However, planning as a technical and colonial tool has historically been used as a means to dispossess Indigenous communities through the re-appropriation of traditional territories for non-Indigenous profit and development.
In the political sense, this means fighting for and receiving legitimization and empowerment in leadership positions that were stripped from them through colonization.
[13] The large scale and ongoing impacts of these processes include but are not limited to: dispossession from land and retrenchment of decision-making power, intergenerational trauma, systematic racism, and disruptions of local and traditional cultural systems.
[13] Taiaiake Alfred asserts that it is essential to differentiate between Indigenous and Western planning cultures that are implicated within colonial legacies.
[2] Since colonization processes took place throughout the world, Indigenous planning cultures were largely ignored and actively disrupted as they were seen as impediments to western civilisation and progress.
[dubious – discuss][11] As collective land-based peoples, land tenure and stewardship are at the core of Indigenous planning paradigms.
[17] Indigenous communities everywhere have sustained and developed distinct, fluid and evolving planning cultures that are unique to land, history, and peoples.
[2] Indigenous planning cultures often hold traditional governance structures, including: matrilineal heritage or consensus based decision making; self-reliance and resiliency; and, reciprocity and ceremony.
[18] Complex relationships with time exist, with strong emphases on cyclical patterns, such as nature-human relational processes and the Seven Generation Sustainability methodology.
[18] Strength-based practices and wellness planning lenses are employed, rather than a negative or weakness based assessment framework.
[22] Ryan Walker and Hiringi Matunga use case studies from Canada and New Zealand to discuss how planners might be able to re-situate Indigenous and mainstream planning cultures as a partnership in urban contexts.
As a planning exercise, CCP takes a holistic and long-term approach that considers all aspects of the community, for example: housing, health, culture, economy, land use, resources, education, language revitalization and governance.
[23] CCP can also be a way for Indigenous communities to engage formally with government organizations who provide external resources and funding for First Nations projects.
The process emphasizes inclusion and equal voice in community consultation to create a common guiding framework that is culturally relevant.
[29] Mark Magee, a planner for the Blackfeet Nation (or Amskapi Pikani), describes the difficulties that arise from jurisdictional issues, a common theme in indigenous planning.
For example, the University of British Columbia, School of Community and Regional Planning maintains a partnership with the Musqueam Indian Band.