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Myth busting, insights on the stereo types and myths of Indigenous people 

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Myth busting, insights on the stereo types and myths of Indigenous people 

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The definition of "myth", according to the Oxford Canadian Dictionary, is "a widely held but false notion." When it comes to the topic of Indigenous Peoples there are many widely held but false notions or myths.

Myths are different from stereotypes. A stereotype is "a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image of a particular type of person or thing." There are also many widely held but false stereotypes about Indigenous Peoples.

Myths about Indigenous Peoples are varied but many have the common theme that Indigenous Peoples "have it easy" compared to non-Indigenous Canadians.

"Negative views of Aboriginal peoples (13%). Just over one in ten expresses his or her first impression of Aboriginal peoples in clearly negative terms pertaining to special treatment or negative attributes. This includes mention of tax breaks and other rights and privileges (5%), reliance on welfare or government handouts (3%), that Aboriginal peoples are lazy or don't work to contribute to society (2%), and generally negative feelings (3%). The proportion citing such impressions in urban Canada is essentially unchanged since 2009." [1]

How do we put an end to these myths? By educating ourselves and others with the realities so we and they can counter the myths with facts. Here are some of the most persistent myths:

1. Indigenous Peoples get a "free ride" from the federal government
The "free ride" myth is the foundation for many of the other myths and owes its genesis to s. 91(24) of the British North America Act 1867 when fiduciary duty for "Indians, and Lands reserved for the Indians" was assumed by the Canadian Parliament.

Fiduciary duty applies to Indians and lands reserved for Indians on reserves. A Fiduciary duty requires the Crown to act in accordance to its role as a trustee of "Indians, and Lands reserved for the Indians."

Eventually, fiduciary duty will disappear as it has in cases such as the where there are no bands, no reserves, there are no status or non-status Indians. It is a place where the Crown does not have fiduciary duty because the Nisga'a Final Agreement Indian Act is gone.

For the reserves that are still under the Indian Act, the federal government is responsible for providing programs and services that most non-Indigenous communities in Canada receive from provincial and municipal levels of government. In other words, the same services are provided but just through different levels of government.

In 2011, the auditor general's report Programs for First Nations on Reserves, concluded, "The education gap between First Nations living on reserves and the general Canadian population has widened, the shortage of adequate housing on reserves has increased, comparability of child and family services is not ensured."

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Note to Justin Bieber: There is no free gas for aboriginals

2. Indians have ample reserve lands
Canada is a vast country ( 9.985 million sq km) but just 0.2 per cent of its total land mass is reserve land. That 0.2 per cent of Canada's land mass is home 339,595 Indigenous people (2016 Census), or 0.2% of the land mass houses 20% of the Indigenous population.

8 first nation reserve faqs

Some reserves are tiny, some are vast distances from urban centres, education facilities, health centres, and employment opportunities. Don't make the mistake of equating reserves with traditional or treaty territories which can be vast.

Traditional lands refer to an area that a Nation has occupied and used for many generations, long before reserve borders were imposed by the Indian Act. When reserves were designated, traditional usage and ceremonial sites were not always considered. Some Nations were relocated to reserves in areas that were completely alien to their traditional lands.

As designated in the 3. Indians can do what they want with their reserve lands and resources
Indian Act:

"Reserves are held by Her Majesty for the use and benefit of the respective bands for which they were set apart, and subject to this Act and to the terms of any treaty or surrender, the Governor in Council may determine whether any purpose for which lands in a reserve are used or are to be used is for the use and benefit of the band."

The Canadian government passed legislation in the late 19th and early 20th centuries allowing the government to expropriate portions of reserve land to provide land for public utility rights-of-ways (railways, transmission lines and highways) - often done without the consent of the Nation and without compensation. It is this expropriation that has resulted in the fragmentation and disruption of many reserves. In many cases, the province or Crown further retains subsoil rights on the reserve, which means band members do not 'own' the minerals found there.

Coastal waters and tidal lands do not form part of the reserve either in most cases. Although colonists tried to justify the small sizes of many reserves along coastal British Columbia by their access to waterways, Indigenous fishing grounds and their resources have been restricted by provincial and federal regulations.

"The issue of [independent] fishing licenses to Indians is especially to be depreciated. They are wards of the Dominion Government and specially treated and protected . . . It is not deemed advisable to grant Indians "independent" licenses as they are liable to become difficult to manage by the authorities." William Henry Barker, BC Packers, to the Hon. J.D. Hazen, Minister of Fisheries, August 19, 1913 [2]

4. Indigenous Peoples living on reserves get free housing
The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) offers many programs to assist both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people to meet their housing needs. For Indigenous people, the assistance programs are only applicable to dwellings on reserve lands. First Nations, or status Indians, can apply for social housing programs offered by the CMHC. The housing programs for Indigenous people are mainly designed to give low-income families access to rental housing.

8 Things You Need to Know About On Reserve Housing

Bands and First Nations that meet CMHC lending criteria apply to a bank for conventional mortgage funds to finance the social housing construction, usually with CMHC providing loan insurance. The band rents the housing units to its members and maintains the mortgage. On many reserves, except some that have developed self-government agreements, the house is owned but the land is not - therefore it cannot be sold - which makes it impossible to build up equity in your home, as is possible for non-Indigenous people. Additionally, the reality for most people is that they need to take out a loan in order buy a house and loans require collateral.

The housing shortage on-reserve is in the range of 20,000 - 35,000, according to Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (2011), with the shortfall growing by an estimated 2,200 units every year.

The population growth rate coupled with the shortage of adequate housing results in people living in unhealthy and overcrowded conditions.

Here are some "highlights" regarding housing conditions of Indigenous Peoples from the 2016 Census of Population:

Of the 977,230 First Nations people who lived in Canada in 2016, about one-quarter (24.2%) lived in a dwelling in need of major repairs. In comparison, 6.0% of the non-Aboriginal population reported living in a dwelling in need of major repairs.

In 2016, 18.3% of Aboriginal people lived in housing that was crowded.

Just over one in ten (11.5%) Aboriginal people lived in housing with a one-bedroom shortfall; 4.0% lived in housing with a two-bedroom shortfall, and 2.8% lived in a dwelling with a shortfall of three or more bedrooms. While a lower proportion of the non-Aboriginal population lived in housing that was crowded (8.5%), the distribution of the types of shortfalls was similar.

Maintenance is also a huge factor. Many reserves are situated long distances from hardware stores or have fly-in access only so have to bring in building supplies by air.

5. There's no connection between Indigenous unemployment and Indigenous health and social problems
Employment opportunities and rates on reserves vary considerably due to general economic circumstances in a particular region and the presence or absence of on-reserve resource bases that can generate employment. Given that in many circumstances incomes are low and employment prospects poor, it is not surprising that a large proportion of the Indigenous population is unemployed and lives in poverty.

Going back to the free housing myth, poor and scarce housing leads to too many people living in housing units that are frequently riddled with mould, not weatherproof, and insufficiently heated - the ideal incubation setting for respiratory conditions.

6. Indigenous Peoples don't pay taxes in Canada
This myth is proclaimed frequently and is presented as a testament that Indigenous People in Canada have a massive tax advantage. In order for this myth to be true, it would have to be all Indigenous people are exempt from paying all taxes but the reality is that it is only status Indians who are exempt from paying taxes and only in certain situations.

Federal tax exemptions for status Indians have existed at least since the consolidation of the Indian Act in 1876 but only apply in very specific and limited conditions. Under sections 87 and 90 of the Indian Act, status Indians do not pay federal or provincial taxes on their personal and real property that is on a reserve. Personal property includes goods, services and income as defined under the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency policies. As income is considered personal property, status Indians who work on a reserve do not pay federal or provincial taxes on their employment income.

4 Facts About Indigenous Peoples and Taxes

Initially, the purpose of the exemption was to preserve the entitlements of status Indians to their reserve lands and to ensure that the use of their property on their reserve lands is not eroded by taxes. Section 87 also exempts from the federal Goods and Services Tax (GST) the goods and services bought by status Indians at businesses located on-reserve. Goods and services purchased off-reserve by status Indians but delivered to the reserve are also tax exempt.

To put it in perspective, somewhat less than half of all registered status Indians live on reserve so less than 1% of the total population of Canada is exempt from paying certain taxes.

7. Indigenous students receive free post-secondary education
To say that all Indigenous Peoples receive free post-secondary funding is misleading because it implies all Indigenous Peoples are eligible for funding. This is not the case. Only status Indians are eligible to receive funding for postsecondary education through Indigenous Services Canada funding - non-status Indians, Inuit and Métis are not eligible for this funding. And again, post-secondary education funding is part of the legal and constitutional obligation of the federal government.

While in some communities the rate of high school graduation is increasing, the graduates often step off the path to higher education at that point due to the lack of available funds. If they live off-reserve, they are often not eligible to receive funding.

This section from Chapter 4 Programs for First Nations on Reserve of the 2011 June Status Report of the Auditor General of Canada gives a snapshot of the funding situation:

4.21 Post-secondary funding. In line with our 2004 audit, the Public Accounts Committee recommended that INAC review its post-secondary funding mechanisms, noting that existing mechanisms did not ensure equitable funding to as many eligible students as possible. . . Again, as in 2004, we found that the current funding mechanism and delivery model used to fund post-secondary education does not ensure that eligible students have equitable access to post-secondary education funding.

In order to create additional opportunities for their members some bands set aside funding within their budgets to assist their members in obtaining a post-secondary education. These programs are similar to scholarship programs established by post-secondary institutions and other organizations who want to see the advancement of youth. But it means they may have to take badly needed funds from housing, infrastructure, health budgets etc.

8. Indigenous Peoples are all the same
Cultural diversity within the Indigenous population is frequently not recognized nor respected in common practice. There is a misconception that Indigenous Peoples are one homogenous group who share the same histories, culture, traditions, worldviews , language, needs, and desires. Little could be further from the truth.

Respecting First Nations Cultural Diversity

Let's take a look at First Nations. There are over 600 bands and over 2,000 reserves - each one with a distinct history that shaped their particular cultural identity. They each have distinct economies, capacities, and challenges.

In BC alone there is an amazing diversity of Indigenous culture and language - there are over 200 First Nation communities in the province - each with its own unique culture, traditions, and history. These 200 communities represent 60% of the Indigenous languages spoken in Canada. Speaking of language, did you know that outside of Quebec, English is becoming the common language of Indigenous people in Canada?

Recognition of the unique history, culture and traditions of each community is a fundamental first step Canadians can take in respecting Indigenous Peoples.

9. Residential schools are ancient history
Residential schools are not " ancient history." It may seem as though they belong to a dark and ancient history due to the horrific conditions the 150,000 children (of which 6,000 died or disappeared) were subjected to but the last one closed in 1996. That's not ancient history.

What is residential school syndrome

The mandate of the schools was to assimilate the children into settler society. The actions taken to fulfil the mandate of assimilation were labelled "cultural genocide" by Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin in 2015. Genocide is not a term most people associate with Canada.

1. A mental element: the "intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such"; and

2. A physical element, which includes the following five acts, enumerated exhaustively:

Killing members of the group

Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group

Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part

Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group

Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group

Children as young as six were forcibly removed from their homes. From the moment they crossed the threshold of the school they were thrust into a harsh, unforgiving, linguistically and culturally alien world. Punishment was often severe, sexual, physical and psychological abuse common. The legacy of the trauma those children suffered is carried forth through the generations.

The Indian Act, residential schools and the tuberculosis coverup

A frequent extension of the "residential schools are ancient history" myth is the question "Why can't they just get over it?"

Senator Murray Sinclair, former head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, made these comments in regard to a fellow senator who posed the same question:

"My answer has always been: Why can't you always remember this? Because this is about memorializing those people who have been the victims of a great wrong. Why don't you tell the United States to 'get over' 9/11? Why don't you tell this country to 'get over' all the veterans who died in the Second World War, instead of honouring them once a year? . . . We should never forget, even once we have learned from it because it's part of who we are. It's not just a part of who we are as survivors and children of survivors and relatives of survivors, it's part of who we are as a nation. And this nation must never forget what it once did to its most vulnerable people."

10. The myth of the vanishing Indian
The reach and impact of this myth are almost mythical in proportion.

Its roots are in the "invisible Indian" myth, which in turn has its roots in the Doctrine of Discovery.

The Doctrine of Discovery was used by European monarchies, beginning in the mid-fifteenth century, as a means of legitimizing the colonization of lands outside of Europe. It was issued in 1493, the year after Christopher Columbus "arrived" on the shores of what is now known as North America. The Doctrine of Discovery provided a framework for Christian explorers, in the name of their sovereign, to lay claim to territories uninhabited by Christians. If the lands were vacant, then they could be defined as "discovered" and sovereignty claimed.

The presiding theory of the time was that Indigenous Peoples, because they were non-Christians, and therefore the land was empty or When Christopher Columbus in 1492, it is estimated that the Americas were actually occupied by 100 million Indigenous Peoples - which is about one-fifth of the human race at that time - who had been living their traditional lives on the land since time immemorial. But, because they were not Christians the land was deemed were not human terra nullius. arrived terra nullius. They were invisible. With confederation, they moved from invisible to savages, as termed in 1879 by John A. Macdonald:

"When the school is on the reserve, the child lives with its parents, who are savages, and though he may learn to read and write, his habits and training mode of thought are Indian. He is simply a savage who can read and write."

It wasn't until amendments to the Indian Act in 1951, that they were actually recognized as "people." Prior to that, a person was "an individual other than an Indian."

Making them vanish was the goal of assimilation. They had to vanish in order for the government to gain access to their lands and resources, and encourage Europeans to settle in Canada. The government took a number of approaches to make them vanish, as listed here in 21 Things You May Not Have Known About The Indian Act.

But, vanish they did not. Today, Indigenous Peoples are the fastest growing segment of the population. Ever since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada published its report on residential schools and 94 calls to action for reconciliation in 2015, awareness of the treatment of Indigenous Peoples at least since confederation has increased sharply.

If you would like to download a pdf copy of this article, click the button:

[2] John Sutton Lutz, Makúk A New History of Aboriginal-White Relations, UBC Press 2009 p 239

Here's a handy little eBook with 23 tips on what not to do or say when Working Effectively with Indigenous Peoples®.

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Insight on 10 myths about Indigenous Peoples

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The definition of "myth", according to the Oxford Canadian Dictionary, is "a widely held but false notion." When it comes to the topic of Indigenous Peoples there are many widely held but false notions or myths. Myths are different from stereotypes.

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Negotiating Treaty 7 | Canadian History Hall | Canadian Museum of History

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Gallery 2: Colonial Canada ⟶ From Sea to Sea ⟶ Three Visions of the West

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Winner of the 2019 Bill Duthie Booksellers' Choice Award!

Based on a viral article, 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act is the essential guide to understanding the legal document and its repercussions on generations of Indigenous Peoples, written by a leading cultural sensitivity trainer. To read, listen to, or watch interviews with Bob Joseph, pop over to our Press page.

The Indian Act, after over 140 years, continues to shape, control, and constrain the lives and opportunities of Indigenous Peoples, and is at the root of many stereotypes that persist. Bob Joseph's book comes at a key time in the reconciliation process, when awareness from both Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities is at a crescendo. Joseph explains how Indigenous Peoples can step out from under the Indian Act and return to self-government, self-determination, and self-reliance-and why doing so would result in a better country for every Canadian. He dissects the complex issues around truth and reconciliation, and clearly demonstrates why learning about the Indian Act 's cruel, enduring legacy is essential for the country to move toward true reconciliation.

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21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act

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Winner of the 2019 Bill Duthie Booksellers' Choice Award! Based on a viral article, 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act is the essential guide to understanding the legal document and its repercussions on generations of Indigenous Peoples, written by a leading cultural sensitivity trainer.

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Alberta RCMP deputy commissioner Curtis Zablocki on Wednesday became the latest person in authority to dismiss the idea of systemic racism.

He told a news conference in Edmonton he also doesn't believe racism is systemic through policing in Alberta or Canada.

It's a statement that flies in the face of my decade of reporting on Indigenous Peoples - and 150 years of Canadian history.

I've heard countless stories from Indigenous Peoples across this country who have had run-ins with the RCMP and other police forces.

There are injustices like the recent allegations that RCMP beat Athabasca Chipewyan First Nations Chief Allan Adam over an expired licence plate in Fort McMurray, Alta. There's the killing of 26-year-old Chantel Moore of the Tia-o-qui-aht First Nation, who was shot five times by police in Edmundston, N.B., last week. There's the fact that in April, Winnipeg police officers shot and killed 16-year-old Eisha Hudson, then, less than a day later, Winnipeg police shot and killed 36-year-old Jason Collins. Ten days later, the same police force shot and killed 22-year-old Stewart Kevin Andrews.

All of them were Indigenous.

I could fill books with the names and stories of Indigenous Peoples whose lives have been cut short due to systemic racism in this country.

The North-West Mounted Police, which eventually became the RCMP, has as its foundation an agenda of racism that widely plays out today.

In 1873, the NWMP were created to advance the agenda of the newly established dominion of Canada. In other words, the force was created to stop any opposition to its vision of a successful colonial state.

As authors Brown and Brown wrote in An Unauthorized History of the RCMP, "It (NWMP) was designed to keep order in the North West, to control the Aboriginal and Metis populations, and to facilitate the transfer of Indigenous territory to the federal government with (in theory) minimal bloodshed."

The NWMP and then the RCMP helped to force First Nations onto reserves - tracts of land designated for them by the Canadian government - then made sure they didn't leave unless they got permission.

The "pass system," which ran from 1885 to the 1940s in Canada, gave power to an "Indian agent" to decide whether a First Nations person could leave the reserve. It was made into law by John A. Macdonald and enforced by police. The Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples cites reserves began to "resemble prisons."

The final report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) published June 3, 2019 highlights testimonies from family members who lived through the pass system.

Rande C., said of RCMP enforcement during this period: "I think about the early stories from that time when my gran said chiefs (were) dragged out of their homes and thrown on the ground and forced to shovel, like, pig shit and stuff like that, and beat, and RCMPs ... just like, standing around everyday waiting for them to even just say one word in our language so they could beat them and throw them and haul them to jail or whatever. You know, never allowed to leave the reserve, never allowed to shop in the same stores, never allowed to do anything. And my gran said that was her reality of her whole life growing up."

The report also states Métis Peoples suffered "brutally under the Mounties, who frequently paraded through native settlements in order to intimidate the people and remind the natives they had to 'stay in their place.'"

In the 1950s and 1960s, the report says, many Métis families in Manitoba lived on the urban edges of cities called "Shantytowns" or in rural communities along government road allotments; living in the "marginal spaces at the edge of Canadian society" known as "road allowances."

Road allowance communities were established by Métis in the aftermath of the failure of many families to receive their lands guaranteed by the Manitoba government. Métis living there were considered squatters, and the report says witnesses attested to many communities being "destroyed by the RCMP - in fact, some Metis Elders vividly recall the day their community was burned to the ground, and when people escaped with little more than the clothes on their backs."

For more than 100 years, the RCMP has enforced the Indian Act for the federal government. RCMP ripped Indigenous children from their parents' arms and forcibly took them to attend residential schools designed to assimilate them into the mainstream culture.

"The central goals of Canada's Aboriginal policy were to eliminate Aboriginal governments; ignore Aboriginal rights; terminate the Treaties; and, through a process of assimilation, cause Aboriginal Peoples to cease to exist as distinct legal, social, cultural, religious and racial entities in Canada," said the Truth and Reconciliation of Canada's final report, describing it as "cultural genocide."

Thousands of Indigenous children were severely abused and thousands died attending residential schools. The last of these schools closed in 1996. This isn't ancient history.

Audrey Siegl, Musqueam activist, expressed, to the MMIWG Commissioners, "Safety and justice and peace are just words to us. Since its inception, we've never been safe in 'Canada.' The RCMP was created to quash the Indian rebellions. The police were created to protect and serve the colonial state."

The MMIWG Final Report states Canada is committing race-based genocide against Indigenous women and girls when it comes to enabling systemic violence through the crisis of MMIWG. The RCMP's role and actions, in our eyes, have made them contributors to the genocide.

Report commissioners also said the RCMP has not proven to Canada they're capable of holding themselves to account and cites numerous "truths," testimonies of witnesses who speak to "ongoing issues of systemic and individual racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination that prevent honest oversight from taking place."

How are Indigenous Peoples supposed to take seriously the supposed assurance from a high-ranking commissioner that Alberta, or Canada, for that matter, isn't racist?

The RCMP regularly enforce Crown-granted injunctions obtained by corporations to trample Indigenous rights like we recently saw when members of the Wet'suwet'en were forcibly removed from their homelands to make way for a pipeline.

In Canada, compared to all other categories of accused persons, Indigenous people continue to be jailed younger, denied bail more frequently, granted parole less often and released later in their sentence, over-represented in segregation, overrepresented in remand custody, and more likely to be classified as higher risk offenders.

As of January 2020, Indigenous Peoples make up more than 30 per cent of the inmates in federal custody despite making up just five per cent of the overall population. Dr. Ivan Zinger, the Correctional Investigator of Canada, suggested this indicates a deepening "Indigenization" of Canada's correctional system and referred to those trends as "disturbing and entrenched imbalances."

Both federal prisons in Zablocki's home province's capital city of Edmonton have higher than a 50 per cent Indigenous population.

Denying the truth of systemic racism within the policing forces in Canada is further oppressive and adds fuel to the fire of racist violence and beliefs toward minorities. It's also not helpful to the process of reconciliation. Maybe Zablocki needs to understand that truth before he's ready to face what's really going on.

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Opinion | As the RCMP deny systemic racism, here's the real history

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Alberta RCMP deputy commissioner Curtis Zablocki on Wednesday became the latest person in authority to dismiss the idea of systemic racism. He told a news conference in Edmonton he also doesn't believe racism is systemic through policing in Alberta or Canada.

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Social work and Indigenous People in Canada

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Great article to help with the understanding of the relationship between Indigenous people and social workers

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Canada’s Mistreatment of Indigenous Peoples

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SPECIAL FEATUREThe Indian Trust FundDebunking Myths and MisconceptionsThe Indian Trust Fund is an account that holds all the moneys collected, received, or held by the Crown for the “use and benefit” of First Nations.There is significant confusion, mythology and a lack of clarity around this fund. U…

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Reclaiming Power and Place

The National Inquiry's Final Report reveals that persistent and deliberate human and Indigenous rights violations and abuses are the root cause behind Canada's staggering rates of violence against Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA people. The two volume report calls for transformative legal and social changes to resolve the crisis that has devastated Indigenous communities across the country.
The Final Report is comprised of the truths of more than 2,380 family members, survivors of violence, experts and Knowledge Keepers shared over two years of cross-country public hearings and evidence gathering. It delivers 231 individual Calls for Justice directed at governments, institutions, social service providers, industries and all Canadians.
As documented in the Final Report, testimony from family members and survivors of violence spoke about a surrounding context marked by multigenerational and intergenerational trauma and marginalization in the form of poverty, insecure housing or homelessness and barriers to education, employment, health care and cultural support. Experts and Knowledge Keepers spoke to specific colonial and patriarchal policies that displaced women from their traditional roles in communities and governance and diminished their status in society, leaving them vulnerable to violence.

Supplementary report: Quebec

The National Inquiry is simultaneously releasing a report specific to Quebec in order to give particular attention to the issue of violence against Indigenous women and girls in that province. The report outlines specific issues such as language barriers, health and social services provide by religious congregations and interaction with Indigenous and provincial police forces.

Download PDF

Section 1 of the report, made up of Chapters 1-4, sets up the overall context that will be helpful for readers in approaching the information presented in the later sections of the report. In Section 1, we talk about the role of relationships, human and Indigenous rights, the history of colonization, and how each of these contexts can inform our understanding of the issue of violence against First Nations, Inuit, and Métis women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people.
Chapter 1: Centring Relationships to End Violence
Chapter 2: Indigenous Recognitions of Power and Place
Chapter 3: Emphasizing Accountability through Human Rights Tools
Chapter 4: Colonization as Gendered Oppression

Overwhelmingly, the families who testified before the National Inquiry were seeking answers to perceived flaws in the investigations into the loss of their loved ones.

They discussed many ways in which they felt that police services had failed in their duty to properly investigate the crimes committed against them or their loved ones, leading ultimately to a failure to obtain closure and justice within the existing system. In response, the National Inquiry established the Forensic Document Review Project (FDRP), consisting of two teams conducting a review of police and other related institutional files. One team examined files of the Province of Quebec; the second group examined police files in all other provinces and territories throughout the rest of Canada. In this summary, when we refer to the FDRP, we are referring specifically to this second group. Information and recommendations of the Quebec FDRP are located in the Supplementary Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls devoted to Quebec. The purpose of the FDRP was to identify potential systemic barriers or problems and areas of weakness relating to the protection of Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people, and to make recommendations to the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls about the systemic causes of their disappearances and deaths.

During the course of the project, the Forensic Document Review Project (FDRP), which was tasked with examining files outside of Quebec, obtained and reviewed 174 files and 35 previous reports and studies on policing related to Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people, and analyzed publicly available information related to those files.

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The National Inquiry's Final Report reveals that persistent and deliberate human and Indigenous rights violations and abuses are the root cause behind Canada's staggering rates of violence against Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA people. The two volume report calls for transformative legal and social changes to resolve the crisis that has devastated Indigenous communities across the country.

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A Brief and Brutal History of Canadian Colonialism | The Tyee

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Despite the painful history, there’s always been Indigenous resistance. Is settler society finally waking up?

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June is National Indigenous History Month. Celebrate by reading one of these books by First Nations, Métis and Inuit authors.

is an anthology of comics featuring the work of Indigenous creators as they retell the history of Canada. Elements of fantasy and magical realism are incorporated throughout the book, telling the stories of characters like Jack Fiddler, an Anishinaabe shaman facing murder charges, and Rosie, an Inuk girl growing up during the Second World War.

Contributors include Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm, Sonny Assu, Brandon Mitchell, Rachel and Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley, David A. Robertson, Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair, Jen Storm, Richard Van Camp, Katherena Vermette, Chelsea Vowel, Tara Audibert, Kyle Charles, GMB Chomichuk, Natasha Donovan, Scott B. Henderson, Ryan Howe, Andrew Lodwick, Scott A. Ford, Donovan Yaciuk and Alicia Elliott.

In The Red Chesterfield, a city bylaw officer finds a chesterfield in a ditch, along with a severed foot. The protagonist gets caught up in the investigation - and turns out to be more interested in what happens to the furniture than the origin of the missing body part. The Red Chesterfield subverts the mystery form with a story that has clues that lead nowhere and motivations that are deliberately ambiguous.

Wayne Arthurson is a writer of Cree and French Canadian descent. He is the author of five novels, including Blood Red Summer and The Traitors of Camp 133.

In NDN Coping Mechanisms, Billy-Ray Belcourt uses poetry, prose and textual art to explore how Indigenous and queer communities and identities are left out of mainstream media. The work has two parts - the first explores everyday life and the second explores influential texts such as Treaty 8.

Belcourt is a writer and academic from the Driftpile Cree Nation. He won the Griffin Poetry Prize for his first poetry collection, This Wound is a World. CBC Books named Belcourt a writer to watch in 2018.

Gwen Benaway's fourth collection of work,explores the everyday poetics of the trans feminine body. The collection offers an intimate portrayal of experiences and understandings of trans life and questions what it means to be a trans woman, both within the text and in the material world.

Benaway is a trans woman of Anishinaabe and Metis descent. Her third poetry collection, won the 2019 Governor General's Literary Award for poetry, was longlisted for the Pat Lowther Award and shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award for Trans Poetry and the Trillium Award. She is also the author of collections Ceremonies for the Dead and Passage. Her writing has also appeared in the Globe and Mail, Maclean's and CBC Arts.

Francine Cunningham is a writer who has spent life on the margins: she is Indigenous, but white-passing. She grew up in a city. She lives with mental illness. is her attempt to explore what this all means and to address how residential schools and the intergenerational trauma that followed has shaped her family and identity.

is Cunningham's first book.

Though he has been missing for nearly a year, Joan hasn't given up on finding her husband Victor, who disappeared after their first serious fight. One morning, hungover Joan finds herself in a packed preacher's tent on a Walmart parking lot. The charismatic Reverend Wolff is none other than Victor, who claims to have no memory of Joan or their life together.

Cherie Dimaline is a Métis author and editor whose award-winning fiction has been published and anthologized internationally. In 2017, her novel The Marrow Thieves won the Governor General's Literary Award for Young people's literature - text and the Kirkus Prize for young readers' literature. It is currently being adapted for television.

Alicia Elliott explores the systemic oppression faced by Indigenous peoples across Canada through the lens of her own experiences as a Tuscarora writer from Six Nations of the Grand River. Elliott examines how colonial violence, including the loss of language, seeps into the present day lives of Indigenous people, often in the form of mental illness. Elliott, who lives in Brantford, Ont., won gold at the National Magazine Awards in 2017 for the essay this book is based on.

Elliott is a Tuscarora writer living in Brantford, Ont. She was chosen by Tanya Talaga as the recipient for the 2018 RBC Taylor Emerging Writer Award. CBC Books named Elliott a writer to watch in 2019.

When her twin sister Raven goes missing, Wren StrongEagle immediately reports it to the local police. Feeling dismissed and worrying the case won't be investigated properly, Wren launches into action and decides to find justice on her own.

Carol Rose GoldenEagle is a Cree and Dene author whose books include the novel Bearskin Diary and the poetry collection

In Five Little Indians, Kenny, Lucy, Clara, Howie and Maisie were taken from their families and sent to a residential school when they were very small. Barely out of childhood, they are released and left to contend with the seedy world of eastside Vancouver. Fuelled by the trauma of their childhood, the five friends cross paths over the decades and struggle with the weight of their shared past.

Michelle Good is a Cree writer and lawyer, as well as a member of Red Pheasant Cree Nation in Saskatchewan. Five Little Indians is her first book.

Harold R. Johnson is a former prosecutor and the author of several books. In his latest,Peace and Good Order, Johnson makes the case that Canada is failing to fulfil its legal duty to deliver justice to Indigenous people. In fact, he argues, Canada is making the situation worse and creating even more long-term damage to Indigenous communities.

Johnson is the author of several works of both fiction and nonfiction. His nonfiction work Firewater: How Alcohol Is Killing My People (and Yours) was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for nonfiction.

When Brianna Jonnie was 14 years old, she wrote a letter to the Winnipeg chief of police, asking him what he would do if she, a young Ojibwe woman, went missing. Would she get the same treatment as a young white boy who went missing? Or would her disappearance be ignored? The letter went viral online and sparked an important conversation about missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada.

If I Go Missing is a graphic novel adaptation of Jonnie's letter, featuring artwork by Nshannacappo, a poet and artist from Ditibineya-ziibiing (Rolling River First Nation).

In 2020, celebrated Indigenous writer Thomas King will turn 77 years old. His first poetry collection, 77 Fragments of a Familiar Ruin, collects 77 poems that lament what we have lost, lecture us for what we have allowed and looks at what we might still be able to save.

King's books include Truth & Bright Water, The Inconvenient Indian and The Back of the Turtle. He also writes the DreadfulWater mystery series.

Helen Knott is a poet and writer of Dane Zaa, Nehiyaw and European descent. Her memoir, In My Own Moccasins, is a story of addiction, sexual violence and intergenerational trauma. It explores how colonization has affected her family over generations. But it is also a story of hope and redemption, celebrating the resilience and history of her family.

In My Own Moccasins is on the 2020 RBC Taylor Prize longlist.

Knott is a social worker and writer. In My Own Moccasins is her first book.

Field Notes for the Self is a series that takes inspiration from the poetic structuring of Patrick Lane, John Thompson and Charles Wright, but their closest cousins may be Arvo Pärt's. This collection deals with the idea of liberation from personal and inherited trauma and memories of violence inflictedon Lundy's Indigenous ancestors which continue to haunt him. Similar to Randy Lundy's past works, this collection is rooted in observations of the natural world.

Lundy is a Saskatchewan-based short story writer and award-winning poet. He has published three previous books, Under the Night Sun, Gift of the Hawk and Blackbird Song, which won theSaskatchewan Arts Board Poetry Award in 2019.

Terese Marie Mailhot traces her life story from a dysfunctional upbringing on Seabird Island in B.C., with an activist mother and abusive father, to an acceptance into the Masters of Fine Art program at the Institute of American Indian Arts in New Mexico. This slim poetic volume packs a powerful punch in just 140 pages.

Heart Berries was a finalist for the 2018 Governor General's Literary Award for nonfiction and the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction.

Born and raised on Seabird Island, B.C., Mailhot​ is in the creative writing faculty at the Institute of American Indian Arts, where she graduated with an MFA in fiction.

Hope Matters, a collection of poetry from award-winning author Lee Maracle and her daughters Columpa Bobb and Tania Carter, looks at the journey of Indigenous people from colonial beginnings to reconciliation. The collaborative effort documents the personal mother-daughter connection and also the shared song of hope and reconciliation from all Indigenous communities and perspectives.

Maracle is one of Canada's most acclaimed writers. Her books include Bobbi Lee: Indian Rebel, , My Conversations with Canadians and . Bobb is a photographer, actor, playwright and poet. Carter is an actor, playwright and poet.

Darrel J. McLeod's Mamaskatch is a memoir of his upbringing in Smith, Alta., raised by his fierce Cree mother, Bertha. McLeod describes vivid memories of moose stew and wild peppermint tea, surrounded by siblings and cousins. From his mother, McLeod learned to be proud of his heritage and also shares her fractured stories from surviving the residential school system.

McLeod is a Cree writer from treaty eight territory in Northern Alberta. Mamaskatch is his first book.

Since Hazel Ellis returned home to Spirit Bear Point First Nation, an old crow has been visiting her dreams to tell her he's come to save her. As Hazel investigates what this could mean, she discovers an old magic awakening in the quarry on her late father's land. The adventure Hazel embarks on will have a lasting impact on her family and community.

Karen McBride is an Algonquin Anishinaabe writer from the Timiskaming First Nation in the territory that is now Quebec. Crow Winter is her first novel.

Tyler Pennock's debut poetry collection,is about the ways we process the traumas of our past, and about how often these experiences eliminate moments of softness and gentleness. The poems in this collection centre on a young two-spirit Indigenous man's journey through darkness and trauma toward strength and awareness.

Pennock is a Toronto-based writer, who has worked as a community worker and educator for over a decade. He was adopted from a Cree and Métis family in the Slave Lake region of Alberta. He has a creative writing MFA from the University of Guelph.

A northern Anishinaabe community loses power just as winter arrives, burying roads and creating panic as the food supply slowly runs out. Newcomers begin to arrive on the reserve, escaping a nearby crisis, and tension builds as disease begins taking lives. As chaos takes hold, a small group turns to the land and Anishinaabe tradition to start rebuilding and restoring harmony.

Waubgeshig Rice is an Anishinaabe author, journalist and radio host originally from Wasauksing First Nation. He is also the author of Legacy and Midnight Sweatlodge. He used to be the host of CBC Radio's Up North.

Son of a Trickster is a novel about Jared, a compassionate 16-year-old, maker of famous weed cookies, the caretaker of his elderly neighbours, the son of an unreliable father and unhinged, though loving in her way, mother. As Jared ably cares for those around him, in between getting black-out drunk, he shrugs off the magical and strange happenings that follow him around.

Son of a Trickster was on the shortlist for the 2017 Scotiabank Giller Prize. It is being adapted into a TV series set to premiere on CBC in 2020.

Eden Robinson is an award-winning author from Kitamaat, B.C. She is also the author of the novels Monkey Beach and Trickster Drift. Son of a Trickster and Trickster Drift are the first two books of a planned Trickster trilogy.

Armand Garnet Ruffo's is an examination of the nature and meaning of a treaty. Ruffo documents his observations of life from an Indigenous perspective, looking at belief systems and the complex, evolving connections and obligations between nation-to-nation, human-to-human and human-to-nature.

Ruffo is an Ojibway filmmaker, writer and poet. His other books include Grey Owl, Norval Morrisseau and The Thunderbird Poems.

After Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission report was released, Paul Seesequasis felt compelled to do something to contribute and understand what his mother, a residential school survivor, went through. He began to collect and share archival photos of Indigenous communities, and learned the stories of those photographed. Blanket Toss Under Midnight Sun shares some of the most compelling images and stories from this project.

Seesequasis is a writer and journalist. He is a member of the Plains Cree First Nation from Saskatchewan.

Combining memoir with fiction, Tanya Tagaq writes about a young girl's coming of age in 1970s Nunavut. She is a witness to the mythic wonders of the Arctic world, which juxtapose harshly against the violence and alcoholism in her community.

Split Tooth was on the longlist for the 2018 Scotiabank Giller Prize and was a finalist for the Amazon Canada First Novel Award. It also won the $2,000 Indigenous Voices Award for best published prose in English.

Talaga is an investigative journalist. In 2017, she was named the Atkinson Fellow for public policy. The work produced during this period form the basis of Talaga's 2018 CBC Massey Lectures, All Our Relations: Finding the Path Forward.

Chasing Painted Horses follows four young friends from a reserve called Otter Lake, located north of Toronto. One day, Ralph and Shelley's mother installs a large chalkboard at home and challenges the four friends to a weekly art contest. The quietest of them, Danielle, draws a stunning horse and wins, an inconspicuous event that will reverberate throughout their lives.

Drew Hayden Taylor is an Ojibway playwright, author and journalist from Curve Lake First Nation in Ontario. His other books include the YA novel The Night Wanderer, the novel Motorcycle and Sweetgrass and the sci-fi short story collection Take Us to Your Chief.

The North-West is Our Mother is a history of theMétis Nation. It begins in the early 1800s, when the Métis became known as fierce nomadic hunters, and continues to the late 19th-century resistance led by Riel to reclaim the land stolen from them, all the way to present day as they fight for reconciliation and decolonization.

Jean Teillet is a lawyer, Métis expert and the great-grandniece of Louis Riel.

Jesse Thistle is a Métis-Cree academic specializing in Indigenous homelessness, addiction and inter-generational trauma. For Thistle, these issues are more than just subjects on the page. After a difficult childhood, Thistle spent much of his early adulthood struggling with addiction while living on the streets of Toronto. Told in short chapters interspersed with poetry, his memoir From the Ashes details how his issues with abandonment and addiction led to homelessness, incarceration and his eventual redemption through higher education.

Thistle is a recipient of the Governor General's Silver Medal in 2016. From the Ashes is his first book.

Arielle Twist is a Cree, two-spirit poet and educator based in the East Coast. Twist's debut poetry collection offers perspectives of human connections after death - looking at anger, grief, trauma and displacement left in its wake. Disintegrate/Dissociate depicts life for an Indigenous trans woman, one dreaming for a hopeful future and a clear path for self-discovery.

Twist is a Halifax-based poet and sex educator, originally from George Gordon First Nation, Saskatchewan. CBC Books named Twist a writer to watch in 2019.

Moccasin Square Gardens is a collection of humorous short fiction set in Denendeh, the land of the people north of the 60th parallel. Richard Van Camp's stories involve extraterrestrials, illegal wrestling moves and the legendary Wheetago, human-eating monsters who have come to punish the greed of humanity.

Van Camp is a prolific novelist, comic writer and children's book writer whose work includes The Lesser Blessed, A Blanket of Butterflies and .

Katherena Vermette returns to poetry with river woman. river woman explores colonialism and the multigenerational trauma and loss it inflicted. It also explores the relationship between reclamation, love, nature and healing.

Vermette is also the author of the novel and the Governor General's Literary Award-winning poetry collection North End Love Songs. She lives in Winnipeg.

is a collection of stories and ceremonies inspired by the foundational teachings of Ojibway tradition. Wagamese's original plan was to focus on each of the seven lessons, known as the Seven Grandfather Teachings, but he died before completing the manuscript. The Seven Grandfather Teachings are humility, courage, honesty, wisdom, truth, respect and love. will focus on the lessons of humility, respect and courage and will feature four ceremonies that anyone can do.

Wagamese died in March 2017 at the age of 61. He is also the author of the novels Medicine Walk, Ragged Company, Him Standing, Dream Wheel, the poetry book Runaway Dreams andmemoirs For Joshua, and One Native Life.

Crow Gulch was a community in Newfoundland that was built around a pulp and paper mill. Many of the residents were of Indigenous and non-Indigenous ancestry. Some of the residents included poet Douglas Walbourne-Gough's great-grandmother and her daughter. In the 1970s, Crow Gulch was abandoned. Walbourne-Gough tries to capture the history and legacy of the community in this collection.

Walbourne-Gough is a poet and mixed/adopted Mi'kmaq from Newfoundland. is his first collection.

Jonny Appleseed is about a Two-Spirit Indigiqueer young man who has left the reserve and becomes a cybersex worker in the big city to make ends meet. But he must reckon with his past when he returns home to attend his stepfather's funeral.

Joshua Whitehead is an Oji-Cree, Two-Spirit writer, poet and Indigiqueer scholar from Peguis First Nation. He is also the author of the poetry collection full-metal indigiqueer.

Set in the near future, begins as a community grapples with a fuel spill that destroys the marine foods they planned to harvest. With food supplies diminishing, a group of hunters embark on a late season sea lion expedition. An unexpected storm forces the group to abandon a hunter named Carpe on a rock, where he faces an angry Lord of the Rock.

Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas is an artist who blends Asian manga with Haida artistic and oral traditions. His other books include War of the Blink and

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35 books to read for National Indigenous History Month | CBC Books

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June is National Indigenous History Month. Celebrate by reading one of these books by First Nations, Métis and Inuit authors. is an anthology of comics featuring the work of Indigenous creators as they retell the history of Canada.