Oh Canada, Your Home's on Native Land

Abstract

As evidenced by treaties, Canada is founded both on pluralism as well as on the denial of pluralism; that is to say Canada’s policy of multiculturalism can be read as a rebuff of the nations within and as evidence of the unfulfilled promises of pluralism. This chapter shows that the individualized language of equity, diversity, equality and inclusivity which imbues the discourse and policy of multiculturalism in Canada in actuality attempts to reconcile diversity and inclusivity with a history of racism and exclusion and therefore does little to address the dispossession and subjugation of Indigenous nations and the continued denial of legal and constitutional pluralism. While this chapter addresses pluralism in a contemporary context through intersecting discourses of multiculturalism in Canada, it also draws on examples from New Zealand and Australia.