering the First Nations of Canada. Calgary, AB: Detselig Enterprises Ltd. ISBN 1-55059-143-6.
61. Carlson, Keith Thor, ed. (1997). You Are Asked to Witness: The Stó:lō in Canada's Pacific Coast History. Chilliwack, BC: Stó:lō Heritage Trust. ISBN 0-9681577-0-X.
62. "American Indian Heritage Month: Commemoration vs. Exploitation". ABC-CLIO. RetrievedOctober 2, 2009.
63. Leer, Jeff; Doug Hitch; John Ritter (2001). Interior Tlingit noun dictionary: The dialects spoken by Tlingit elders of Carcross and Teslin, Yukon, and Atlin, British Columbia. Whitehorse, Yukon Territory: Yukon Native Language Centre. ISBN 1-55242-227-5.
64. Ray, Arthur J. (1996). I Have Lived Here Since The World Began: An Illustrated History of Canada's Native People. Toronto, ON: Lester Publishing. ISBN 1-55263-633-X.
65. "Museum Notes-The Maritime Archaic Tradition". By James A. Tuck-The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery. Retrieved October 5, 2009.
66. Tuck, J. A. (1976). "Ancient peoples of Port au Choix". The excavation of an Archaic Indian Cemetery in Newfoundland. Newfoundland Social and Economic Studies 17. St. John's: Institute of Social and Economic Research. ISBN 0-919666-12-4.
67. "The so-called "Red Paint People". Brian Robinson. University of Maine. 1997. RetrievedOctober 18, 2009.
68. Fagan, Brian M. (2005). Ancient North America: The Archaeology of a Continent. (4 ed.). New York: Thames & Hudson Inc. pp. 390, p396. ISBN 0-500-28148-3.
69. Winchell, N.H. (1881). Ancient Copper Mines of Isle Royale,. 19. New York: Popular Science Monthly. pp. 601–2.
70. "C. Prehistoric Periods (Eras of Adaptation)". The University of Calgary (The Applied History Research Group). 2000. Archived from the original on 12 April 2010. RetrievedApril 15, 2010.
71. "A History of the Native People of Canada". Dr. James V. Wright. Canadian Museum of Civilization. 2009. Retrieved October 9, 2009.
72. Ohio Historical Society (2009). "Hopewell Culture-Ohio History Central-A product of the Ohio Historical Society". Hopewell-Ohio History Central. Retrieved September 18, 2009.
73. Douglas T. Price; Gary M. Feinman (2008). Images of the Past, 5th edition. New York: McGraw-Hill. pp. 274–277. ISBN 978-0-07-340520-9.
74. Joe, Rita; Lesley Choyce (2005). The Native Canadian Anthology. Nimbus Publishing (CN).ISBN 1-895900-04-2.
75. "civilization - definition of civilization in English from the Oxford dictionary". Oxforddictionaries.com. Retrieved 2015-10-25.
76. Prine, Elizabeth (2015-04-17). "Native American | indigenous peoples of Canada and United States". Britannica.com. Retrieved 2015-10-25.
77. Peter Turchin; Leonid Grinin; Andrey Korotayev; Victor C. de Munck.Turchin. Moscow: KomKniga/URSS, 2006., ed. History and mathematics: Historical Dynamics and Development of Complex Societies (URSS.ru-Books on Science-On-line Bookstore.). ISBN 5-484-01002-0. Retrieved October 18, 2009.
78. Willey, Gordon R; Philip Phillips (1957). Method and Theory in American Archaeology. University of Chicago Press. pp. 1(introduction). ISBN 978-0-226-89888-9. RetrievedOctober 18, 2009.
79. George Woodcock (January 25, 1990). "Part 1". A Social History of Canada. Penguin Books Ltd. ISBN 978-0-14-010536-0.
80. de Amezúa, Agustín G. (1956). Introduction to the facsimile reprint of Libro de Claribalte. Madrid: Spanish Royal AcademyMadrid.
81. Eric Wolf (December 3, 1982). "Chapter 6". Europe and the People Without History. University of California Press; 1 edition. ISBN 978-0-520-04898-0. Retrieved October 6,2009. URL gives introduction online
82. A Narrow Vision: Duncan Campbell Scott and the Administration of Indian. By E. Brian Titley. Vancouver: University Of British Columbia Press. 1992. ISBN 0-7748-0420-3.
83. "Ovide Mercredi installed as chancellor of Manitoba's newest university". CBC News. November 7, 2007. Retrieved October 3, 2009.
84. "The History of Metropolitan Vancouver's Hall of Fame Joe Capilano". Retrieved October 5,2009.
85. Rigby, Bruce. "101. Qaummaarviit Historic Park, Nunavut Handbook" (PDF). RetrievedOctober 2, 2009.
86. "The Dorsets: Depicting Culture Through Soapstone Carving" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 30, 2007. Retrieved October 5, 2009.
87. "Inuit Post-Contact History". Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Retrieved October 5, 2009.
88. Hans Christian Gulløv (2005). Grønlands Forhistorie. p. 17. ISBN 87-02-01724-5.
89. Fitzhugh, William W. (2000). Fitzhugh, William W.; Elisabeth I. Ward,, eds. Vikings: TheNorth Atlantic Saga. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. pp. 193–205. ISBN 1-56098-995-5.
90. McGhee, Robert (June–July 1992). Northern Approaches. Before Columbus: Early European Visitors to the New World. 3. The Beaver. Exploring Canada's History. p. 194.ISSN 0005-7517.
91. Kleivan, H (1966). The Eskimos of Northeast Labrador. 139. Norsk Polarinstitutt Skrifter. p. 9. OCLC 786916953.
92. Minogue, Sarah (September 23, 2005). "When Inuit become zoo curiosities "We sat there like pieces of art in a showcase on display"". Retrieved October 6, 2009.
93. "Kiviaq versus Canada film by Zacharias Kunuk Produced by Katarina Soukup" (PDF). Isuma Distribution International Inc. 2006. Retrieved October 3, 2009.
94. Hanson, Ann Meekitjuk. "Nunavut 99-What's In A Name? Names, as well as events, mark the road to Nunavut". Nunavut.com. Retrieved October 3, 2009.
95. Rinella, Steven (2008). American Buffalo: In Search of A Lost Icon. NY: Spiegel and Grau. p. 166. ISBN 0-385-52168-5. Retrieved October 18, 2009.
96. Stevenson, Winona (2011). Racism, Colonization and Indigeneity in Canada. Ontario, Canada: Oxford University Press. pp. 44–45.
97. Howard, James H (1965). The Plains-Ojibwa or Bungi: hunters and warriors of the Northern Prairies with special reference to the Turtle Mountain band (Museum Anthropology Papers 1 ed.). University of South Dakota. ISBN 0-16-050400-7.
98. "Singer Tom Jackson pitches housing complex for Winnipeg". Canada: CBC. October 23, 2009. Retrieved January 27, 2011.
99. Stanley, George F.G. (April 22, 2013). "Louis Riel". The Canadian Encyclopedia. revised by Adam Gaudry. Historica Canada.
100. "Louis Riel". A database of materials held by the University of Saskatchewan Libraries and the University Archives. Archived from the original on 25 September 2007. RetrievedSeptember 23, 2007.
101. "Backgrounder Biography of Anthony W.J. (Tony) Whitford – NWT Commissioner". Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. 2005 News Releases. October 28, 2008. Retrieved October 6,2009.
102. The Problem of Michif. Peter Bakker-Metis Resource Centre. ISBN 0-19-509711-4. Retrieved October 5, 2009.
103. Barkwell, Lawrence J.; Leah Dorion; Audreen Hourie (2006). Metis legacy Michif culture, heritage, and folkways. Metis legacy series, v. 2. Saskatoon, SK: Gabriel Dumont Institute,. ISBN 0-920915-80-9.
104. "The Red River dialect". Blain, Eleanor M. (1994). Winnipeg: Wuerz Publishing. RetrievedOctober 15, 2009.
105. Martha Harroun Foster (January 2006). We know who we are: Métis identity in a Montana community. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 12. ISBN 978-0-8061-3705-6.
106. "Her Majesty The Queen vs. Steve Powley and Roddy Charles Powley (R. v. Powley, 2 S.C.R. 207, 2003 SCC 43)" (PDF). Federation of Law Societies of Canada. 2003. RetrievedMarch 11, 2010.
107. Houghton Mifflin Company (September 28, 2005). The American Heritage guide to contemporary usage and style. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 185. ISBN 978-0-618-60499-9.
108. Barkwell, Lawrence J.; Leah Dorion; Darren Prefontaine (2001). Metis Legacy: A Historiography and Annotated Bibliography. Winnipeg, MB: Pemmican Publications Inc. and Saskatoon: Gabriel Dumont Institute. ISBN 1-894717-03-1.
109. "Indian and Northern Affairs Canada". Stage Three: Displacement and Assimilation. Government of Canada Web Archive-websites archived by Library and Archives Canada. February 8, 2006. Retrieved October 3, 2009.
110. "Report-Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples-Indian and Northern Affairs Canada".Volume 1, Part 1, Chapter 6 of the Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. Government of Canada Web Archive-websites archived by Library and Archives CanadaIndian and Northern Affairs Canada. February 8, 2006. Retrieved October 3, 2009.
111. "Gradual Civilization Act, 1857" (PDF). Government of Canada. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
112. "Indian Act". Government of Canada.
113. Armitage, Andrew (1995). Comparing the Policy of Aboriginal Assimilation: Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. Vancouver, Canada: University of British Columbia Press. pp. 77–78.
114. Dorsett, Shaunnagh (1995). "Civilisation and Cultivation: Colonial Policy and Indigenous Peoples in Canada and Australia". Griffith Law Review. 4 (2): 219.
115. Miller, J. R. (2000). Skyscrapers Hide the Heavens: A History of Indian-White Relations in Canada. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press. p. 140.
116. Milloy, John (1999). A National Crime: The Canadian Government and the Residential School System, 1879 to 1986. Winnipeg, Canada: University of Manitoba Press. pp. 21–22.
117. Popic, Linda (2008). "Compensating Canada's 'Stolen Generations'". Journal of Aboriginal History (December 2007-January 2008): 14.
118. Charles, Grant; DeGane, Mike (2013). "Student-to-Student Abuse in the Indian Residential Schools in Canada: Setting the Stage for Further Understanding". Child & Youth Services.34 (4).
119. Restoule, Jean-Paul (2002). "Seeing Ourselves. John Macionis and Nijole v. Benokraitis and Bruce Ravelli". Aboriginal Identity: The Need for Historical and Contextual Perspectives. Toronto, ON: Pearson/Prentice Hall. pp. 252 261. Retrieved October 28, 2009.
120. Unattributed (February 25, 2012). "Canada commission issues details abuse of native children". BBC. Retrieved February 25, 2012.
121. Benjoe, Kerry (June 12, 2008). "Group gathers for Harper's apology". The Leader-Post. Retrieved October 2, 2009.
122. Assembly of First Nations; Elizabeth II (2004). "The Indian Act of Canada – Origins: Legislation Concerning Canada's First Peoples". 1. Ottawa: Assembly of First Nations: 3. Retrieved January 11, 2015.
123. Mainville, Sara (June 1, 2007). "Lawsuits, treaty rights and the sacred balance". Toronto Star. Retrieved October 2, 2009.
124. "Treaty areas". Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat. Government of Canada. October 7, 2002. Archived from the original on August 22, 2007. Retrieved October 2, 2009.
125. "What is Treaty 8?". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved October 5, 2009.
126. "The Indian Act" (PDF). Indian Act. Current to March 16, 2014. Department of Justice Canada. March 16, 2014.
127. "First Nations, Bill C-31, Indian Act". Communications Branch. Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. Retrieved October 2, 2009.
128. "Summary of the Final Report of The Royal Commission on Aboriginal" (PDF). CTV Canada. Retrieved October 5, 2009.
129. Alan Cairns (2000). Citizens plus: aboriginal peoples and the Canadian state. UBC Press. p. 116. ISBN 978-0-7748-0767-8.
130. Wanda D. McCaslin; University of Saskatchewan. Native Law Centre (July 2005). Justice as healing: indigenous ways. Living Justice Press. p. 27. ISBN 978-0-9721886-1-6.
131. "I- Aboriginal Health & Cultural Diversity Glossary, College of Nursing". University of Saskatchewan. 2003. Archived from the original on 24 October 2009. Retrieved October 2,2009.
132. Jacklin, Kristen; Wayne Warry (2004). "14 Then Indian Health Transfer Policy in Canada: Toward Self-Determination or Cost Containment?". In Arachu Castro; Merrill Singer.Unhealthy health policy: a critical anthropological examination (digitized online by Google books). Oxford United Kingdom: Rowman Altamira. p. 215. ISBN 0-7591-0510-3. RetrievedOctober 6, 2009.
133. "Indian Health Policy 1979" (php). About Health Canada > Branches & Agencies > First Nations & Inuit Health Branch. Health Canada. October 25, 2007. Retrieved October 2,2009.
134. Lemchuk-Favel, Laurel (February 22, 1999). "Financing a First Nations and Inuit Integrated Health System A Discussion Document" (PDF). Heallth Canada. Retrieved October 2, 2009.
135. James Burgess Waldram; Ann Herring; T. Kue Young (July 30, 2006). Aboriginal health in Canada: historical, cultural, and epidemiological perspectives. University of Toronto Press. p. 85. ISBN 978-0-8020-8579-5.
136. Price, Richard (1999). The Spirit of the Alberta Indian Treaties. University of Alberta Press > the University of Michigan. ISBN 0-88864-327-6.
137. "Post-war Rise of Political Organizations". Library and Archives Canada. RetrievedOctober 6, 2009.
138. "Diverse Peoples – Aboriginal Contributions and Inventions" (PDF). The Government of Manitoba. Retrieved October 17, 2009.
139. Newhouse, David. "Hidden in Plain Sight Aboriginal Contributions to Canada and Canadian Identity Creating a new Indian Problem" (PDF). Centre of Canadian Studies, University of Edinburgh. Retrieved October 17, 2009.
140. James F. Pendergast, Bruce G. Trigger (1978). Saint-Lawrence Iroquoians. Handbook of North American Indians. Volume 15. Smithsonian Institution. pp. 357–361. ISBN 0-16-004575-4.
141. "Aboriginal place names contribute to a rich tapestry". Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. Retrieved October 17, 2009.
142. "History of Cub Scouting". Boy Scouts of America. Archived from the original on 31 October 2009. Retrieved October 17, 2009.
143. Goddard, Ives, ed. (1996). Languages. Handbook of North American Indians. 17. W. C. Sturtevant. Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution. ISBN 0-16-048774-9.
144. Searles, Edmund (2002). "Food and the Making of Modern Inuit Identities. Volume 10, Number January 1, 1 2002". Food & Foodways: History & Culture of Human Nourishment. pp. 55–78. ISBN 0-8061-2126-2. Although the Inuit of the Canadian Arctic have access to an ever-expanding market of different kinds of foods, they continue to invest considerable time and money obtaining Inuit foods, that is, foods hunted, fished, and gathered within the Inuit homeland.
145. "Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games Emblem". 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.Archived from the original on 25 October 2009. Retrieved October 17, 2009.
146. "Land Claims, Ownership, and Co-management" (PDF). Developed by Ken Coates, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Saskatchewan and Greg Poelzer, Chair, Political Science Program, University of Northern British Columbia. Retrieved October 5, 2009.
147. "The First Nations-Communities: Reserves". The Literacy Community. Retrieved October 5,2009.
148. "Aboriginal languages". Statistics Canada. Retrieved October 5, 2009.
149. Gordon, Raymond G Jr. (2005). Ethnologue: Languages of the world (Web Version online by SIL International, formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics) (15 ed.). Dallas, Texas: SIL International. ISBN 1-55671-159-X. Archived from the original on 12 October 2009. Retrieved October 6, 2009.
150. "Nunavut's Languages". Office of the Languages Commissioner of Nunavut. Archived fromthe original on April 5, 2008. Retrieved October 2, 2009.
151. "Official Languages Act" (PDF). Legislation Division, Department of Justice. 1988. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 25, 2008. Retrieved October 2, 2009.
152. Hessel, Ingo; Hessel, Dieter (1998). Inuit Art [An introduction. foreword by George Swinton]. London, UK: British Museum Press. ISBN 0-7141-2545-8.
153. "Aboriginal art in Canada". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica-Dominion. RetrievedNovember 27, 2013.
154. Andrew Hempstead (May 11, 2010). Moon Alberta: Including Banff, Jasper & the Canadian Rockies. Avalon Travel. p. 477. ISBN 978-1-59880-371-6.
155. "17 An Act to amend "The Indian Act, 1880". An Act further to amend "The Indian Act, 1880". 3 (47 Vict. ed.). S.C. 1884. Retrieved October 18, 2009.
156. Patterson, Nancy-Lou (1973). Canadian native art; arts and crafts of Canadian Indians and Eskimos. Don Mills, ON: Collier-Macmillan. ISBN 0-02-975610-3.
157. "Information First Nations Music in Canada". Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-06. Retrieved 13 May 2013.
158. "Canadian Human Rights Commission :: Resources :: Frequently Asked Questions :: About Employment Equity". Canadian Human Rights Commission. Government of Canada. August 27, 2009. Retrieved September 18, 2009.
159. "Classification of visible minority". Statistics Canada. Geovernment of Canada. July 25, 2008. Retrieved September 18, 2009.
160. "Discrimination and Violence Against Indigenous people in Canada" (PDF). United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Retrieved October 15, 2009. }
161. "Aboriginal peoples of Canada: A demographic profile". Statistics Canada. 2001. RetrievedOctober 2, 2009.
162. "Incompletely enumerated Indian reserves and Indian settlements". Statistics Canada. Retrieved April 10, 2012.
163. "Aboriginal Peoples in Canada in 2006: Inuit, Métis and First Nations, 2006 Census".Statistics Canada. Retrieved April 10, 2012.
164. "Aboriginal Governments and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms" (PDF). Kent McNeil. Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, p. 73. 1996. Retrieved October 6, 2009.
165. "The Royal Proclamation". By The King George R. A Proclamation. Archived from the original on 13 October 2009. Retrieved October 6, 2009.
166. 2011 National Household Survey: Data tables
167. "Civilization.ca-Gateway to Aboriginal Heritage-Culture Areas Index". Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation. Government of Canada. May 12, 2006. Archived from the original on 20 October 2009. Retrieved October 6, 2009.
168. "Social". Aboriginal Nationalism. Retrieved October 15, 2009.
169. "Aboriginal peoples of Canada". Statistics Canada. Retrieved October 5, 2009.

Further reading

• Asch, Michael (1998). Aboriginal and treaty rights in Canada : essays on law, equality, and respect for difference. University of British Columbia Press. ISBN 0-7748-0581-1.
• Beavon, D; Voyageur, C; Newhouse, D (2005). Hidden in plain sight: contributions of Aboriginal peoples to Canadian. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0-8020-8800-7.
• Borrows, John (2002). Recovering Canada: the resurgence of Indigenous law. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0-8020-3679-1.
• Cairns, Alan (2000). Citizens plus: aboriginal peoples and the Canadian state. University of British Columbia Press. ISBN 0-7748-0767-9.
• Cardinal, Tantoo (2004). Our story: Aboriginal voices on Canada's past. Doubleday Canada. ISBN 0-385-66075-8.
• Cavell, Edward (2009). Classic Images of Canada's First Nations: 1850–1920. Heritage House. ISBN 978-1-894974-64-6.
• Clark, Ella Elizabeth (October 5, 2011). Indian Legends of Canada. Random House Digital, Inc. ISBN 978-1-55199-512-0.
• Dickason, Olive Patricia (1992). Canada's first nations: a history of founding peoples from earliest times. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-2438-5.
• Dupuis, Renée (2002). Justice for Canada's Aboriginal peoples. James Lorimer and Company. ISBN 1-55028-775-3.
• Elias, Peter Douglas (1991). Development of aboriginal people's communities. Captus Press. ISBN 0-921801-51-3.
• Knopf, Kerstin (2008). Aboriginal Canada revisited. University of Ottawa Press. ISBN 978-0-7766-0679-8.
• Leacock, Stephen (2009), The Dawn of Canadian History: A Chronicle of Aboriginal Canada, Dodo Press ISBN 1-4099-4930-3
• Magocsi, Robert (2002). Aboriginal peoples of Canada: a short introduction. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0-8020-3630-9.
• Nock, David; Haig-BroWN, Celia (2006). With good intentions : Euro-Canadian and Aboriginal relations in colonial Canada. University of British Columbia Press. ISBN 978-0-7748-1138-5.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related toAboriginal peoples of Canada.

Wikisource has several original texts related to:Aboriginal peoples in Canada

• Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada Portal – Government of Canada
• Aboriginal Peoples and Communities – Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada
• Aboriginal Heritage Resources and Services – Library and Archives Canada
• Aboriginal Virtual Exhibits – Virtual Museum of Canada
• Battle for Aboriginal Treaty Rights – Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (Digital Archives)
• First Peoples of Canada – The Canadian Museum of Civilization
• History of Aboriginal Treaties and Relations in Canada – Department of Canadian Heritage
• Map of historical territory treaties – Natural Resources Canada

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aboriginal_peoples_in_Canada&oldid=734267857"

Categories: 

• Aboriginal peoples in Canada
• History of Canada
• History of indigenous peoples of North America
• Hunter-gatherers of Canada