DCHP-2

indigenous DCHP-2 (October 2016)

• n. & adj. — predominantly Aboriginal, Politics

  the original inhabitants of what is now Canada.

  Type: 4. Culturally Significant — The term indigenous, both in its adjectival (see, e.g. the 1884 quotation) and in its nominal uses (see, e.g., the 2007 quotation) is today (2016) to be preferred by some over previously favoured general terms for the First Peoples such as Native or Aboriginal, which have at times been deemed to have colonial overtones. For example, Aboriginal came into Canadian usage only in 1982, in the Constitution Act. It was not previously a word employed by indigenous people when referring to themselves. Although First Nations was adopted by status Indian political groups (as in the name change of the National Indian Brotherhood to the Assembly of First Nations in 1982), this term does not include Inuit or Métis people. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (2007) may have inspired this recent shift to indigenous, as in the recent renaming of the Ministry of Aboriginal and Northern Affairs (see the 2015 quotation).

  See also: First Nation  

  • 1884  [...] lakes and rivers of surpassing size and interest; cataracts of indescribable beauty and magnitude; and an indigenous people, coëval with the forests, and now rapidly disappearing with the trees that gave them shelter, and the wilde that gave them food. 
  • 1951  "I know very well that one can die of starvation if lost in the bush, or of cold if lost in the northern lands, but somehow I feel that if this happens it is our own fault and not intended by these enchanting lands. Perhaps the indigenous people of this North American continent, the Indians, feel like this, as I do, about it," he [Viscount Alexander] continued. 
  • 1964  The impasse to which we seem repeatedly to return was the definition of consultation with the Eskimo people. We have insisted that consultation be in fact consultation. Anything short of this would destroy their sense of personal dignity and human worth. One of the more sacred trusts of this nation is the development to full stature in the nation of its indigenous people. 
  • 1979  Schreyer said he planned to carry his message cross the country, concentrating on small rural centers and native communities. "I want to tell them they are very much a part of this country," he said. "Obviously, in many ways they are the indigenous people of Canada. But after one hundred years of transition in their lifestyle and after 30 years of sharp difficulties in adapting to dwindling resources, I want them to know if they wish to enter the mainstream economy, we stand ready to help." 
  • 1989  Women must have a say in any separate native justice system, Manitoba's native justice inquiry has been told. "It is our fear, should . . . an aboriginal justice system be established, then indigenous women will be left out," said Joyce Courchene, president of the Indigenous Women's Collective of Manitoba. A native-run justice system for Canada's reserves should "promote, protect and enhance the legal and political rights of indigenous women," Courchene told the inquiry yesterday as it heard from the last of hundreds of groups and individuals that have given presentations during the past 14 months. 
  • 1996  The Golf Journal lists some of the sins of golf, according to GAG'M: Destruction of virgin land, poisoning of groundwater, financial ruin of the indigenous to enrich multinational corporations and corruption of local governments. 
  • 2007  Let us also demand an end to the status system, so that no Canadian can be deemed different than any other. From the newly sworn Canadian to the Quebecer, the indigenous to the old-world descendant, Canada cannot have shelves for each, but one level plank upon which to build. 
  • 2008  Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, said systemic racism contributed to Paul's death and it's time to deal with what led up to it. "Although justice for Frank Paul has been delayed, we, the indigenous leadership, will not stand idly by and watch justice be denied to our brother Frank Paul and his family,'' Phillip said. 
  • 2009  First: I take offense at being called "Those People" we are Indigenous People, First Nations or Aboriginals. 
  • 2013  First Nations, Ojibway, Blackfoot, Indian, Aboriginal, Treaty, Halfbreed, Cree and Status Indian are all fairly familiar English words but none of them are the names by which we, the various indigenous peoples, call ourselves in our own languages. By contrast, how many Canadians have heard these names: Nehiyaw, Nehiyawak, Otipemisiwak and Apeetogosan? Yet, these are who I am because these are the names my grandparents used to describe and call ourselves. 
  • 2015  Perhaps the first act of colonialism was indeed a linguistic one: by calling the Indigenous Peoples in North America Indian, Westerners displaced them to another continent altogether, while at the same time denying them their identity as members of specific nations. 
  • 2015  Meanwhile, Carolyn Bennett was named minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs, with the ministry's name changed from Aboriginal and Northern Affairs. My initial reaction was that the name change is like putting lipstick on a pig. It was, and still is, the colonial office. However the name change sends a clear message that Canada will get in step with the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.