The Reconciliation Manifesto: Recovering the Land, Rebuilding the Economy

by Arthur Manuel, Grand Chief Ronald Derrickson, Naomi Klein (Preface by)

Overview

In this book, leading Indigenous rights activist Arthur Manuel offers a radical challenge to Canada and Canadians. He questions virtually everything non-Indigenous Canadians believe about their relationship with Indigenous peoples.

The Reconciliation Manifesto documents how governments are attempting to reconcile with Indigenous peoples without touching the basic colonial structures that dominate and distort the relationship. Manuel reviews the current state of land claims, tackles the persistence of racism among non-Indigenous people and institutions, decries the role of government-funded organizations like the Assembly of First Nations, and highlights the federal government's disregard for the substance of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples while claiming to implement it. Together, these circumstances amount to a false reconciliation between Indigenous people and Canada.

Manuel sets out the steps that are needed to place this relationship on a healthy and honourable setting. As he explains, recovering the land and rebuilding the economy are key.

Completed just months before Manuel's death in January 2017, this book offers an illuminating vision of what is needed for true reconciliation. Expressed with quiet but firm resolve, humour, and piercing intellect, The Reconciliation Manifesto is for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people who are willing to look at the real problems and find real solutions.

 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781459409668
Publisher:	James Lorimer & Company Ltd., Publishers
Publication date:	10/06/2017
Sold by:	De Marque
Format:	eBook
Pages:	312
File size:	8 MB

About the Author

ARTHUR MANUEL was a widely respected Indigenous leader and activist from the Secwepemc Nation. He entered the world of Indigenous politics in the 1970s, as president of the Native Youth Association. He went on to serve as chief of the Neskonlith Indian Band near Chase, BC, and elected chair of the Shuswap Nation Tribal Council. He was also active in the Assembly of First Nations and a spokesman for Defenders of the Land, an organization dedicated to environmental justice. Manuel is the co-author of Unsettling Canada: A National Wake Up Call, with Grand Chief Ron Derrickson. This book won the 2015 Canadian History Association Literary Award He was known internationally, having advocated for Indigenous rights and struggles at the United Nations, The Hague, and the World Trade Organization.

GRAND CHIEF RONALD DERRICKSON served as Chief of the Westbank First Nation from 1976 to 1986 and from 1998 to 2000. He was made Grand Chief by the Union of BC Indian Chiefs in 2012. Grand Chief Derrickson is one of the most successful Indigenous business owners in Canada. He is also a residential school survivor, has been the target of 17 federal investigations, a Royal Commission, defamation, an assassination attempt, and numerous lawsuits. As a businessman, he has been a successful rancher, real estate investor, developer and financier of alternative energies. He divides his time between his home in Kelowna, British Columbia, and the Ukraine.

Table of Contents

Contents

Preface
Speech at the Funeral of Arthur Manuel
Naomi Klein

Introduction
Our Struggle
Grand Chief Ronald Derrickson

PART 1     GETTING TO KNOW YOU

Chapter 1     The Second Coming
Chapter 2     Beginning at the Beginning
Chapter 3     White Supremacy — The Law of the Land
Chapter 4     From Dispossession to Dependency
Chapter 5     From Dependency to Oppression

PART 2     THE R WORDS

Chapter 6     The Race Question
Chapter 7     Reserves as Holding Pens

PART 3     EUROPEAN LAND CLAIMS

Chapter 8     We Stole it Fair and Square
Chapter 9     Attempted Genocide: Political Battles with Pierre Trudeau
Chapter 10     Changing Legal and Policy Landscape — 1984–2014
Chapter 11     Tsilhqot’in Case and Crown Title
Chapter 12     British Columbia Commission Treaty Process
Chapter 13     Rightful Title Holders
Chapter 14     Risk and Uncertainty
Chapter 15     Revenge of the Balance Sheet

PART 4     PUTTING OUR OWN HOUSE IN ORDER

Chapter 16     Neocolonialism, or Selling Our Birthright
Chapter 17     Where Have the Leaders Gone?
Chapter 18     Around the Mulberry Bush
Chapter 19     The Grassroots Struggle: Defenders of the Land and Idle No More
Chapter 20     Unity Around a Strong Position

PART 5     THE FAMILY OF NATIONS

Chapter 21     The International Stage
Chapter 22     Constitutional Deadlock and the International Option
Chapter 23     What the UN says about Self-Determination
Chapter 24     Canada’s Human Rights Treaties
Chapter 25     CERD: Early Warning and Urgent Action
Chapter 26     International Recognition of Our Proprietary Rights
Chapter 27     UNDRIP and the Trudeau Betrayal

PART 6     FALSE RECONCILIATION

Chapter 28     The Reconciliation SWAT Team
Chapter 29     Reconciliation Framework Agreements

PART 7     STANDING OUR GROUND

Chapter 30     Defending Our Land
Chapter 31     The Legal Billy Club
Chapter 32     Blockading a Mine
Chapter 33     Criminalization of Protest
Chapter 34     Non-violence, but not Passive Acceptance
Chapter 35     Resisting the Carbon Bomb
Chapter 36     Defending Mother Earth
Chapter 37     The Long-Term Approach
Chapter 38     Declaring Sovereignty on the Ground
Chapter 39     Standing with Standing Rock
Chapter 40     Death of a Warrior

PART 8     RE-ENVISIONING CANADA

Chapter 41     Our Inalienable Rights
Chapter 42     Back to the Future
Chapter 43     The Six-Step Program to Decolonization

LETTERS TO FRIENDS AND ENEMIES

1. Open Letter to Pope Francis
2. Open Letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations
3. Open Letter to the Queen of Canada
4. Open Letter to the Chief Justice of Canada
5. Open Letter to the Defenders of the Land

Afterword
Settling with Canada: A Debt Coming Due
Grand Chief Ronald Derrickson

Appendix: “Are you a Canadian?”
About the Authors
Index

Editorial Reviews

"[E]ffectively puts the current conversation around reconciliation into the rightful context... Manuel is refreshingly pro- active, creative, and importantly, persuasive (not to mention witty)... the tone is generally hopeful... the writing is accessible. The Reconciliation Manifesto can be read as an introductory text for Canadians who have little understanding of colonialism; or, as an intervention into counter-hegemonic theorizing...this is nonetheless a tremendously important book for multiple audiences."

Hayden King

"I am so privileged to have been friends with Arthur for two decades. During that time, he changed the way I see this country and the world... He helped to lead our movements, and protect the land and water, until his final breath."

Naomi Klein

"[O]ne of the most important texts on truth and reconciliation ever written. The Reconciliation Manifesto is a cogent step-by-step look at how Canada's colonial past created our present situation, and provides decolonizing strategies for the future.

...well-seasoned with [Manuel's] sense of humour... The Reconciliation Manifesto is an extremely valuable resource for those who are fighting for decolonization. For other readers, it may simply serve to dispel myths about Canada's colonial history. Decolonizing is a massive undertaking, and, fortunately, we've got many great Indigenous minds on the job.

...The Reconciliation Manifesto offer[s] strength and solidarity to Indigenous readers, and a generous guide to ally-ship for non-Indigenous readers. For the latter, these books will unsettle, but to engage in ally-ship is to commit to being unsettled — all the time."

The Globe and Mail - Carleigh Baker

"I am so privileged to have been friends with Arthur for two decades. During that time, he changed the way I see this country and the world... He helped to lead our movements, and protect the land and water, until his final breath."

Naomi Klein

"[O]ne of the most important texts on truth and reconciliation ever written. The Reconciliation Manifesto is a cogent step-by-step look at how Canada's colonial past created our present situation, and provides decolonizing strategies for the future.

...well-seasoned with [Manuel's] sense of humour... The Reconciliation Manifesto is an extremely valuable resource for those who are fighting for decolonization. For other readers, it may simply serve to dispel myths about Canada's colonial history. Decolonizing is a massive undertaking, and, fortunately, we've got many great Indigenous minds on the job.

...The Reconciliation Manifesto offer[s] strength and solidarity to Indigenous readers, and a generous guide to ally-ship for non-Indigenous readers. For the latter, these books will unsettle, but to engage in ally-ship is to commit to being unsettled — all the time."

Carleigh Baker The Globe and Mail

"I am so privileged to have been friends with Arthur for two decades. During that time, he changed the way I see this country and the world... He helped to lead our movements, and protect the land and water, until his final breath."

on death of Arthur Manuel Naomi Klein