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The purpose of this paper is to describe the process of transformation in the Northern Health region of British Columbia (BC), Canada, based on a new relationship between governments of BC, Canada, and First Nations.

Written from the perspective of four key participants in the transformation process, this paper highlights the ways in which partnership has been integral to the transformation of health service delivery to First Nations communities in Northern BC.

In sharing their experiences with health system transformation through partnership, the authors of this paper hope to contribute to a growing set of promising practices as indigenous health service organizations take a greater role in health service provision, and non-indigenous health service organizations improve their understanding of and relationships with indigenous communities.

This paper outlines a unique and leading edge transformation in health service delivery, told from the perspectives of key partners involved in the transformation process.

The purpose of this paper is to present a study of the transformation of First Nations’ health governance, describing the development of partnerships between First Nations and provincial and federal governments for co-creating solutions to address First Nations’ health inequities in British Columbia (BC). The paper frames this transformation in the context of a Canada-wide reconciliation initiative stimulated by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

This qualitative case study was a joint initiative between Simon Fraser University and the BC First Nations Health Authority (FNHA), involving interviews with senior leaders within the BC health system, FNHA and First Nations communities. In addition, a policy roundtable was held in February 2015 which gathered 60 participants for further dialogue on the process.

Key themes included: partnership and relationships, governance and reciprocal accountability, First Nations perspectives on health and wellness, and quality and cultural safety. Findings indicate that significant transformational changes have happened in the relationship between First Nations and the mainstream health system. The creation of the FNHA has led to more representation for First Nations people at all levels of governance and health service planning, which will ultimately lead to more culturally safe health services that incorporate a First Nations perspective of wellness.

The transformation of First Nations health governance in BC can serve as an example in other indigenous health settings both within Canada and internationally.

This paper describes a transformative health governance process in First Nations communities that is an historical first in Canada.

The purpose of this paper is to provide to First and non-First Nation educators, scholars, and policy makers alternative perspectives that can reshape research on educational leadership in First Nation education with new imaginings that question fundamentally the cultural-political-economic-space defined by Euro-centred notion of modernity.

The paper addresses two questions in dealing with issues of conceptions of educational leadership in a First Nations setting: first, in what socio-cultural paradigm and epistemic framework, should the paper ground the view of relations among persons and between them and their environment, in a way that opens up spaces for prospects for action of those located outside a Euro-centric epistemic and ontological field; second, how could this paradigm assist us in formulating a conception of educational leadership that increases the leverage of First Nations education in constructing alternative sociocultural and educational worlds not grounded in the Eurocentric modernity?

For non-First Nation educators, power brokers, and policy makers who want to create alliances with First Nation people, this paper outlines the necessity to consider cross-cultural dialogue about conceptions of educational leadership as an “opportunity to challenge conventional assumptions about knowledge, power, and a sense of place” (Marker, 2006, p. 21).

The originality of this paper resides in its presentation of alternative conceptual horizons for educational leadership, horizons that acknowledge power inequities between mainstream societies and institutions on the one hand and First Nations peoples and their institutions on the other.

Mesomobilization actors perform important structural and ideological roles for social movements. This paper examines the dilemmas confronting one such meso-level organization – the First Nations Summit – currently engaged in tri-partite treaty negotiations with the governments of British Columbia and Canada. Asymmetrical power relations between the negotiating parties leave the First Nations vulnerable to government strategies aimed at achieving “certainty” with minimal concessions on key issues such as Aboriginal Title, compensation, and governance. The paper considers the Summit's options for mobilizing its diverse and often reluctant constituents in order to gain leverage in the treaty process.

This paper seeks to link the extraordinary success of an aboriginal community called Membertou First Nation to the literature of entrepreneurship and small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises.

The paper recounts the remarkable case of the people of Membertou First Nation who have been very successful in the area of economic development. It then considers their objective to further promote entrepreneurship within in the community.

The literature informs us that fast growing firms contribute disproportionately to job creation, wealth creation, and longer term support systems of local economies. The paper suggests that some of the unique circumstances that would appear to favor efforts to raise rates of new firm formation may ultimately constrain growth.

The findings are limited by the unique circumstances operating within Canada and may not apply to other situations. Moreover, as Membertou First Nation is an urban‐based reserve it faces a different set of opportunities and constraints than rural‐based communities within Canada.

At one level, the story of Membertou First Nation is inspirational. But, this paper identifies some of the unique challenges and barriers faced by First Nations people pursuing opportunities as entrepreneurs. Challenges include issues of political stability; the need to respect the value placed upon community, conservation and sustainability by the culture the limited access to traditional sources of capital and other possible barriers. It attempts to foresee some potential barriers and underscore the real complexity of issues that arise when development and entrepreneurship are linked.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a community perspective on partnerships with the goal of researching, designing, developing and commercializing non‐timber forest products (NTFPs) based on indigenous knowledge and resources from Pikangikum First Nation, northwestern Ontario, Canada.

Framed by the Whitefeather Forest Research Cooperative agreement, a collaborative and ethnographic research design was adopted with the Whitefeather Forest Management Corporation and the Whitefeather Forest Elders Steering Group in Pikangikum First Nation. Over the period of two years, initial research planning meetings were held with community representatives, fieldwork and interviews with community Elders and leaders were conducted, and three community workshops were held.

Community Elders and leaders articulated a cautious interest in developing ethical, collaborative partnerships that support the Whitefeather Forest Initiative and the community's social, cultural, economic and environmental goals. Developing NTFPs through partnerships is a procedural issue that requires giving Elders a primary role in advising and guiding partnerships at all stages of NTFP planning, research and development. Partners would be expected to build respectful and diligent partnerships that interface knowledge systems, maintain good relations, and generate mutually defined benefits.

This community‐specific approach provides insight for Aboriginal groups, governments, universities, and corporations seeking to develop access and benefit sharing agreements, policies, or protocols in light of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Nagoya Protocol.

This paper offers perspectives, principles, and community member narratives from a Canadian indigenous community, Pikangikum First Nation. These perspectives describe how this community envisions potential research, development and commercialization of NTFPs through joint and mutually beneficial partnerships.

One’s standpoint and consequent research paradigm impacts how we conduct research, including study design, analyses interpretation and dissemination of results. In 2017, the authors began PhD, studying the potential barriers to aftercare treatment for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children aged under 16 who had sustained a burn injury in one of five major hospitals in Australia. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

As Aboriginal PhD students, the authors are conducting research using Aboriginal ontology as a framework, which is based on a holistic framework with interconnectedness, person-centred care and Aboriginal ways of knowing as the foundation. The framework has been shaped by the first author’s knowing, being and doing, and the authors’ worldview has informed and shaped the standpoint and the way the research has been developed and conducted.

It was important for the authors to have a connectedness to each aspect of the research and to each individual person that shared their story: this was paramount to the ways of being.

This connectedness stems from growing up on the authors’ country and learning from elders, from the connection to all entities living around, within and with the authors. The Indigenous research methodology was used throughout the study, including yarning and Dadirri, a way of deep listening and learning, as the basis for interviewing.

The fragmentation can either lead to an all-out civil war as in Sri Lanka or a frozen conflict as in Georgia. One of the main characteristics of fragmentation is the control of group members by their respective leaders. The chapter applies standard models of non-cooperative game theory to explain the endogenous fragmentation, which seeks to model the equilibrium formation of rival groups. Citizens become members of these rival groups and some sort of clientelism develops in which political leaders control their respective fragments of citizens. Once the divisions are created, the inter-group rivalry can trigger violent conflicts that may seriously damage the social fabric of a nation and threaten the prospect of peace for the people for a very long time. In other words, our main goal in this chapter is to understand the formation of the patron–client relationship or what is called clientelisation.

The fundamental idea that we seek to establish in this chapter is that the establishment of regional or local, peace calls forth global peace. In other words, our argument is that local and regional conflicts are partly driven by global factors, especially what is commonly known as international tension. In order to achieve meaningful and sustained peace, there is a reason to believe that it is mandatory to manage and contain international tensions. The main thesis of this chapter is to explain or posit, conflicts as a product of continuing international chasms, splits and differences of political and social ideologies in our modern world. Thus, we argue that conflicts are, to some extent, driven by international tension or global, ideological and geo-political factors. Notwithstanding the global influence, local factors – such as income inequality, income growth or lack of it, political institutions – can and do exacerbate conflicts and a peaceful resolution of conflicts becomes a difficult phenomenon.