NCH COMMUNITY WORKSHOP MODULES
NATIONHOOD READINESS
Every nation is different. What is nationhood for a community needs to be determined before NCH can begin its work.
Tier 1 : NATIONHOOD READINESS WORKSHOP
NCH staff conducts a one-day workshop with community members to assess the readiness in their community for Nationhood work.
Some key points of discussion in this workshop will be:
- What does Nationhood mean to you? What are your Nationhood goals?
- Do you have the mandate from your community to work on Nationhood assertion? Additionally, do you have Elders, Knowledge Keepers to support Nationhood assertion?
- What is needed to assess the Tribal Council's collective Nationhood positioning from your community perspective?
- What capacity constraints does the community face to work on this project and to eventually have an in-house NCH-like body?
ASSESSING NEEDS AND RIGHTS
Tier 2 : ASSESSMENT - Needs and Rights
On the second day, NCH staff conducts a one-day workshop with community members to assess their:
Needs
- What issues does the community face in wellbeing, social, education, employment, housing?
- What impact have colonial systems had over the years on the community? Why have advocacy efforts failed the community?
- What change does the community want for its next generation (vision for 25 year time period)?
Rights
INHERENT AND TREATY RIGHTS: Building on NCH's secondary research, review and validate the understanding of the nation's Inherent rights; Also, rights from Constitution Act, 1982 Section 35 and precedent Case laws that impact community's Nationhood assertion.
OUTCOME: TOOLS FOR ASSERTING NATIONHOOD
Tier 3 : OUTCOME REPORTING
On the third day, NCH staff puts together an action-oriented report for use by community. Co-inputted by community leaders, this report will include multiple Nationhood assertion tools and suggestions to help in:
- Capacity-building community's assertion of their inherent and Treaty-based rights. Helping interpret Treaty and inherent rights.
- Asserting self-determination in governance: Making nation laws and governance structures preeminent.
- Asserting economic sovereignty: Addressing land infringement issues that have taken place in or around the community and the potential to assert economic sovereignty in land use projects.
- Providing community with an accessible clearinghouse of Indigenous rights information.
- Providing suggestions on: (a) alternatives to the Indian Act; (b) navigation of legal systems that enable land dispossession and land title extinguishment; (c) harnessing the power from precedent case laws that assert Indigenous inherent land rights; (d) entrenching nation's consent or veto in land decisions.
- Facilitating collaborations and find synergy with other similar First Nation organizations.