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Many of the prevailing strategies of negotiating and institutionalizing Aboriginal-state relations in Canada have not kept pace with an Aboriginal population that is becoming increasingly socio-demographically and geographically diverse, and whose relationships with non-aboriginal peoples and governments are, accordingly, becoming progressively more complex. As a result of this disjuncture between policy and reality, progress towards the goals of socio-economic development, self-reliance, cultural renewal and self-government has been seriously impaired. Effectively addressing this disjuncture, and its attendant effects, requires a reconfiguration of the spatial, jurisdictional, and institutional dimensions of Aboriginal self-determination, and a systematic effort to negotiate its interfaces with the structural and intergovernmental geometry of Canadian federalism.
The conference is designed to promote constructive dialogue and increase our understanding of an area of the federal landscape that is experiencing rapid and complex change, and which has profound consequences for the future health of Canada. Alongside academics and practitioners, governments across the country and at all levels are seeking direction in this particularly complex and politicized domain of Canadian federalism. Hence, we hope to shed light not only on how Aboriginal self-determination fits together with the theoretical principles of Canadian federalism, but also on how specific policies and institutional reforms might help realize these theoretical principles in practice.
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