Collective Intergenerational Responsibilities

Abstract

Abstract In this chapter, I ask how the current generation should accept responsibility for the injustices of its forebears in a way that helps all citizens to progress towards reconciliation. Here, I address the challenge of reconciliation with First Nations given the role of settler states, including Canada and the United States, in intentionally destabilizing Indigenous communities and families through the residential school system, child welfare interventions, and the criminal justice system. Here, I argue for three linked responses to the intergenerational legacy of policies that separated Indigenous families and destabilized their communities and political life. The first involves building immigrant-settler-Indigenous alliances. The second involves the government’s responsibility to avoid perpetuating Indigenous family separation and community destabilization through its criminal justice and child welfare policies. The third involves strengthening Indigenous political sovereignty by expanding their self-governance, participation, and free movement rights across their territories divided by settler state borders.