ATIP Request

In working towards our goal to access the research studies commissioned by the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, the following Access to Information Request was sent to Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada:

Our Goal

The goal of Uncapping RCAP is to make accessible to the public all the research studies commissioned by the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP).  In preparing its 1996 Final Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, the Commission relied on 250 research studies detailing a wide array of issues affecting Indigenous peoples in Canada.  These studies were made available to the public through a CD-ROM entitled For Seven Generations: An Information Legacy of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.  However, times change, and so do computers.  While the CD-ROM provided a database program that allowed one to search for and through the research studies, personal computing operating systems have changed greatly  since the Final Report was published.  Today, accessing the CD-ROM is nearly impossible on the average person’s computer.  This is a loss for Indigenous communities and their researchers.

RCAP’s research studies continue to be useful to those working on Indigenous issues. Within them there are many important findings, view points and arguments that might support Indigenous peoples’ self-determination initiatives.  Uncapping RCAP seeks to unlock RCAP’s research studies, making them again available to the public in PDF format.