OUR FACILITATION PRINCIPLES
- NCH helps to establish a legal assistance platform at the community level. It is first and foremost responsible to the community and operated by the community.
- Communities approach NCH for the work they need. NCH does not solicit work.
- NCH maintains a roster of talented specialists and matches them to communities for community capacity-building in legal research and action. NCH facilitates action depending on the situations and the particular contexts that the community is working in.
- NCH aims towards a no-fee or nominal-fee model for rendering services. However, communities are responsible for their own NCH office set up and for any out of pocket expenses such as travel, food, and accommodations.
- Across the country and beyond, the issue of land dispossession is a shared problem. NCH maintains a clearing house for information that benefits the collective. It also enables synergetic legal actions on Indigenous land claims where it sees symbiotic connections between communities across the country. NCH operationalizes the outstanding academic work done by Indigenous scholars in the field of nationhood and inherent rights assertion.
- NCH’s work follows utmost integrity in its research methodology. NCH does research with the nation instead of on the nation. NCH adheres to OCAP principles when it comes to research projects.
- NCH is set apart from private consultants and government bodies in its work on nationhood and land rights because: It is not profit driven or power seeking, it engages with communities for the long term and is established in Indigenous perspectives.
