News Room
September, 2007
Centre to introduce Governance Bundle (Practitioner's Toolkit) in Fall, 2007
The National Centre for First Nations Governance is creating a Governance Bundle (Practitioners Tool Kit) for use by the Centre and First Nations governance practitioners.
Its purpose is to provide a greater exploration and understanding of community governance needs and aspirations. It will provide valuable assistance and access to readily available resources for the purpose of making informed decisions on governance related issues.
It is a proven fact that the more informed a community is when making decisions, the more substantive and lasting those decisions will be. As First Nation communities nationwide begin to take the initial steps toward self governance, informed decision making becomes paramount. So becomes the need to ensure the necessary tools are in place to accomplish that, such as those contained within the Governance Bundle.
The Bundle will include existing principles of good governance, information on lands and resources, sample constitutions and election codes and techniques for community facilitation. For instance, if a community wishes to develop a membership code but does not know where to begin, sample membership codes and templates can be found in the Governance Bundle which will provide valuable insight.
Tools will be readily available electronically, in hard-copy format, on a compact disk or within the resource library. The architecture of the Bundle will reflect the needs of the community. Some communities may prefer electronic files over hard copy and vice versa.
Another vital component of the Governance Bundle is that it doesn’t just provide tools in a modern sense of governance, but in a traditional sense as well. Communities focusing on traditional systems of governance can create a traditional Bundle as it pertains to their own communities or Nation. “The concept of the bundle is an expression of our world view,” says Darrell Boissoneau, Director of Governance Advisory Services. He explains that a bundle may have a pipe, certain medicines, a small rock, a sharp tool (knife), a feather, a rattle and perhaps a necklace made from bear claws. “These symbols represented various aspects of what a practitioner may have used in guiding leadership and making important decisions. In the end, the leader having the responsibility to care for the community had the necessary tools in the bundle to assist them in moving forward.”
The idea behind this concept is to demonstrate that traditional systems existed in First Nation communities. The process was open and transparent and represented the needs and aspirations of the people. The bundle also accommodated new ideas or needs. Once these were identified, new elements and/or components of the bundle were added.
This concept applies to the modern sense of the Governance Bundle in that whatever tool or resource is identified as a need to a community, it will be added accordingly. This makes it an ever evolving tool reflecting the evolution of time.
The official launch of the NCFNG Governance Bundle is expected in the fall of 2007.
