Nationhood Council House

Conducting policy-oriented research around key societal issues in a balanced and objective manner designed to overcome social exclusion develop the skills to solve problems and act collectively to improve the lives and socio-economic conditions of Indigenous People across Canada. An example of the above - NCH team was invited by a Northern community that was facing severe threats from COVID and a continued economic and health crisis. The NCH team visited the community and had a series of meetings with key community members both during the visit and subsequently to understand the key challenges the community faced and the attempts to address them. The NCH team supported by various experts in the field initiated a comprehensive Landscape scan including research on key items like: • Treaty 9 land rights case laws Indigenous Legal orders. • Current status on community wellness- health education employment housing. Other Socio-economic and environmental issues that are impacting the wellbeing of the community • Governance structures that currently administer the community (body of laws statutes regulations Treaty interpretations band codes and customs that have been entrenched since contact).

Thought leadership and knowledge sharing Based on discussions with various communities NCH was asked to develop a position paper on the ‘Resurgence of Indigenous Legal Orders and rising again of Indigenous ways of being’. This involved extensive research and discussions with leading academicians and Indigenous experts and resulted in the discussion paper being accepted by the Law Journal at a leading Canadian University. The discussion paper provided an independent perspective on the issue and covered the following key areas: • The imperative for Indigenous Legal Orders • The origins related to the Doctrine of Discovery • Emerging instances of the use and adoption • Action plan that appears to be emerging with communities