The Reconciliation Manifesto: Recovering the Land, Rebuilding the Economy

Arthur Manuel · Grand Chief Ronald Derrickson

Oct 2017 · James Lorimer & Company

About this ebook

In this book, leading Indigenous rights activist Arthur Manuel offers a radical challenge to Canada and Canadians. He questions virtually everything non-Indigenous Canadians believe about their relationship with Indigenous peoples.

The Reconciliation Manifesto documents how governments are attempting to reconcile with Indigenous peoples without touching the basic colonial structures that dominate and distort the relationship. Manuel reviews the current state of land claims, tackles the persistence of racism among non-Indigenous people and institutions, decries the role of government-funded organizations like the Assembly of First Nations, and highlights the federal government's disregard for the substance of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples while claiming to implement it. Together, these circumstances amount to a false reconciliation between Indigenous people and Canada.

Manuel sets out the steps that are needed to place this relationship on a healthy and honourable setting. As he explains, recovering the land and rebuilding the economy are key.

Completed just months before Manuel's death in January 2017, this book offers an illuminating vision of what is needed for true reconciliation. Expressed with quiet but firm resolve, humour, and piercing intellect, The Reconciliation Manifesto is for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people who are willing to look at the real problems and find real solutions.

About the author

ARTHUR MANUEL was a widely respected Indigenous leader and activist from the Secwepemc Nation. He entered the world of Indigenous politics in the 1970s, as president of the Native Youth Association. He went on to serve as chief of the Neskonlith Indian Band near Chase, BC, and elected chair of the Shuswap Nation Tribal Council. He was also active in the Assembly of First Nations and a spokesman for Defenders of the Land, an organization dedicated to environmental justice. Manuel is the co-author of Unsettling Canada: A National Wake Up Call, with Grand Chief Ron Derrickson. This book won the 2015 Canadian History Association Literary Award. He was known internationally, having advocated for Indigenous rights and struggles at the United Nations, The Hague, and the World Trade Organization.

GRAND CHIEF RONALD DERRICKSON served as Chief of the Westbank First Nation from 1976 to 1986 and from 1998 to 2000. He was made Grand Chief by the Union of BC Indian Chiefs in 2012. Grand Chief Derrickson is one of the most successful Indigenous business owners in Canada.