This is their home. Representatives of Aboriginal nations entered into solemn agreements with representatives of the British and French Crowns and with their successors, agreements that enabled Europeans and others to establish themselves in this country with minimal violence and confrontation. These agreements were and are the mechanism for affirming collective rights and obligations on both sides, for sharing the land and its resources, and for agreeing to live in harmony and partnership. Because of this, Aboriginal peoples are not cultural minorities in the sense that Canadians have come to understand the term. Neither are they citizens with a slightly expanded set of rights based on their descent from the original inhabitants.
Aboriginal people have historical rights.
They form distinct political communities, collectives with a continuing political relationship with the Canadian state. This is the central reality that Canadians must recognize if we are to reconstruct the relationship. Another fundamental issue is the need for Canadians to recognize that Aboriginal cultures were vibrant and distinctive not only in the beginning but remain so today. Though bruised and distorted as a result of the colonial experience, inevitably changed by time and new circumstances, even in danger of extinction in some important dimensions such as language, nevertheless a fundamentally different world view continues to exist and struggles for expression whenever Aboriginal people come together. While much of contemporary policy is geared to the individual providing welfare to those who are eligible, training to the unemployed we need to understand that the problems of the relationship cannot be resolved by a narrow focus on individual-level problems and solutions.