week 3). acceptance, meaning that identity must also be recognized by a specific Indigenous community; and historical continuity with pre-colonial societies, which emphasizes that Indigenous peoples maintain cultural, political, and social practices that existed before colonization and continue into the present. Indigenous peoples also maintain a strong connection to specific territories, which is critical because identity is tied to land rather than just state borders, and they possess distinct languages, cultures, and governance systems. Importantly, Indigenous peoples are identified as non-dominant within modern states and maintain a strong collective resolve to preserve their identity and autonomy. These principles were intentionally designed to avoid a strict definition so that Indigenous peoples retain the power to define themselves rather than having that imposed by institutions like the United Nations . Indigenous peoples and political systems, but it cannot be understood through Canadian law alone because there is a constant tension between international definitions of Indigeneity and Canadian statutory definitions, and this tension shapes almost every political issue in the course
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