A Haudenosaunee Perspective on the Development of UNDRIP by Kenneth Deer

Join us for the first lecture in ISCEI's 2024 Knowledge Holder Series!

This lecture will be presented by this years Knowledge Holder, Dr. Kenneth Deer, on a Haudenosaunee Perspective on the Development of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Haudenosaunee were involved in the development of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It was a long journey beginning with Deskaheh, a Cayuga Chief, traveling to Geneva in 1923 to the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations and the Working Group on the Draft Declaration until the vote in the General Assembly in 2007. This lecture will describe that journey.

This event will take place on Tuesday, October 22, 5:30 pm in the McIntyre Medical Science Building of McGill, room 1345.

The lecture will be followed by a Q&A. This event is co-sponsored by the Indigenous Studies and Community Engagement Initiative (ISCEI) and the Yan P. Lin Centre for the Study of Freedom and Global Orders in the Ancient and Modern Worlds.

About Dr. Kenneth Atsenhaienton Deer

Dr. Deer is a member of the Bear Clan from the Mohawk community of Kahnawake and former Secretary of the Mohawk Nation at Kahnawake.

He received an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Concordia University for lifetime achievement in 2015.

He received a National Aboriginal Achievement Award for Media and Communications in 2010.

Dr. Deer has been active in promoting and defending the rights of Indigenous Peoples in the UN system for over thirty years. He participated in the meetings Working Group on Indigenous Populations, the Working Group on the Draft Declaration, the Permanent Form on Indigenous Issues, the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, former member of the Board of Trustees of the UN Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples and many other UN activities.

At the community level he was active as a school counselor, high school principal, founder of the First Nations Education Council, a newspaper publisher and editor and other community activities.

About the Knowledge Holder Series

ISCEI provides support for the Knowledge Holder Series, developed within the Indigenous Studies Program. The Indigenous Knowledge Holder Series invites an Indigenous Knowledge Holder to spend a week at McGill and to share their scholarship, work, or advocacy. Indigenous Knowledge Holders­– whether they be wampum belt holders, storytellers, artists, activists, hereditary leaders, or academics– encompass generations of knowledge embedded within the cultural and epistemological milieu of Indigenous communities that span generations.

Host or Publisher McGill Institute for the Study of Canada