Indivisible: Indigenous Human Rights

Indigenous rights are generally conceptualized and advocated separately from the human rights framework. The contributors to Indivisible: Indigenous Human Rights, however, deftly and powerfully argue that Indigenous rights are in fact human rights and that the fundamental human rights of Indigenous people cannot be protected without the inclusion of their Indigenous rights, which are suppressed and oppressed by the forces of racism and colonialism. Drawing on a wealth of experience and blending critical theoretical frameworks and a close knowledge of domestic and international law on human rights, the authors in this collection show that settler states such as Canada persist in violating and failing to acknowledge Indigenous human rights. Furthermore, settler states are obligated to respect and animate these rights, despite the evident tensions in political and economic interests between elite capitalists, settler citizens and Indigenous peoples.

Joyce Green is professor emerita of political science at the University of Regina. Green’s work focuses on the politics of decolonization in Canada; on identity, human rights and citizenship; and on the way in which sexism, racism and race privilege is encoded in Canadian political culture. She is of English, Ktunaxa and Cree-Scots Métis descent; she is a citizen of the Ktunaxa Nation and a member of Yaq̓it ʔa·knuqⱡiʔit (Tobacco Plains), a member band of the Ktunaxa Nation.