If Canada is a world leader in Indigenous governance, where exactly is it leading us?

Canada is often seen as an Indigenous-rights trailblazer: There, in the 1990s and early 2000s, Inuit and First Nations secured extensive land-claims settlements, self-government powers, and even the creation of a new federal subunit, Nunavut. But over the past decade, dramatic reform has all but ground to a halt, fueling frustration, recriminations, and deliberation about what to do next. Where are Indigenous politics in Canada going – and what might this bode for Norway, where Sami self-determination has often been modelled on Canadian lines?

To discuss this, UiB’s Department of Comparative Politics welcomes Dr. Ken Coates, the Canada Research Chair in Regional Innovation at the University of Saskatchewan, and one of the world’s leading scholars of Indigenous governance and history.  

Welcome!