During the last twenty years, voices from the First Nations have become louder, expressing their own solutions to problems that have plagued their communities since contact with the Europeans. Their traditional ways of thinking and living have become more visible to those from outside First Nations. Recent directions of First Nations in Northern Ontario have focused on strengthening political, economic, and social systems to promote community healing. This was an important subject for the third annual conference of the Institute of Northern Ontario Research and Development, held at Laurentian University. This book consists of papers presented at the conference by both First Nations leaders and academics from across Canada.

Rebirth highlights some of the developments that have been occurring in First Nations throughout Northern Ontario and elsewhere in the last decade. The eleven papers published here give voice to stories about the ways in which First Nations are addressing their own conditions. The papers are grouped in four sections: Cultural Diversity and Division, Political Action, Economic Development, and Social Development.