[Indigsol] Indigenous Sovereignty Committee meeting, Wednesday, Sept. 30 at 6:00pm

[Indigenous Peoples' Solidarity Movement -Ottawa]

Indigenous Sovereignty Committee meeting, Wednesday, Sept. 30 at 6:00pm

Wednesday, Sept. 30 at 6:00pm
P.S.A.C. building (233 Gilmour)
Everyone Welcome!
Wheelchair Aceessible
defendersoftheland at gmail.com
http://www.defendersoftheland.org/

The Indigenous Sovereignty Committee will be organizing the
Ottawa/Outaouais Indigenous Sovereignty week.  Indigenous Sovereignty week
is being organized in response to the call made by the new national
indigenous organization, Defenders of the Land.

Defenders of the Land

Defenders of the Land, a network of Indigenous communities and activists
in land struggle across Canada, including Elders and youth, women and men,
was founded at a historic meeting in Winnipeg from November 12-14. This
basis of unity reflects our common view.
Basis of unity

We, Indigenous Peoples of the territory known as Canada who are defending
our lands and waters, our ways of life, and our rights, are of one mind
that:

We are sovereign nations. We have the inherent right to
self-determination. We will determine our own destinies in accordance with
our own customs, laws, and traditions - not in a way dictated to us by
Canadian and provincial governments, and without interference by these
governments.

The rapport and relationship between Indigenous peoples and the lands and
waters we have inhabited since time immemorial is fundamental and cannot
be broken. The wealth of our nations must not only be measured in economic
terms, but rather through the strength of our cultural knowledge and
traditions, which are bound up with our relations to the land. The health
and well-being of our peoples depends on our relations to the land, and
the health of the land depends on its relation to our peoples.

We have the right to subsist on, develop, and act as stewards of our
traditional lands, in accordance with our inherent Indigenous rights and
with historical treaties, including treaties signed between Indigenous
nations prior to contact with Europeans. In particular, we have the
inherent right to hunt, trap, fish, gather plants, engage in ceremonies,
and build shelter and other structures on our lands, in ways that respect
our cultures and are meaningful to contemporary Indigenous economies and
cultural renewal.

We have the right and responsibility to look after our lands and waters.
No development can take place on our lands without our free, prior, and
informed consent. "Self-government" that does not include control of our
lands is no self government at all. A "duty to consult" that does not
allow us to say "no" to development is meaningless.

We reject the extinguishment of Aboriginal title through treaty, and any
interpretations of historical treaties which falsely claim, against the
united voices of our Elders and ancestors, that we have extinguished title
to our traditional territories. We reject any policy or process which aims
at extinguishing Aboriginal title, including contemporary treaty and
comprehensive land claims processes.

The Indian Act is a fundamental injustice and the product of racism and
colonialism. It has no basis in any treaty and has been imposed on our
peoples by Canada without our consent. It imposes on us a foreign system
of government in which accountability is to masters in Ottawa and not to
our peoples. It denies us our freedom to define for ourselves who we are
and who are the members of our nations. Only Indigenous peoples have the
right to make these determinations.

We have the right to choose and practice our own systems of government, in
accordance with our customs.

We reject reforms of the Indian Act that are initiated by government and
aim to obliterate our collective rights as Indigenous peoples under the
guise of "individual rights" and hollow "self-government" provisions.

Negotiations between Indigenous Peoples and Canada are nation to nation.
Only individual First Nations have the right to negotiate, and only under
the direction of their people - deals signed by leaders without the
informed participation and direction of our communities are not
legitimate.

We have the right to maintain and practice our customs, languages,
ceremonies, and cultures, and we have the right to full redress for
historical and contemporary attempts to extinguish these through
residential schools and other policies of assimilation and genocide.

In accordance with these rights and principles, and in defense of our
Mother Earth, we demand that:

1. Canada adopt and fully implement the United Nations Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

2. Canada comply with its international treaty obligations on the rights
of Indigenous Peoples under the International Labor Organization's
Convention 169, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination, and the Convention on Biological Diversity, among others.

3. Canada honour all its commitments and obligations under historic
treaties with Indigenous Peoples.

4. Canada, with Indigenous communities, jointly change the federal
policies on self-government, land claims, and historic treaties to
recognize Indigenous rights and Aboriginal title, including the right to
self-determination and the right to exercise free, prior, and informed
consent.

5. Canada everywhere end its policy of assimilation of Indigenous Peoples
within its borders and its policy of extinguishment of Aboriginal title.

6. Canada acknowledge and fully support our right as peoples to maintain
and practice our cultures and languages, and give full redress and justice
for its attempts to obliterate these.

7. Canada immediately cease the criminalization of Indigenous Peoples when
they are exercising their rights to lands, resources, and
self-determination, and direct the provinces to do the same.

8. The Government of Canada, through an independent body, provide
financial support for Indigenous Peoples who are struggling to exercise or
defend their rights.

If you are an Indigenous community, an Indigenous activist group, or
Indigenous individual who wants to sign on to this basis of unity, send an
email to defendersoftheland at gmail.com or contact us on our website at
www.defendersoftheland.org/contact. Non-Native supporters can sign on to
the Declaration of Support, which is available at
defendersoftheland.org/supporters.