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As the saying goes, "Knowledge is power." But researcher Pamela Palmater knows knowledge is more than that; it's a promise of a better future for Indigenous Peoples.

A Mi'kmaq lawyer and member of Eel River Bar First Nation, Palmater is a professor of politics and public administration, and chair of Ryerson's Centre in Indigenous Governance. There, she is exploring new and different ways of thinking about Indigenous governance. And the first step, she says, is helping communities understand how colonization has impacted their governance systems and work towards decolonization.

"We often don't question where our current ideas came from. But once we deconstruct them, we can deconstruct colonization, how it has often been internalized and see all the options that are open to our Nations," says Palmater, who is approaching this issue from several angles.

One example is her book Beyond Blood: Rethinking Indigenous Identity. Arguing that the Indian Act's use of a blood quantum formula to determine Indigenous identity leads to gender and racial discrimination, the book recommends Indigenous communities create their own citizenship criteria. Otherwise, Palmater says, the Indian Act formula will legislate Indigenous people out of existence within the next 75 to 100 years.

Furthermore, she continues, when personal identities are limited by government policies, communities suffer. Palmater speaks from experience: once a non-status Indian, she was only granted status when Bill C-3, an amendment to the Indian Act, was enacted in 2010.

"Non-status Indians often can't live in their communities or vote in band elections, and they don't have access to the same federal programs that support health or post-secondary education. That has led to chronic poverty both on and off-reserve."

When that paucity is combined with the emotional aftermath of residential schools, says Palmater, the results are high suicide rates and crises like in Attawapiskat First Nation. Last fall, for the third time in recent years, the community near James Bay declared a state of emergency - this time due to a major housing shortage in which people were living in unheated sheds.

Situations like Attawapiskat are happening in First Nations across the country, according to Palmater. The biggest concern, she says, isn't financial mismanagement by band councils; it's systemic discrimination in the way the federal government funds First Nations. "First Nations receive 20 to 80 per cent less than other Canadians. The government would never say to the people of New Brunswick, for example, 'we're cutting your grocery money in half.' How would you make do?"

Palmater addresses the chronic underfunding of First Nations communities in an article for the Canadian Review of Social Policy 2012. Underfunding, she contends, leads to extreme poverty and even premature deaths. In an article for the Ontario Bar Association, Palmater also states that legislators aren't consulting the Charter of Rights and Freedoms before passing new laws that affect First Nations.

Other projects that Palmater has on the go: a technical report that recommends First Nations communities should oversee their education systems to improve graduation rates and to ensure traditional Indigenous knowledge systems are covered in the curriculum; an article on the devastating impact that the Indian Act has had on non-status Indians; an article and presentation about the division of matrimonial property on reserves leading to loss of reserve lands; and a response to proposed federal legislation that would enable individuals to purchase reserve lands - an act that Palmater says would destroy First Nations.

"Canada shouldn't be in the business of assimilating people. Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 was a promise to protect Aboriginal Peoples," she says.

The interim chair that she holds (a five-year appointment, starting in 2010) was established with the help of a $500,000 gift from Hydro One Networks Inc. In addition, the Centre in Indigenous Governance is also supported by donations from the Nuclear Waste Management Organization and Vale Inco.