Aboriginal Self-Government: What Does It Mean?

Sam Coghlan was Deputy Director and Senior Consultant of the Thames Ontario Library Service Board, Southwestern Ontario.

The question of how native peoples ought to be governed has commanded the attention of the highest levels of government in Canada. The Constitution Act, 1982 required that the first ministers meet with native representatives to discuss “constitutional matters that directly affect the aboriginal peoples of Canada, including the identification and definition of the rights of those peoples to be included in the Constitution of Canada.” The March 1984 meeting provided a forum for native groups to voice their wishes for some form of self-government. This book (and the background studies related to it) attempts to collate the issues and the expectations of the bodies and governments involved in order to serve as a guideline for discussion in the ongoing dialogue.

The book does an admirable job of dissecting the potential aspects of native self-government, systematically describing and analyzing the various options that ought to be discussed. Having defined aboriginal self-government and having made reference to situations in Australia and the United States as well as in Canada, the author concludes that the viable options to be discussed can be described in six models, three of which are regional forms of self-government and three of which are local forms.

The book is must reading for any person who wishes to appreciate the issues of the current dialogue. The viability of the options presented is determined in part by analysis of the stated positions of government and native bodies as of the time of writing. Consequently the document’s conclusions may become outdated if positions change. However, the elements of the problem are unlikely to alter; thus the overall analysis should be useful so long as the dialogue on native self-government continues.