Bob Joseph’s book 21 Things™ You May Not Know About the Indian Act captured the attention of hundreds of thousands of Canadians by shining a light on the Indian Act and the problems associated with it. In that book, readers learned that the consolidated Indian Act of 1876 has controlled the lives of Indigenous Peoples in Canada for generations, and despite its objective to assimilate Indians into the economic and political mainstream, it has had the opposite effect of keeping them separate. They live under different laws and on different lands.

People came away from that book with questions like: "Can we get rid of the Indian Act?" and "What would that look like, and would it work?" It turns out that these are timely questions, given that 2026 will mark 150 years since the Consolidated Indian Act of 1876. The short answer to these questions is, yes, we can dismantle it and there are examples of self-government arrangements that are currently working. With his trademark wisdom, humility, and deep understanding, Bob Joseph shows us the current path forward, in which Indigenous self-governance is not only already happening and is not to be feared, but it is also an absolute necessity that we need more of sooner rather than later.