The Indigenous Governance Research Network examines the evolving nature and place of Indigenous peoples, nations and their governments within the Canadian constitutional order.
Much more than just another group in Canada’s multicultural mosaic, Indigenous people hold a special place in this country’s constitution; but the locus of Indigenous nations and governance is unclear. Many questions of recognition, rights, and governance remain unresolved in this era of Reconciliation. The fact of pre-existing Indigenous polities and their prior territorial occupation at the time of European contact pose numerous dilemmas for the Crown’s impulse for a renewed “nation-to-nation” relationship with Indigenous nations.
The work of this axis studies the evolving nature and place of Indigenous peoples, nations and their government in the legal and constitutional order. Researchers in this network are engaged with Indigenous partners on project that examine the interplay of Crown-Indigenous relations, colonial institutions and their reform, and the transition towards decolonization and substantive self-government for Indigenous nations.
Co-Directors
Janique Dubois is Associate Professor in the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa. Her research focuses on Indigenous governance practices and self-determination, particularly the Métis experience with the negotiation of land and self-government rights, the meaning of federal inclusion for Indigenous peoples, and the comparative analysis of contemporary policies and practices of negotiation. She has published on minority language rights, contemporary Métis politics, federalism, and Métis self-government rights.
Veldon Coburn is Associate Professor of Public Administration and Governance and the Faculty Chair of the Indigenous Relations Initiative at McGill University’s School of Continuing Studies. Veldon is Anishinaabe, a citizen of the Algonquins of Pikwàkanagàn First Nation, and has over a decade of professional experience in program and strategic Indigenous policy with the Government of Canada. His current research focuses on Indigenous identity politics, Canadian – Indigenous politics, settler colonialism, postcolonial theory, anti- and decolonizing theories of society, state and power.