Indian Act

Based on a viral article, 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act is the essential guide to understanding the Canadian legal document and its repercussion on generations of Indigenous peoples, written by a leading cultural sensitivity trainer. The Indian Act, after 141 years, continues to shape, control, and constrain the lives and opportunities of Indigenous peoples, and is at the root of many lasting stereotypes.

This publication takes two earlier works from 1992 and 1993 respectively: an academic thesis on what was at the time called Indian policy and Canada's Indian Act, and a major research study for the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. Both have been reworked into this new book, Canada's Indian Act: Policy Perspectives from the Years Defined by Oka, Meech Lake and the Royal Commission, which is now somewhat of a time capsule. Chapter 1: Perspectives from Academia is a reproduction of a Master’s thesis in 1992.