What if the future of reconciliation depends on how we understand the treaties made at the very moment Canada came into being?
with Dr. Michael Asch
In this informative conversation, Dr. Michael Asch invites our audience to reconsider the significance of the treaties negotiated around Confederation—not as relics of the past, but as living agreements that continue to shape the legitimacy of Canada’s presence on these lands. Drawing from his chapter “Confederation Treaties and Reconciliation: Stepping Back into the Future,” Asch reflects on what settlers agreed to when they were granted permission to settle, and what responsibilities flow from those agreements today.
Rather than asking what reconciliation might look like in the abstract, this session turns our attention to history, consent, and obligation:
- What did treaties actually authorize settlers to do—and what limits were placed on that authority?
- What does it mean to understand treaties as agreements to share land, rather than surrender it?
- And what changes when treaties are understood as Canada’s foundation, rather than a footnote to its history?
Through careful engagement with treaty texts, Indigenous interpretations, and historical records, Asch argues that reconciliation requires settlers to align present-day practices with the commitments made in the past. He invites participants—especially settlers—to consider what it would mean to take those commitments seriously as the basis for shared futures.
This conversation offers space to reflect on responsibility, consent, and the possibility of honouring treaties as living relationships—now and for generations to come.
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Edited by Michael Asch, John Borrows and James Tully
Dr. Michael Asch is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Alberta and one of Canada’s most influential scholars on treaties, Indigenous–settler relations, and reconciliation. Over several decades, his work has shaped public and academic understanding of treaties not as historical transactions, but as living agreements that continue to ground Canada’s legitimacy on these lands.
Dr. Asch’s scholarship focuses especially on the treaty relationships negotiated around the time of Confederation and on the responsibilities settlers inherited through those agreements. Writing as a settler scholar, he is explicit about his own position and directs his work toward other settlers, asking what it means to live honourably on lands we were granted permission to share.
Widely respected for his clarity, integrity, and careful engagement with Indigenous teachings and historical records, Dr. Asch has contributed significantly to conversations about reconciliation that centre consent, shared futures, and the ethical obligations that flow from treaty relationships.