The Four Pillars
In 2023, Canada settled the Band Reparations Class Action lawsuit for harms caused by Indian Residential Schools, creating a $2.8 billion fund to support Four Pillars principles within each of the 325 opt-in communities.
Revival and Protection of Indigenous Languages
- Encouraging Elders to teach traditional languages to younger generations, and share that local languages are not only about spoken and written words, but include values, beliefs, rituals, songs, dances, spirituality, and social behaviours.
- Strengthening the bonds between language and the land.
- Teaching spoken and written languages to speakers of all levels, with a goal of having fluent speakers in these traditional languages.
- Enhancing the dignity, self-worth and sense of belonging through the use of their own languages.
Revival and Protection of Indigenous Cultures
- Preserving and strengthening knowledge of local cultures, traditions, skills, and practices.
- Passing knowledge of local traditional cultures, values, goals and practices to future generations.
- Forging bonds with the land and its resources through acknowledgment and use of cultural practices.
- Sharing traditional knowledge from older generations to younger generations.
Promotion and Protection of Heritage
- Preserving and strengthening knowledge of shared inheritance.
- Passing knowledge of heritage to future generations.
- Preserving knowledge of the creation and maintenance of material cultures.
- Fostering connection to and protection of lands and waters.
- Sustaining resources in local and traditional lands.
- Fostering multiculturalism from nation to nation.
Wellness for Indigenous Communities and Their Members
- Promoting holistic and traditional modes of wellness.
- Creating strong and healthy families, raising children in a positive healthy environment, and promoting general physical well-being.
- Protecting and reviving healthy eating through traditional foods and relationships with the land.
- Promoting the practice of traditional values such as self-respect, respect toward others, humility, love, caring, sharing, and honesty.
- Addressing social harms that are the result of intergenerational trauma, including lateral violence, suicide, and drug and alcohol addiction and abuse.
Ready to Access Your Community's Share?
Our team helps First Nations access their share of the fund for community-led initiatives — all fully owned and operated by the community.