Stage 1: Pre-engagement
Indigenous modern treaty holders can receive hundreds of engagement requests every year from different departments in the Federal Government. Indigenous modern treaty holders have the right and do exercise the right to refuse engagement offers, based on a wide range of factors.
For example, if you approach an Indigenous modern treaty holder with a request for engagement with a short timeline, the Indigenous modern treaty holder may feel they do not have time to properly be involved. It is therefore important that you are as prepared as possible when engaging with Indigenous modern treaty holders. The first step is preparing for pre-engagement.
It is not the Indigenous modern treaty holder’s job to educate the Federal Government on how to engage with them. You must do your own preparatory work. One of the first steps is to understand the modern treaty landscape.
According to Canada’s Collaborative Modern Treaty Implementation Policy, the Federal Government has a duty to foster cultural competency and support education, knowledge, and understanding of modern treaties within their departments or agencies.
In part 1 of this course, we provided an overview of modern treaties. For more information, see the LCAC online courses and speak to colleagues who have worked with Indigenous modern treaty holders for some time.
Consider creating modern treaty-related onboarding and up-to-date documentation to help new staff get up to speed.
