Secondary Research Literature Review

Overview

Utilizing various methods, from beadwork to interviewing, storytelling to document analysis, walking the land to case studies, legal research uncover and revitalize Indigenous legal traditions. At times, legal research confronts colonial legal systems that have erased or deligitimized Indigenous legal systems; at other times, research seeks to braid or bridge legal orders by finding harmonies among them.

Example

Friedland’s thesis treats Indigenous stories as jurisprudence, adapting legal analysis to identify Indigenous legal principles from stories and oral histories and organize these principles into a rigorous and transparent analytical framework. These legal principles can then be readily accessed, understood and applied. Through the example of a foundational Cree legal principle, “wah-ko-to-win” (our inter-relatedness), the thesis demonstrates how this method can also deepen our understanding of background or ‘meta-principles’ within Indigenous legal traditions, which can help us interpret, apply and change laws in legitimate ways. It then demonstrates how the research outcomes from this method may be understood and applied by Indigenous communities, through a case study exploring the development of a contemporary Cree criminal justice process based on Cree legal principles, by and with the Aseniwuche Winewak.

In her thesis, Lussier argues that Beadwork Practice holds a distinctive language of possibility as an Indigenous Legal Pedagogical practice as a result of deeply entrenched links between beads and law. The author explores the social and legal history of beads as a tool for legal knowledge production and mobilization in the context of wampum belts and beyond, including the use of Métis beadwork as a mnemonic device to facilitate intergenerational knowledge transfer of stories and songs that carry law. Further, she examines colonial law and policy that served to undermine the legal value of beads, and canvases emerging trends in the revitalization of community beadwork practice. Finally, the author positions Beadwork Practice as a holistic Indigenous Legal Pedagogy to support not only the revitalization of Indigenous Legal Orders and the development of cross-cultural competency as required under Calls to Action 27 and 28, but also therapeutic objectives of individual and community healing.

Considering the absence of writing in pre-colonial African societies, Arowosegbe uses Yoruba proverbs to reconstruct African conceptions of justice, revealing the reconciliatory and metaphysical nature and character of justice, as well as the goals of punishment and the character and nature of a desirable judicial system

Literature

• Snyder, E. (2014). Representations of Women in Cree Legal Educational Materials: An Indigenous Feminist Legal Theoretical Analysis.
• Friedland, H. L. (2016). Reclaiming the language of law : the contemporary articulation and application of Cree legal principles in Canada.
• De Gregorio, V., Parola, G., Porrone, A., Poto, M. P., & Tsiouvalas, A. (2021). What can we learn from indigenous peoples law and methodology?.
• Lussier, D. (2021). Law with Heart and Beadwork: Decolonizing Legal Education, Developing Indigenous Legal Pedagogy, and Healing Community.
• Nemoga, G. R., Appasamy, A., & Romanow, C. A. (2022). Protecting Indigenous and Local Knowledge through a Biocultural Diversity Framework. Journal of Environment and Development, 31(3), 223–252.
• Scopelliti, M. (2021). Non-governmental actors in international climate change law : the case of Arctic Indigenous peoples. Routledge.
• Gabagambi, J. J. (2021). “Throwing a Baby with Bathwater,” Restoration of the Tanzanian Indigenous Justice System: The Case of Sukuma, Kinga and Iraqwi Ethnic Groups. African Journal of Legal Studies, 13(4), 422–445.
• Meloche, K. (2021). Mediating law : cultural production and the revitalization of Indigenous legal orders in Canada.
• Todd, Z. S. C. (2016). ’You never go hungry’ : fish pluralities, human-fish relationships, indigenous legal orders and colonialism in Paulatuuq, Canada.
• Davis, R. (2009). “Protect, Respect and Remedy”: Working to Integrate the Rights and Concerns of Indigenous People into a New UN Framework on Business and Human Rights. Indigenous Law Bulletin, 7(13), 21–24.
• Arowosegbe, J. O. (2017). Indigenous African Jurisprudential Thoughts on the Concept of Justice: A Reconstruction through Yoruba Proverbs. Journal of African Law, 61(2), 155–170.