Building a strong, respected voice for indigenous peoples

We also hold a Mid Year Conference at a location in Indian Country, with over 1,000 tribal leaders joining us; and, our Executive Council Winter Session hosts up to 800 tribal leaders at a meeting focused on legislative issues and held in Washington, DC.

Each meeting includes our Youth Commission, specifically designed to prepare the next generation for their important leadership roles for Indian Country in the coming years.

Our International Work

Our work in the international arena has grown substantially in the past few years. Some of that is explained by our newly opened Embassy of Tribal Nations.

We opened the Embassy in 2009. It grew from a long-time vision of NCAI's elected leaders who expressed a desire to establish a permanent homebase for tribal leaders in Washington, DC that emphasises, in the very name of our space, the importance of the nation-to-nation relationship between tribes and the federal government.

The importance of international collaboration was highlighted in December 2010 when President Obama announced the US decision to support the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. We look forward to working with the National Congress to utilise international agreements like the Declaration to hold our governments accountable, even when they are not supportive of our policy goals.

CONCLUSION

I hope you'll take two primary lessons away from my remarks this morning:

First, Institutions launched at difficult times can and do succeed.

NCAI was founded in a context where Native people were under attack from many sides. In the shadow of the termination era where the federal government was taking a unilateral approach to Native policy, our founders realised, perhaps for the first time, that there are some things that we as Native nations can only do together

I know that this is a difficult time in Australia. There are exciting opportunities but daunting challenges, and even some doubts about this institution itself.

Let me be very clear. A voice for Indigenous peoples is not an optional extra. A strong institution that can unify Indigenous communities and hold governments accountable is a critical component of meaningful self-determination.