RCAP 31: Rekindling the Fire, Renewing the Relationship

By Lorraine Rekmans
Published on National Indigenous Peoples Day — June 21, 2026

Meeting of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP), 1992-1993. Photo from Library and Archives Canada, Reference: R2847-116-4-E, RG33-157, Volume number: 2.

​The Prophecy of the Seven Fires

As we mark National Indigenous Peoples Day, I find myself reflecting on questions that have followed me for many years: How do we move forward when we have left so much unfinished behind us? How do we rebuild a country that is fair for all? When will Canada honestly recognize all that Indigenous Peoples have contributed to the founding of Canada? When will people embrace the Anishinabek principles of kinship, and land stewardship that honours seven generations. 

The Anishinaabe prophecy of the Seven Fires is an apt teaching for this time, where we as human beings find ourselves at a crossroad. We have been led to this crossroad from a long journey through the industrial era, where we extracted natural resources and sold them to generate wealth. We have done this to the point where we are facing a planetary existential crisis that is fueled by increased resource extraction, water loss, climate instability and biodiversity loss. If we take the road we are on, we will continue to exacerbate the devastation. But if we choose the road that has been abandoned, it could lead us to a better place.

This crisis of choice was prophesied by the Anishinaabe in the Seven Fires teaching which told us we would reach a time where people would come together and choose between the two roads.  One road is well-worn and familiar: the road of domination, greed, extraction, and forgetting our shared history. The other road is less travelled but ancient; the road of Spirit, of right relationship, of living in a good way with the Land, Waters and with each other. It is a teaching that calls out to us all to get back on the good road.  Guiding tools such as the Dish With One Spoon, the Covenant Chain, and the Seven Grandfather Gifts, shared in treaty, can help us to get back there.  The Seventh Fire teaching is not only a lesson but an invitation. 

And right now, at this moment, Canada and others are racing to extract their way out of an economic crisis, in a world that is burning and flooding.  The climate is tossing us around on this planet like the ants that we are.  The pressure to develop markets and resources is panicked and chaotic and happening in a way that is not respecting our kin, not respecting our relationships and responsibilities to care for each other and the planet.  This is moving at a pace we can barely comprehend. 

Somewhere in this chaos, we need to stop and ground ourselves in fundamental truths.  Like the truth that we are ants and not giants with dominion over all things.  The truth is that we are the ecosystem.  We are not outside it, or above it, but in it, as is taught to us by the teaching of Ginawaydagunc, an Algonquin word meaning “all life is connected.”  I believe the time is now for us to remember the thousands of years of wisdom that were laid down before 1492. 

We must grace ourselves with the time to stop and reflect and learn from all those who came before us.  We must seek out the wisdom of their experience and advice to take the next careful steps forward in the right direction.  The Seventh Fire is being lit, and we need to gather around it and begin a new relationship with each other and with all our relations. The invitation is to come to a sacred fire together and hold council with each other, so that we can find a better way. 

Looking Back to Look Forwards: RCAP Three Decades On

Thirty-one years ago, something remarkable happened in this country. The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) offered Canada a roadmap. It was one of the most comprehensive examinations ever undertaken into the relationship between Indigenous Peoples and Canada. After years of testimony from Indigenous peoples from coast to coast to coast — Elders, leaders, mothers, survivors, land keepers — RCAP released its final report. With five volumes containing 440 recommendations, the RCAP report laid out a path toward renewed nation-to-nation relationships, Indigenous self-determination, land stewardship, governance, economic justice, and reconciliation. RCAP said that Indigenous Peoples' connection to their Land is the foundation of healthy communities, healthy ecosystems, and a healthy country for everyone. RCAP recognized that the Land and the People are inseparable.  

The lessons of caring for land as an inseparable part of the land are gifts that our forebearers left us.  The teachings, ethics, principles and guidance of the original land stewards are gifts that we all need now to carry us into the future. RCAP captured those stories and those lessons for us.  It’s time to dust off those volumes and find our roadmap. 

As Canada evolves its approach to its relationship with Indigenous Peoples, it has made progressive steps by implementing Calls to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC), the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and recommendations from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIWG).  These progressive steps, though meaningful, do not address the fundamental things that must be changed because Canada is still failing to demonstrate meaningful respect for Indigenous jurisdiction and Indigenous sovereignty.  Canada must also reach back to the recommendations of RCAP to move forward to a fair and just country. This is what distinguishes Canada from other colonial powers.  Canada has a willingness to achieve fairness and seeks to be just.  The reimagining of Canadian identity cannot happen without reimagining the relationship Canada has with the original Nations. 
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Yet here we stand, thirty-one years later, at a crossroad.  In this moment Canada has passed Bill C-5 to fast-track resource extraction, offered loan guarantees as a substitute for land rights, and rebranded colonial assimilation as "economic reconciliation." New resource corridors are being proposed. Indigenous Nations are being invited to participate in projects that will shape the future of this country. At the same time, many of the fundamental questions RCAP raised remain unresolved:

• Who has jurisdiction over the lands and waters?
• How do we reconcile Canada's sovereignty claims with the pre-existing sovereignty of Indigenous Nations?
• How do we move beyond consultation toward true nation-to-nation relationships?
• How do we ensure that future generations inherit healthy lands, healthy communities, and healthy relationships?

These are not historical questions. They are the questions of our time. We cannot build a just future on the same deficient foundation. We cannot get anywhere in a vehicle with a flat tire. We cannot achieve true reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples when the Canadian Constitution fails to honestly recognize the original Nations who co-existed on this land before confederation. These are the Nations Canada signed treaties with. These are the Nations whose knowledge, governance, and relationships with the land are among the most powerful tools we have against the planetary crisis we are all facing.

The map RCAP laid out still exists. The question now is, are we ready to use it?

Implementing RCAP: What Fires Were Never Fully Tended?

The RCAP commissioners saw what was coming. They told us that when Indigenous Peoples are separated from their lands, this leads to cultural loss, food insecurity, mental health crises, and environmental destruction. They told us that without Indigenous jurisdiction, without recognition of sovereign governance, without the sacred teachings and cultural practices in place we would keep producing conflict instead of peaceful coexistence.

We are seeing the impact of Mother Earth out of balance: the planet is warming, the forests are burning, rains and weather are less predictable and more extreme, the fisheries are collapsing and biodiversity is disappearing faster than our children can learn the names of what's being lost. Indigenous communities are still fighting for clean water, for land rights, for the right to raise their children in their own languages and traditions. This is not an accident, but a predictable outcome of a failure to act.

But here is what the RCAP report also told us: Indigenous peoples are not the problem to be managed. They are the knowledge-holders, the land stewards, the governance innovators we desperately need. Indigenous-led stewardship of territories leads to healthier ecosystems, greater biodiversity, and measurable progress on climate action. Indigenous governance systems, built through thousands of years of living in reciprocal relationship with the land, hold answers that no government taskforce will ever invent.

Across Turtle Island, Indigenous Nations are advancing Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas, Guardians programs, land-based education, language revitalization, regenerative economies, and new models of stewardship rooted in ancient responsibilities and contemporary realities. The future is already emerging.

But before we rush forward, we must pause long enough to look back: What did RCAP tell us? What recommendations were implemented? What was ignored? What lessons remain waiting for us? And perhaps most importantly: What fires were never fully tended?

We know what needs to be done and we have known for thirty-one years.

The Path Forward
Over the coming months, a growing circle of Indigenous leaders, Elders, youth, Knowledge Holders, land stewards, policy leaders, researchers, artists, community builders, and allies will be beginning a journey, brought together through Indigenous Action Canada, Plenty Canada, the RAD Network, and Wahkohtowin Development. We are calling it RCAP 31: Rekindling the Fire, Renewing the Relationship. This is a journey of listening, learning, and gathering to revisit the legacy of RCAP and explore what its unfinished work means in a time of climate disruption, biodiversity loss, growing uncertainty, and renewed Indigenous resurgence. We invite you to join us.

In the lead up we are convening listening conversations and working groups. We are creating resources so that more people can understand what RCAP actually said, and what it would mean to finally act on it. Together we will revisit the legacy of RCAP and explore what its unfinished work means in this time, when Canada is reimagining itself in this new uncertain world.

We are bringing together the voices of the Commissioners who served on RCAP — the people who gave testimonies, who wrote those recommendations — with the Indigenous leaders who are building the movements of today: the IPCAs, the regenerative economies, the nation-to-nation governance that is emerging despite every obstacle. We are coming together in ceremony and in council. The gathering point is a half-day session at the Indigenous Lands Symposium in March 2027. We are Calling the Fires Together. This is a gathering for intergenerational knowledge transfer, for strategic reflection, for honest conversation about where we are and where we need to go. It is the Seventh Fire made visible.

The road forward is not only for Indigenous Peoples to walk. It is for everyone who lives on this Land, who benefits from it, who wants to leave something worth living in for the generations to come. The direction on the path will be Indigenous-led but all the people of the world need to travel the path together.  

RCAP showed us the way. The TRC deepened the call. UNDRIP set the international standard. Environmentally, Indigenous Peoples provided Indigenous leadership in developing the Kunming-Montreal Biodiversity Framework, currently guiding the world in addressing biodiversity loss. Indigenous leadership has been integral to global climate change efforts as well. What we have not yet done — what this moment demands — is for us to act with the urgency and the seriousness that the situation requires.

The Seventh Fire prophecy tells us that the choice between the two roads will not wait forever. Mother Earth will cleanse herself and is in the process. The time for gathering, for rekindling, for choosing — is now.

Ways to Get Involved

We are calling for you to be part of this path.  Here are ways we can journey together before a special half-day gathering at the Indigenous Lands Symposium in Ottawa in March 2027 to light the Fires together.

• Learn: Dig into the RCAP report. Understand what was recommended and what has been left undone. We are developing accessible public education materials to make this knowledge easier to hold and share. READ HERE. 
• Connect: Join our listening conversations: 
  • Sign up for the RAD Network Newsletter (and the Plenty Canada newsletter if you haven't already)
  • Participate in the upcoming RAD Full Moon gatherings
  • Listen to the RAD Story Lodge which will host an RCAP specific conversation 
• Come to the fire: Join us at the half-day session at the Indigenous Lands Symposium in March 2027. Bring your organization, your community, your questions, your commitment. RSVP HERE.

The roadmap has been waiting for thirty-one years. Let us gather in kinship, each bringing our own flame and let’s light the council fires together. 

All my relations.


Lorraine Rekmans is an Indigenous rights advocate, former Executive Director of the National Aboriginal Forestry Association, and longtime voice for constitutional reform and the recognition of Indigenous sovereignty in Canada.
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This blog post is published in partnership with Indigenous Action Canada, Plenty Canada, and RAD Network.