“Recognition of Indigenous laws is necessary to move forward from a process like the one we have today that’s imposed on Indigenous Peoples toward one that’s more in partnership with Indigenous Peoples and that’s owned by and considered just and fair by both parties. ”
A New Way Forward is written by Ardith Walpetko We’dalx Walkem in partnership with the BC Specific Claims Working Group. It proposes an approach to specific claims resolution that is based on Indigenous laws.
This paper identifies six guiding principles for the integration of Indigenous laws into specific claims processes:
Principle 1: Space for a plurality of legal traditions
Principle 2: Resolution is ongoing
Principle 3: Expanded notions of resolution (compensation-restitution)
Principle 4: A multi-perspective process is utilized reflecting Indigenous worldviews
Principle 5: Shared (not imposed) deliberations and decision-making are used
Principle 6: Expanded evidence is welcomed to support specific claims
The Impacts of the Reserve Creation Processes on Indigenous Women is prepared by Dr. Sarah Hunt / Tłaliłila’ogwa, PhD. It discusses the impact of reserve creation on Indigenous women and communities in BC and the impacts on Specific Claims policies and processes.
This paper identifies nine key findings:
Reserve creation wholly transformed Indigenous women’s lives and worlds
Women’s land governance continues to be downplayed or overlooked
Current land restitution processes inadvertently dispossess women of their positions of authority
The colonial archive is largely absent of the voices and knowledge of Indigenous women
Indian Claims Commission Proceedings show that women’s voices are frequently overlooked
Women historically played an active role in the management and governance of land
Women held authority over culturally, economically and politically significant lands
Women’s political status was linked to their authority over lands and resources that could only be passed through marriage
The creation of reserves involved dispossessing women and their families of their lands and laws
Land Back: Restitution of Lands Policy in Specific Claims Reform is prepared by Dr. Shiri Pasternak. This policy brief and proposal recommends a path forward towards a specific claims policy that honours the Crown’s lawful obligations for breaches, violations, and unfilled obligations to Indigenous Peoples regarding their lands.
This paper recommends specific claims policy reform that:
Incorporates a tripartite spectrum of land return options for First Nations
Involves provincial non-assertion of regulatory and legislative authority, paired with co-management regimes and shared jurisdictional arrangement for specific claim lands
Severed Connections: The Unacknowledged Costs of Specific Claims. This project aims to highlight the unquantifiable losses identified by First Nations leaders and knowledge keepers through a series of interviews regarding historical losses of land affect their nations and reverberate though their communities today.
This booklet looks at historical losses of land and their ongoing and current impacts related to:
Law and Governance
Cultural Knowledge and Language
Confidence and Trust
“Indigenous laws are needed because the specific claims process is broken”
In this video, Ardith Walkem introduces the ideas from the discussion paper and explains how Indigenous laws are an important part of fixing the “broken” specific claims process.