1st Edition

Speaking with Authority The Emergence of the Vocabulary of First Nations' Self-Government

By Michael W. Posluns Copyright 2007
    356 Pages
    by Routledge

    256 Pages
    by Routledge

    This work explores the emergence of the vocabulary of First Nations' self-government into the realm of public and parliamentary discourse in Canada during the decade of the 1970s. The emergence of the vocabulary is chronicled through a study of the testimony of First Nations and aboriginal witnesses before a series of Joint Committees on the Constitutions and the Commons Committee on Indian Affairs and Northern Development.

    Introduction: Gaining a Purchase: An Introduction to the Public Emergence of the Vocabulary of First Nations’ Self-Government  1. The Interplay of Language, Policy & Ethics in the Discourse of First Nations’ Relations  2. Assimilation, Enfranchisement and the White Paper: An Overview of First Nations Relations Before 1970  3. Public Conversations on First Nations’ Self-Government  4. The Middle Period: A Minority Parliament and a First Patriation Bill  5. Notions of Sovereignty: Self-Help, Self-Confidence, And Individual And Collective Self-Fulfillment

    Biography

    Michael W. Posluns received his PhD from York University, in Toronto. He was the founding director of the parliamentary relations programme of the National Indian Brotherhood/Assembly of First Nations from 1976 to 1982.