As a national museum dedicated to the exploration of human rights, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights has a special relationship with Indigenous peoples. The Museum is committed to a relationship based upon respect, recognition of history and a shared desire to work together.

The Museum strongly upholds the belief that “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” As the Museum’s exhibits explain, and our policies demonstrate, respecting rights sometimes means creating programs or allowing for exemptions.

The Museum’s policy to offer complimentary admission to Indigenous peoples is informed by the spirit of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This declaration recognizes the rights of Indigenous peoples to maintain, control, protect and develop their cultural heritage and traditional cultural expressions.

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights contains many, many representations of Indigenous cultural heritage. In fact, every gallery in the Museum contains Indigenous human rights stories, many of these stories spoken directly by First Nations, Métis or Inuit people themselves. The Museum rests on Treaty One land and is at the heart of the Métis homeland.
 
The Museum’s admission policy is one way to acknowledge this unique relationship with Indigenous peoples, and to demonstrate our recognition and respect through our actions.