Aboriginal Peoples

The United Church of Canada is committed to seeking right relationships with Aboriginal Peoples and to support First Nations in their struggle for self-government and Aboriginal rights.

For over three decades—beginning with Project North and continuing through the work of the Aboriginal Rights Coalition and KAIROS—the United Church has advocated for Aboriginal rights including First Nations' self-government. Much of our current advocacy focuses on supporting the efforts of Aboriginal Peoples to oppose the First Nations Governance Act and to propose alternatives. We also worked to promote the Sisters in Spirit Project, an initiative that was launched by the Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC) to lobby the federal government to establish a $10 million fund for research and education related to violence against Aboriginal women.

Justice and Right Relationship focuses on how we, as a church, are working to address the painful legacy of Indian Residential Schools, a legacy in which the United Church was directly involved until 1969. In both 1986 and 1998, the church formally apologised to First Nations people for its role in imposing western European culture and more specifically for its involvement in the Indian Residential School system.

Through Justice and Right Relationship work, we endeavour to live out these apologies by addressing the issues of broken relationship that lie at the core of the residential school experience.