Critical Conversations: The Idea of a Human Rights Museum - Seminar Series

Dave Courchene, “An Elder’s Thoughts on the CMHR” (working title)  

Fiona MacDonald (Political Studies, UofM)  and Benjamin Wood (Political Studies, UofM), 

 “The potential impact of prioritizing Indigenous peoples at the CMHR”

Our paper takes the inclusion of Indigenous peoples in the content of the Canadian Human Rights Museum as a departure point for exploring the relationship between concepts of Indigenous rights and human rights more generally. In so doing we will directly engage with Peter Kulchyski’s recent argument that Aboriginal rights are not human rights.  According to Kulchyski, “the growing discourse around Aboriginal rights has suffered from a conceptual confusion between Aboriginal rights and human rights.” In response, the central question of our discussion is: what are the potential benefits and potential losses Indigenous peoples may encounter from the growing association of Indigenous rights with human rights. In our examination we will consider how issues are framed within the human rights doctrine using the terms “equality” and “universality,” and how this framework may “help” certain objectives of various Indigenous social movements while “hurting” others. Examples that will be included in the discussion are the recent Canadian human rights commission case launched by the Assembly of First Nations and the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society as well as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous peoples. Overall, the objective of our discussion is to shed further critical light on the potential impact of prioritizing Indigenous peoples in the content of the Canadian Human Rights Museum.

Peter Kulchyski, (Native Studies Department, UofM), "Aboriginal Rights are not Human Rights"

Abstract: TBC
Readings: TBC