LESSON 1: INTRODUCTION TO INDIGENOUS PEOPLES & CONCEPTS OF JUSTICE Flashcards
How many Indigenous languages are spoken today in Canada?
86
First Nations includes:
Both “status” and “non-status” Indians
Section 35 of the Constitution Act defines aboriginal peoples in Canada as being inclusive of:
Indian, metis, and Inuit
In Inuktitut, “Inuit” means
The people
There are over one million indigenous people in Canada (True or false)
True
The term “First Nations” is synonymous with “Aboriginal peoples”
False
What are some of the issues with a “pan-Indian” means of defining people throughout Canada? (2)
- The problem is that this is a lumped approach that categorizes peoples of many different cultures, languages, and traditions as being one and the same.
- There are many unique Indigenous cultural groups that live in Canada.
Indian Act
this legislation is a collection of “Indian” polices which was written by Euro-Canadian governments to regulate all aspects of “Indian” land and “Indian” identities, without any Indigenous input. It was put in place in Canada as a way to regulate Indigenous peoples out of existence
the various ways of defining and understanding justice
- the achievement of respectful coexistence—restoration of harmony to the network of relationships and renewed commitment to ensuring the integrity and physical, emotional, and spiritual health of all individuals and communities.
- to seek justice is to strive for harmony, balance, and peaceful coexistence
Indigenous (2)
- is a word recognized in the seventeenth century that stems from the Latin root “indigena,”meaning “sprung from the land
- has been used in the international and United Nations context to define peoples in relation to their colonizers
Aboriginal
- used generally “in reference to inhabitants of lands colonized by Europeans.
- a constitutional term, found in the Constitution Act, 1982, which defines Aboriginal peoples as “the Indian, Inuit, and Métis peoples of Canada.
Native (3)
- in the mid-fifteenth century, this term was used to describe a “person born in bondage.”
- In the sixteenth century, “native” was used to describe a “person who has always lived in a place.
- in the seventeenth century with the growth of colonialism; the vernacular came to mean “home-born slave” and its definitional meaning “original inhabitants of non-European nations where Europeans hold political power.
Indian (4)
- exemplifies a historical farce.
- When Christopher Columbus encountered Taíno people in 1492, he incorrectly labelled them “Indians,” thinking he was in the Indies.
- Incidentally, although Columbus claimed to have “discovered” a “new world,” the Americas were already home to 112 million Indigenous peoples
- considered derogatory, especially because Euro-Canadian government systems used it throughout many racist documents, policies, and acts
In Canada, Aboriginal peoples have been mainly classified into four major groupings
- status Indians,
- non-status Indians,
- Métis, and
- Inuit
Status “Indians (2)
- are registered under the Indian Act of Canada.
- Persons who are registered under this act and can confirm their affiliation to a band that signed a treaty are also considered “treaty Indians