Dr. Sheryl Lightfoot: Reconciliation in Canada

Dr. Sheryl Lightfoot will speak at the Center for Great Plains Studies on reconciliation efforts in Canada as part of the Center’s year-long focus on reckoning and reconciliation in the Great Plains. This event is presented in partnership with the Consulate General of Canada in Minneapolis, which represents Canada in Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Sept. 30 is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada. The talk is titled “An Invitation to Boldness: United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as the Framework for Reconciliation in Canada.” In its 2015 final report, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada issued an invitation to boldness, calling on all levels of government and civil society to fully implement the Declaration in Canada. By linking reconciliation exclusively to the implementation of the UNDRIP, the collective vision of what is possible has significantly expanded, and many sectors of Canadian government and society have embraced this opportunity for transformative thinking. Lightfoot (Anishinaabe, Lake Superior Band) is Canada Research Chair of Global Indigenous Rights and Politics at the University of British Columbia, where she holds faculty appointments in Political Science and the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs as well as an association with the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies. She serves as the Vice Chair and North American Member on the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP) as well as Senior Advisor to the UBC President on Indigenous Affairs, where she is the lead on UBC’s Indigenous Strategic Plan and directs the Office of Indigenous Strategic Initiatives. She is currently President of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA). Her research focuses on Indigenous global politics, especially Indigenous rights and their implementation in global, national and regional contexts.