Aboriginal Philanthropy in Canada: A Foundation for Understanding

2.2 LITERATURE REVIEW
The literature review began with resources collected by CPAPC and posted on the CPAPC
website or recommended by the CPAPC leadership group. Further independent research
was conducted from an academic base primarily rooted in the social sciences, but also
looking at business, philanthropy and ecology. As others have stated, the literature that
informs this topic is sparse 5 and little has been produced within Canada. The scope of the
literature review was work recently published in Canada and internationally.
The literature review focused on relationships between philanthropic and grant-making
models and First Peoples. It was also used to identify potential areas of intervention where
philanthropy could best advance Indigenous development and well-being.
The purpose of the literature review was to identify similar work being done either on a
smaller scale in North America or internationally and efforts in other jurisdictions to articulate
the roles and relationship between First Peoples and philanthropic organizations. An
example of the literature available internationally is Wendy Scaife’s 2006 study, “Challenges in
Indigenous Philanthropy: Reporting Australian Grantmakers’ Perspectives.”
Specifically, the literature review undertook to:
• Identify what the situation is elsewhere;
• Identify some of the current thinking in philanthropy around social change;
• Identify some of the issues involved in relationships with governments;
• Identify paradigms and institutional approaches most effective for sustained changes; and,
• Examine the cultural gap that exists between foundations, business and governments with
respect to grant-making in Indigenous communities.
“At Moose Deer Point, we explored the lessons learned
in a successful philanthropic partnership.”
5
See Scaife (2006) and Seely (2006).
The Circle on Philanthropy & Aboriginal Peoples in Canada 12