REPORTS
Join us in our mission to provide access to justice for Indigenous Nations.
RAVEN’s work is taking place in a time of great change and great opportunity. With ‘reconciliation’ being discussed in communities, in classrooms, in boardrooms and on the floor of Parliament, there is an upwelling of interest and passion for engagement with Indigenous rights in Canada.
At the same time, we face continued challenges as a result of centuries of assimilationist policy and colonization. While participating in dialogue about reconciliation, Indigenous communities continue to live without equitable access to clean water, to health care, and to education.
Good intentions are not enough. RAVEN is committed to putting reconciliation into action by providing access to justice so that Indigenous Peoples’ rights are recognized and upheld. Our small but mighty organization has a laser focus: we raise legal defence funds for Indigenous Peoples to defend their treaty rights and the integrity of their traditional lands and cultures.
We stand shoulder to shoulder in support of the rights of Indigenous Peoples, so that we can achieve parity for the people on whose land we live.
Recognizing Rights Report
The purpose of this guide is to provide information on the different Aboriginal rights as they are understood in Canadian common law, and the ways in which Indigenous people can assert these rights within the Canadian colonial court system.
Produced in collaboration with Pro-Bono Students Canada.
Truth Before Reconciliation
To thoughtfully prepare an in-depth acknowledgement requires time and care. As we engage in processes of reconciliation it is critical that land acknowledgements don't become a token gesture. They are not meant to be static, scripted statements that every person must recite in exactly the same way. They are expressions of relationship, acknowledging not just the territory someone is on, but that person’s connection to that land based on knowledge that has been shared with them.
What may have started out as push-back against the denial of Indigenous sovereignty and continued presence, often ends up repurposed as a “box-ticking” exercise without commitment to any sort of real change.
