Chloe Walker

COMMUNITY BASED RESEARCH AWARD MARCH 2022

This prize is awarded annually to the best community-engaged research project presented at Student Research Day.

Pem Alsumsimkewey- Building Independence: Legitimizing Urban Self-Governance at the Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre through Frameworks of Reconciliation

Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre (MNFC), Halifax 

International law stipulates that Indigenous people worldwide have the right to self-determination. Despite the current dialogue emphasizing the importance of nation-to-nation relationship building, Canada fails to uphold these rights. Urban Indigenous communities are faced with unique challenges when it comes to rights recognition. 

Located in the context of the Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre (MNFC), Kj’puktuk/Halifax, this research assesses the landscape of urban Indigenous governance and examines how the Friendship Centre as an urban Indigenous institution is legitimating recognition as a self-governing entity.  

By peeling back, the various jurisdictional layers unique to urban Indigenous political identities, this thesis explores where the Friendship Centre fits in the debates on Indigenous nationhood in Mi’kma’ki and what constitutes reconciliation from the perspectives of the MNFC.