The Project | Personnel |
Goals and Objectives
The Project
The Nature's Laws Project was developed in a
partnership involving the Heritage Community Foundation and
representatives of First Nations from Treaty 6, 7 and 8.
The Senior Aboriginal Research Consultant is Chief Wayne
Roan, Elder and ceremonialist. The Senior Academic
Consultant is Earle Waugh, Ph.D., Director, Dimic Research
Institute and Professor Emeritus, Religious Studies,
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. The Legal
Consultant was Catherine Twinn, B.A., LL.B., LL.M., First
Nations legal practitioner and historian. The project was
managed by Adriana A. Davies, Ph.D., Executive Director,
Heritage Community Foundation.
The project is a study of the legal codes and traditional
governance of Alberta’s First Nations in the areas covered
by Treaties 6, 7 and 8. It was structured as having
research and public education components and involved
Elders, academics and legal historians. The material
examined was evidence found in oral histories, as well as
case law, and the scholarly literature relating to
Aboriginal People. Additional source material included the
works of missionaries and others who wrote about their
contact with Aboriginal People (e.g., the writings of Father
Roger Vandersteene, Father Emile Petitot, O.M.I., and Father
Valentin Végreville, O.M.I. The project is marked by
consultations with Elders, ceremonialists and other resource
people, which included some new oral histories.
The Nature's Laws Project, which is a study of
pre-contact Aboriginal "law," is based on a rigorous and
methodologically sound approach to the topic. The following
areas have been researched:
- Linguistics—A study of Aboriginal languages can
show to a great extent how it is that things are
meaningful for speakers.
- Philosophical Issues—How it is that something
is meaningful? What is considered as knowledge, both for
English (European language speakers) and Aboriginal
speakers? Are there divergent constructions of reality?
Divergent rational systems, logics?
- Methodological Issues—As English speakers, can
we come to know divergent epistemic and systems of belief
held by other language speakers?
- Aboriginal Texts and Literatures—These are the
sources, often oral, on which to base constructions of
rationality and meaning.
- Ethnographic/Sociological/Anthropological Material—Further
sources on which to found systems of meaning and world
views.
- Case Study—What is already happening and has
already happened in the area of Aboriginal Law? How have
contemporary Native Law and Canadian common law been
impacted by pre-existent judiciary features?
A research model was created for Indigenous Law that is
spiral in nature and contrasts with western law which is
rational and linear. The comparison of Aboriginal and
western law was based on discussion under the following
headings:
- Supernatural/natural distinction
- Hierarchy vs. circularity
- Person/Collective
- Aboriginal "Constitutional" Law and Western
Constitutional Law
- Adversarial Law vs. Restitutional Law
- Equality as a fundamental value vs. equality as
qualified by community perception
The Project | Personnel |
Goals and Objectives
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