It’s a first for Indigenous Relations and the Crown.
The work to restore a nation-to-nation relationship has paid off with the completion and implementation of the Anishinabek Nation Governance Agreement.
This agreement is the first of it’s kind in Ontario and gives back the right to self-determination and offers support to Indigenous communities to move out from under the Indian Act.
Negotiations first started in 1995, which eventually lead to an agreement in principal come 2007. Once that concluded in 2009, members and citizens of each signatory First Nation voted, to which it passed.
Now that the agreement is signed, the work starts on making federal legislation to bring the agreement it into law. The Anishinabek Nation Government will now need to work on passing their own Anishinabek laws and governance systems.
More funding will be made available in order to do the work involved.
