A newly built power generation plant is seen near Huexca, Mexico, in February 2020. The power plant is part of a mega-energy project that includes a natural gas pipeline that traverses three states.
AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo
The behaviour of TC Energy, the company formerly known as TransCanada, in Wet'suwet'en resulted in a nationwide crisis in Canada. It should not be repeated in Mexico.
Ibrahim Mahama’s No Friend but the Mountains (2020). Installation view at Cockatoo Island.
Photograph: Zan Wimberley
The 22nd Biennale of Sydney is testament to the capacity of art and exhibitions to move beyond reflection to lead dialogue, especially at times of crisis and cancellations.
Eabametoong First Nation (Fort Hope), seen here in 2012, is one of the communities located near the proposed Ring of Fire development.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz
Ontario’s approach to assessing the environmental impacts of mining in the Ring of Fire region couldn’t address concerns about the cumulative consequences of development.
The Wedzin kwa River, an important source of fresh water for the Unist'ot'en and Wet'suwet'en people near Houston, B.C.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito
Impact benefit agreements between energy companies and First Nations are typically confidential. But documents suggest First Nations may be trading away their Aboriginal rights.
Immigration minister David Coleman last year cancelled the visas of two Indigenous Australian men.
AAP Image/James Gourley
The ability to remove an Indigenous person from their traditional country shows how Australia is still asserting colonial power over the identity of its First Peoples.
Maree Clarke’s Men in Mourning (2011).
Vivien Anderson Gallery
Bringing together innovative and traditional works, the Linear exhibition gives us a new map for sharing land and knowledge.
Pipeline pipes are seen at a Trans Mountain facility near Hope, B.C., on Aug. 22, 2019. Project Reconciliation is an Indigenous-led initiative that seeks to buy a stake in the pipeline.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward
Project Reconciliation is a direct response to one of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls that Indigenous communities ‘gain long-term sustainable benefits from economic development projects.’
A storm blows over the Tsá Tué Biosphere Reserve.
UNESCO/Destination Délįnę
A holistic approach to conservation finds people have a place in the natural world and a responsibility to maintain it.
Professor Megan Davis is an independent expert member of the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
AAP/RICHARD WAINWRIGHT
Megan Davis on a First Nations Voice in the Constitution
The Conversation, CC BY31.4 MB(download)
Megan Davis says the idea of including an Indigenous Voice in the Constitution is being rejected on an understanding that "simply isn't true" but believes Australia has the "capacity to correct this".
A teenage boy throws rocks in the northern Ontario First Nations reserve in Attawapiskat in April 2016. Poverty has a profound impact on First Nations, and Canada needs to take bold
wealth- and income-creation measures for the Indigenous.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
The MMIWG report didn’t address the poverty that has had such a devastating effect on First Nations. Encouraging active participation by the Indigenous in the Canadian economy is a win-win for everyone.
A wildfire burns on a logging road in central British Columbia in August 2018.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
The tireless grassroots efforts of Indigenous activists unearth colonialism’s hidden secrets and the stories of the land and people to bring the murdered and missing women and girls home.
MP Pat Dodson could be the next minister for Indigenous Affairs if Labor wins the federal election, a first for a First Nations person.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
Few First Nations candidates have succeeded in getting elected to parliament, but it is clear that when they do, they can make a substantial difference.
An infusion of resources into local news outlets in Thunder Bay may help communities contend with recent reports of systemic racism against Indigenous communities.
Shutterstock
Thunder Bay has received national press for its historically inequitable relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations. Local journalism could help the city face those challenges.
An aerial view of the Kapyong Barracks in an affluent area of Winnipeg, site of one of the most recent urban First Nations reserves. It will soon be transferred to seven Treaty One First Nations.
(Facebook)
Kapyong Barracks in Winnipeg is set to be transferred to Treaty One First Nations to become an urban reserve. A 64-hectare parcel in an affluent area, the reserve will be a test of reconciliation.
A case against Sylvia McAdam for ‘trespassing’ on ancestral lands in a provincial park was dismissed.
McAdam
A co-founder of Idle No More was put on trial for ‘trespassing’ on her family’s ancestral lands. Canada has much to learn about institutionalizing respectful relationships with Indigenous peoples.
Map of New France, by Samuel de Champlain (1612), including French depictions of First Nations peoples.
Wikimedia Commons
Antoinette de Saint-Étienne was a Canadian First Nations woman of the 17th century whose beautiful singing voice attracted the attention of a queen.
The challenge on Indigenous rights is to achieve reform that goes beyond limited understandings of these issues as being symbolic or practical.
AAP/Dan Peled
Instead of paying lip service to promoting Indigenous Australians’ rights as First Nations, the next federal government should be guided by the Uluru Statement from the Heart to make real progress.
Jody Wilson-Raybould appears at the House of Commons Justice Committee on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Feb. 27, 2019.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
Indigenous food and medicine gardens, and traditional manikin (wild rice) harvesting offer hope – for the future health of humanity and the earth that sustains us.
Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, Auckland University of Technology, and Professor of Political Science, Charles Sturt University