United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Big Ideas

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) outlines the rights that Indigenous Peoples have.
The UNDRIP defines and explains what Indigenous Rights are and how they are to be protected, individually and collectively.
The UNDRIP outlines the minimum standards necessary for Indigenous Peoples’ survival, dignity and well-being.
The UNDRIP recognizes that Indigenous Peoples are distinct and come from self-determining nations who require free, prior and informed consent when interacting with other countries, nations and foreign governments.
Canada was the last to sign on to adopt the UNDRIP into Canada’s laws.

1 Watch the Following Videos

UNDRIP Animation

Assembly of First Nations | United Nations

How UNDRIP Changes Canada’s Relationship

UNDRIP: What You Should Know

2 Engage in Discussion

Use the following suggested prompts:

How has the relationship between Indigenous Peoples and Canada changed?
What are the barriers to a good relationship?
How would UNDRIP change the relationship?
Why is this significant?
Why was Canada the last to sign on to adopt the UNDRIP in its own laws?
How does UNDRIP help to advance the goals of Indigenous Peoples having autonomy over their lands and being recognized by Canada as sovereign self-determining nations?

3 Explore the UNDRIP

Have students read through the UNDRIP articles:

UNDRIP Document UNDRIP for Adolescents

4 Take the Quiz

Direct students to the #Next150 Challenge – Understanding UNDRIP.

Have them take the quiz to check their knowledge and understanding after reading the articles within the UNDRIP.

Open the #Next150 UNDRIP Challenge

5 Watch, Reflect, Create

Watch the following videos:

MP Romeo Saganash on Indigenous Rights

Chief Wilton Littlechild

Reflection Activity

Engage students in a discussion on what they heard.

Have students research who Romeo Saganash and Chief Wilton Littlechild are and create an autobiography of each based on their life and accomplishments.

You may choose to have students present their autobiographies to the class.

6 UNDRIP Article Activity

Using the articles in UNDRIP, have students work in groups to determine which articles align with the news stories below.

These are suggested news items. Teachers may also choose more recent articles.

Have Students Consider

What is the news story about?
What is the issue?
Why is it important?
How does it relate to the UNDRIP articles?
What does it suggest about the extent to which the objectives of UNDRIP are being realized in Canada?

Possible News Articles

Police arrest journalist, researcher in connection with Caledonia land reclamation Family outraged after student’s hair cut Mi’kmaw journalist assesses media coverage of fisheries dispute The Delgamuukw decision: Putting the Wet’suwet’en conflict in perspective Nunavut mine says it’s not allowed to harm Inuit harvesting

These article suggestions come from the existing education page.

Teacher Slide Deck

The following slide deck is available for teachers to use:

De’aabshkoo Gdaawmi – We Are All The Same

The Anishinabek Nation is committed to supporting public education and awareness on the impacts of anti-Indigenous racism.

Education tools made with First Nations support a culturally-responsive, strength-based and trauma-informed approach.

The project supports learning related to Indigenous Peoples, Treaties, Indigenous law, Aboriginal-Crown relations, human rights, anti-racism and the integration of Indigenous knowledge and teaching methods.

The online module is intended to build capacity to recognize and act to prevent Indigenous racism.

Explore the De’aabshkoo Gdaawmi module