About us
Our Mission
Understanding and awareness
Our goal is to create accessible resources that cut through legal jargon and allow all Yukoners to understand and engage with the core principles of UFA.
Who We Are
Guardians of the Umbrella Final Agreement (UFA)
We are Yukon First Nations people, Federal and Territorial negotiators, and diligent journalists. Most of us were key participants in negotiations that resulted in the ground breaking Umbrella Final Agreement in 1989. A few of us are from a newer generation, determined to keep the soul of the UFA alive.
In 2020
We met in Whitehorse on the frigid weekend of January 19 – 20 to begin the First Principles Project. Our aim was to distill the core values, spirit, and intent of the UFA from the original 292-page document.
The participants then broke into four groups to discuss the UFA as it related to LAND, GOVERNANCE, ECONOMY, and RELATIONSHIPS. The conversations were documented by scribes, some of which were journalists during the UFA negotiations, others were scholars from a new generation.
The results of these dialogues were amalgamated and edited into a 9-page draft of The First Principles Project.
Leading
and Teaching
Educate
On that cold weekend in January 2020, we worked communally to extract a nine page work-in-progress document from the 292-page UFA. We will continue to build UFA-related resources suitable for students of all ages and the general public.
Engage
We work to create opportunities, both formal and informal, in which citizens can ask questions and receive answers from us – those who were present for the birth of the UFA. This website contains one such forum. We will continue to promote discussion, debate and comprehension wherever we can.
Advocate
The Umbrella FInal Agreement is a landmark achievement which changed the political, economic and social fabric of the Yukon. We believe that the UFA and the Agreements negotiated under it must remain a cornerstone of our territory’s development. We will advocate to ensure the UFA’s importance is recognized and its spirit and intent is respected.
Credit : Yukon Archives
What We Care About
Integrity and Accessibility
We care deeply about maintaining the integrity and the importance of the UFA, a document that shifted the paradigm on First Nations governance. Its role in the collective consciousness of Yukoners must also be maintained and nurtured. New generations must continue to understand the core principles of the UFA, and how they apply to a modern and changing Yukon.
Chapter 26
Chapter 26 of the UFA mandates a “comprehensive dispute-resolution process.” This promotes alternative dispute resolutions and out-of-court-settlements, yet 30 years later Chapter 26 is rarely used. A revisiting of the spirit and intent of this, and other chapters, will highlight the responsive and co-operative nature of the UFA.
Our Board Members
Elizabeth Hanson
Federal self government negotiator when the UFA and first four Yukon First Nation self government and final agreements were negotiated; she directed the federal negotiations teams involved with all 14 Yukon First Nations.
Judy Gingell
Served as the commissioner of Yukon from 1995 to 2000. Gingell was the founding director of the Yukon Native Brotherhood in 1969. She was also chair of the Council for Yukon Indians from 1989 to May 1995.
In 2009, she was made a Member of the Order of Canada.
Mary Jane Jim
Co-Chair of the Economic Breakout Group at the 40@-40 First Principles Event. Member of Champagne Aishihik First Nations.
Tim Koepke
Former Chief Federal Negotiator for 9 Yukon First Nation Land Claims and Tsawwassen First Nation Treaty in BC; former Yukon Ombudsman and Information and Privacy Commissioner.
Tony Penikett
Former Yukon premier (1985 –1992) Tony Penikett is the author of the book , First Nation treaty making.
Rhiannon Klein
Faculty member in the Indigenous Governance Degree at Yukon University. She recently completed her PhD dissertation, which examined the transition from negotiation to implementation of the Yukon land claims agreements (1986-2016).