Abstract: 

Tawow! This traditional Cree greeting means 'there is room here for everyone'. Similarly, education at its best is about making space for different histories, languages and ways of knowing. Instead, Indigenous children and families in Canada have been subjected to deliberate systems of assimilation, recognized as cultural genocide. The General Assembly's adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in 2007 marked global recognition of Indigenous peoples’ right to “establish and control their educational systems in accordance with their cultural methods of teaching and learning”. UNDRIP is a non-binding human rights instrument, raising concerns about its effectiveness in practice. Evaluations of UNDRIP’s influence on the creation of Indigenous-led initiatives or its role in education remain scarce to non-existent. This report provides the first systematic, Canada-wide account of education initiatives and their relationship to UNDRIP.  

Extensive qualitative research was conducted to tabulate initiatives in every province and territory, using stringent inclusion criteria to build a dataset of legislations, policies, institutions, and programs. Implementation timelines of UNDRIP’s adoption across Canada were also created, assessing each initiative for whether it is explicitly supported by the Declaration. Quantitative analysis then proved that UNDRIP’s influence is uneven and strongest where incorporated into law. British Columbia and the Northwest Territories are the only jurisdictions to have legislated UNDRIP, and the only areas where over 60% of education initiatives are supported by the Declaration. This indicates that government commitment and accountability is greater in places that legislate the Declaration and remains an aspirational standard in those that do not. 

While UNDRIP serves as a moral obligation for Indigenous self-determination, it is but one tool – the advocacy of Indigenous Peoples and binding domestic legislation remain the drivers of successful initiatives. This research demonstrates that non-binding international agreements, while symbolically important, require legal and domestic support to influence policy, and provides a comparative base for academics to explore the impact of UNDRIP on education in Canada.