The Elusive Goal: The Commitment to Indigenous Self-Determination in the Anglican Church of Canada, 1967–2020

In 1967 the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) committed itself to support Indigenous peoples who were calling on the Canadian government to recognize their right to self-determination, and in 1995 it resolved to move to recognize Indigenous selfdetermination within the church itself. [...]with a few partial exceptions, Indigenous Anglicans remain under the oversight of a settler-dominated church with its Eurocentric constitution, canons, policies, budgets, liturgical norms, assumptions, and administrative procedures.1 Why has the goal of Indigenous selfdetermination proven so elusive? I intend to argue here that colonial assumptions and structures have proven tenacious, and that, although Indigenous self-determination is consistent with historical patterns of Christian mission and organization, the theological, constitutional, and financial obstacles to decolonization have defied solution.2 INDIGENOUS ROLES IN THE ACC, 1967-2019 In the centennial year of Canadian Confederation, 1967, Indigenous claims for justice finally gained traction in the country at large and in the ACC. The report particularly noted some of the damaging results of the Indian residential schools that were administered (until 1969) by various Christian denominations and entities, including the ACC.4 An international exposition in Montreal, called Expo 67, which attracted fifty million visitors, featured a controversial "Indians of Canada" pavilion, which vividly presented a history of violations of treaties and Indigenous human rights.4 Chief Dan George, a well known actor who would later be nominated for an Academy Award, protested the subjugation of his people in a momentous speech entitled "Lament for Confederation," delivered to over thirty thousand people in Vancouver's Empire Stadium, and widely reprinted.5 A Nisga'a elder named Frank Calder, who was among other things a graduate of the Anglican Theological College in Vancouver, launched a lawsuit that would result in the epoch-making declaration by the Supreme Court of Canada that Aboriginal land title predated colonization.6 The National Indian Council dissolved amid criticisms of its ineffectiveness, leading to the founding of two more militant organizations, the predecessors of today's Assembly of First Nations and the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples/ Before this watershed the ACC had seen itself as a settler organization and treated Indigenous Anglicans not as members but as wards. In this context an embittering episode of 2003