Expanded Evidence

Doubt about the validity of information provided by Indigenous Peoples is a significant barrier to the resolution of specific claims. Written history or records are assessed above information passed through “oral” cultures. There is a tendency to dismiss Indigenous Peoples’ evidence as not accurate or somehow less than evidence from Western traditions.  

While oral history can be introduced in the specific claims process, it is still not assessed on the same level as written or historical sources. The unequal status of oral evidence reflects an area of structural racism within the specific claims process. There is a need for the specific claims process to “receive oral history evidence” and other evidence from community members.

“Law codified in artwork”

In this video, artist and lawyer Shain Jackson emphasizes the importance of recognizing “the plurality of visions” related to legal traditions. Within his Coast Salish tradition, he explains, laws can be “codified in artwork.” Such artworks can then be important both as evidence and as a legal format.

“Ways of presenting information that are interconnected”

Nigel Baker-Grenier, articled student at White Raven Law, describes the meaning of adaawk — the Gitxsan word for oral history or the intellectual property that belongs to each of the Gitxsan family groups. These adaawk have many important functions, including as a source of law, creating a “body of precedent to draw from,” as well as a source for art and dance. Adaawk, Baker-Grenier explains, also support code of ethics and can be expressed as a narrative or story. These different ways of presenting information are interconnected, and a focus on written information in solving historical disputes can be very limiting.