The Right to Belong: NWAC’s Searchable Online Database of Membership-Related Laws

NWAC is developing the first-ever national online searchable database on membership rights.

The right to belong to one’s Indigenous community is an indivisible component of the bundle of Indigenous rights. Yet, it can be challenging to access documents related to membership rights. It’s for this reason that NWAC is developing the first national online searchable database of laws, treaties, and teachings on membership rights.

There is a long history in Canada of laws and policies that attempted to deny the right of Indigenous Peoples to belong to their communities. These laws, including the Indian Act, targeted women in particular.

Woman with laptop

With the coming into force of Bill S-3, most of the sex-based discrimination under the registration provisions of the Indian Act have been eliminated. However, accessing the many documents that can affect an individual’s right to status under the Indian Act or membership/citizenship in their community/nation can be daunting.

Over the coming months and years (funding permitting), NWAC will be conducting thorough research and engagements to identify laws and teachings across Canada that relate to Indigenous membership rights. We will make these documents available to the public (where free, prior and informed consent is provided when necessary) on our Indigenous Rights Membership Database.

We hope that this database will be a resource for Indigenous Peoples across Canada to research and learn about the laws and teachings related to the membership rights of their communities. Our ultimate goal is to address the long history of sex-based discrimination Indigenous women and their children have faced as a result of the colonial processes that worked to deny them their identities.


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