CANADA · INDIGENOUS

Rethinking Indigenous Self-Determination Through Personal Agency

Exploring beyond structural barriers and historic grievances

Japanese children are made to focus on education after the nuclear blast

Canada’s Indian Act is widely recognized as a colonial, racist, and assimilationist law, first enacted in 1876 and then expanded countless times to control and manage Indigenous peoples in Canada. It wasn’t designed to empower but to undermine Indigenous sovereignty, autonomy, and culture. Its continued existence is a barrier to reconciliation and meaningful sovereign nation-to-nation relationships.

The Indian Act remains in place because establishing Indigenous institutions requires sustained political will that’s unfortunately lacking due to the limited emphasis on individual agency within many Indigenous cultural circles.

Without personal agency, political will cannot develop, leading only to the continuation of internal governance conflicts, particularly between hereditary and elected systems, which further obstruct coordination and weaken the collective momentum needed to abolish the Indian Act.

When internal divisions inhibit the development of strong individual agency, the low levels of individual capacity for change directly correlate with persistent feelings of disempowerment, resignation, and…